August 11, 2024

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Vice President Kamala Harris has the vision, the intellect and the heart to lead a conversation about how to preserve American democracy. As a country, we are still struggling to make this “A more perfect union.” We are an incredibly unique and beautifully diverse nation, blessed in so many ways. However, our history of cultural cleavage and racial unrest still plagues us. At times, the ideological divide seems to be an unbridgeable chasm. There are those who would use political power to exploit our differences and undermine the very democratic institutions that have held us together as a nation.

So, America is at the crossroads. What we choose to do between now and election day will determine our destiny. Will we work hard to keep our democracy, or will we be seduced to accept authoritarian rule? Let there be no doubt about it: The choice is upon us, and we will have to live with the consequences of our collective decision for years to come.

As providence would have it, the American people are now being offered two very different candidates for president: one who is the embodiment of democratic norms, individual liberty and a respect for the rule of law. The other, a candidate who has not sought to hide his vision for America: a welcoming of authoritarian rule. He and his cohorts will work through a master plan (Project 2025) for gutting the federal bureaucracy with its system of meritocracy, replacing it with one that favors cronyism and dictatorial decision-making.

For an example of how Trumpism would fundamentally change the American political system (with its checks and balances), one need only to observe how he has already transformed the Supreme Court into a vehicle of his power-grabbing. In its recent ruling on presidential immunity, six of the justices, disregarding precedent, placed the president above the law. These political hacks - parading as jurists sitting on the highest court of the land – broke with 250 years of jurisprudence to give the president powers reserved for a king. So why did we fight the American Revolutionary War?

Donald Trump is working in concert with many others who are prepared to destabilize our sacred democracy in favor of a system that is anathema to what has made America the envy of the world: A system that celebrates the consent of the governed and the rule of law.

Yes, we are at a critical moment in American history not witnessed since the Civil War. The forces of retrenchment are highly organized, well-funded and prepared to do whatever is necessary to impose their minority will on the will of the majority. Donald Trump has publicly stated that he doesn’t need the votes. Is that so? Then, tell us, Mr. Trump, how do you intend to come back into power?

Thankfully, Vice President Kamala Harris has prepared herself for this moment in our nation’s history. Like Joan of Arc, she has donned her suit of armor and is prepared to confront the enemies of America’s democracy!  While she has announced her policy positions on a number of issues: favoring a women’s right to control her own body; protect the healthcare of millions of Americans; calling major businesses for a summit to discuss price gouging; continuing her decades-long fight for equality for all Americans; continuing to address global warming; and protecting her fellow Americans from the insane proliferation of senseless gun violence, she knows that this election is about more than a civil debate about policy differences. She knows that this election is about protecting our most cherished freedoms as Americans. 

We, the people, are being given the choice to continue our march towards a more perfect union, or to accept a new model of governance where some are considered above the law and the masses are subjugated to an injudicious system where revenge, retribution and cronyism are tolerated with impunity.  

I think it is interesting that when the American family has become so dysfunctional, a house divided again, that Almighty God would send us a leader who has shown herself to be a proven guardian of what we hold as sacred: Democracy buttressed by the rule of law.

Kamala Harris has been groomed for this moment of greatness.  She has walked through the burning sands of a determined opposition for years. She knows the road ahead will be filled with landmines and treachery. She knows hers is the herculean struggle to protect the soul of the country she loves. But she is ready to accept the challenges that lie before her and, yes, she is endowed with true grit.

I believe that those who have observed Harris prosecuting serious criminals, grilling unscrupulous public officials or consoling the families of children murdered by gun violence would agree with this characterization of Kamala Harris: (paraphrasing William Shakespeare) Her life is so gentle and the elements so mixed in her that nature might stand and say to all the world: This is a woman!

Yes, America, if we are willing to follow, Kamala Harris is ready to lead. And if we do, one day, history will record that America survived another existential threat to the republic because we, the people, were able to join in one grand chorus of “Hail to the Chief”. And that chief was President Kamala Harris.

Michael A Grant, J.D., president emeritus of the National Bankers Association and former assistant professor of political science at Morgan State University, is a contributor to the Trice Edney News Wire.

August 11, 2024

(TriceEdneyWire.com) — Sometimes a writer has to figure out what to write about because it seems that not much is happening.  Everything seems to be about the same old problems, but Vice President Kamala Harris, stepped up for us as soon as we began asking, “Who will go for us?” In the history of Black people someone among us has answered that call.  This time it’s Kamala Harris!

The Orange Man ran for his own good. Even though he never accepted the fact that 4 years of him was a bit more than we could take 4 more years. He never accepted the fact that he lost in 2020. He was in such disbelief that he tried to force the Secretary of State in Georgia to come up with the number of votes he needed to win that state.  We heard the telephone call where he thought nothing of speaking freely to Georgia’s Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger who stood firm against helping the Orange Man to illegally take votes he had not earned. That’s a crime, and to his credit, Mr. Raffensperger did not budge—so the Orange Man came up short and lost the State of Georgia.

We later learned some of his most loyal supporters had made an effort to seek other means of getting more votes for the Orange Man by taking them from other states by way of a brazen act of sending illegal representatives to ignore the true votes and make their own choices. I still find it such a brazen act to be carried out by so many of the Orange Man’s minions!

Well, here we are in 2024 and it looks like the Orange Man’s time is up.  Vice-President Kamala Harris stood up. She came to the game to run for President when President Joseph Biden decided not to run again. Vice-President Kamala Harris was ready to answer the question, “Who will go for us?” Without hesitation she stepped up and said, “I’ll go.  Send me Lord, I’ll go.”

She brought with her such joy, then called Gov. Walz, and here we are three weeks later and just 5 months to go until Election Day!  You might say, Kamala stepped onto the stage in a bigger, faster way than we were accustomed to seeing.  Kamala had already done that.  We Black women and some of our best friends called a meeting, led by Jotaka Eddy, and on the first night of Kamala’s ascension to Candidate for President of the United, our Divine 9 and a lot of other “Black Women for Kamala Harris” stepped forward—nearly 45,000 of us and raised more money than many candidates raise in an entire election season to get Kamala started. 

We then saw a meeting with Roland Martin called “Black Men for Kamala.”  I stopped counting the men on the call, but it exceeded those who came forward the first night of Kamala’s campaign. They were followed by “White Dudes for Kamala Harris.”  Then came “White Women for Kamala Harris”, “Asian Women for Kamala Harris.” Unions came on Board. Hispanics came on Board.

Kamala immediately began her opening act and shortly thereafter, she brilliantly chose a candidate for Vice-President in the person of Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota. He joined her to bring even more joy to the ticket. Together they began a campaign tour with such excitement as one we had not seen before  (except for Barack Obama’s.)  

Kamala Harris and Tim Walz brought joy back to campaigning, and crowds grew and grew no matter where they went to hold rallies. It’s clear as Kamala asks, “Are you ready to fight?” The crowd roars back in the affirmative, and she assures them “When we fight, we win!” Fighting means we VOTE November 5, 2024!

To Be Equal 
June 29, 2024

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - “Project 25 is a radical, extreme, pro-authoritarianism plan pushed by conservatives who are desperate to take our country backwards. It is a movement led by far-right extremists that attacks our nation’s founding principles, such as our system of checks and balances, freedom of speech and of the press, and separation of church and state. These are the very principles that keep our country strong and make America the best nation on earth.” – U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu

Eliminating safe, legal abortion and effective contraception. Obliterating of the very mention of sexual orientation and gender identity, diversity, equity, and inclusion, reproductive health, and reproductive rights from every federal rule, regulation, contract, grant, or piece of legislation.  Replacing skilled civil servants with extremist partisan hacks.

This is Project 2025, the new Southern Manifesto. It is almost certain to be America’s future if Donald Trump is elected to another term.

Drafted in response to the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education and signed by 19 Senators and 82 Representatives from the South, the Southern Manifesto – officially titled “Declaration of Constitutional Principles” -- was a vow to uphold racial segregation and white supremacy.

Project 2025 goes even further. It seeks to re-implement a rigid social hierarchy that oppresses not only people of color, but also women, non-Christians, the LGBTQ+ community, working families, and immigrants.

Key to this dystopian agenda is purging the government of nonpartisan civil servants who are loyal to the Constitution and replacing them with extremist partisan hacks loyal only to Trump.

A list of non-partisan government officials who might stand in the way of Trump’s agenda already is being compiled by a dark-money “slime machine,” the Associated Press revealed this week. 

With the entire federal government under his direct control, Trump would be free to act on his vow to turn the Department of Justice into an instrument of retribution against his political adversaries.

The radical, repressive, and regressive regime previewed in Project 2025 includes:

• Dismantling the foundations of immigration policy, tearing families apart, turning away desperate refugees, and stripping away protections for Dreamers.
• Undermining climate change mitigation, environmental justice, and the transition to clean energy
• Eliminating racial justice initiatives and preserving advantages for white Americans, even perverting the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division to “investigate and prosecute all state and local governments, institutions of higher education, corporations, and any other private employers” with diversity, equity, and inclusion policies.
• Gutting public education, wiping out Head Start and other support for low-income students, and withdrawing federal oversight of public schools.
• Slashing health care insurance, putting 18 million Americans at risk of losing coverage entirely, killing the drug price provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act and Affordable Care Act’s protections for pre-existing conditions.
• Shutting down access to safe abortions, contraception, and other reproductive health care, putting women’s lives at risk.
• Deleting “sexual orientation and gender identity” from all federal rules, reinstating a transgender military ban, and limiting LGBTQ workplace discrimination protections.

Even the architects of Project 2025 understand that its grisly agenda appalls and disgusts a majority of Americans who would reject it in a free and fair election – just as they rejected Trump in 2020. But democracy prevailed then only because the Vice President and officials in the departments of Justice, Defense, and Homeland Security thwarted Trump’s attempted Trump coup.  If Trump manages to seize a second term, there won’t be anyone left in the federal government to stop him from undermining future election.

There won’t be anyone left in the federal government to stop his most extreme proposals, like disassembling the Veterans Administration, allowing Russian spies to remain in the country, shooting racial justice protestors, deploying the military against migrants, kicking undocumented children out of schools, or dropping nuclear bombs into the eyes of hurricanes.

The echoes of the Southern Manifesto’s in Project 2025 should come as no surprise, given the racist history of the Heritage Foundation, which spearheaded its production. The organization is rooted in the mid-1970s movement to protect racially segregated schools,  waging it’s first public battle against multicultural textbooks -  “n***er books,” as some opponents called them.

In fact, the coalition that developed Project 2025 includes at least nine SPLC-designated hate and antigovernment groups, including Alliance Defending Freedom, Center for Immigration Studies, and Moms for Liberty.

The original Southern Manifesto took aim at “outside meddlers” who sought racial justice. The new Southern Manifesto takes aim at “woke culture warriors.”  Trump’s allies say “woke” means as “the belief there are systemic injustices in American society and the need to address them.”

We stand guilty as charged and gladly assume the mantle of “warriors” in the battle for equity, inclusion, and democracy.

June 29, 2024

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - A few days ago, Angel Reese finished a game with 18 points and 11 rebounds.  She tied Candace Parker for most consecutive double-doubles in a season.  She was the youngest player in the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) to have nine consecutive double-doubles.  Now the average person might have no idea who Angel Reese is and why I am writing about a basketball player when I so often write about women who were civil and human rights subjects. 

Well, even if you don’t like basketball, you do understand historically the difference in treatment for African American women and other women—especially white women.

Angel is now with the Chicago Sky. Just a few days ago Angel’s team won over Caitlin Clark’s Indiana Fever team—a team Angel’s team won over the Indiana Fever by a score of 88-87.  The game came to be known as “The rookie battle between Reese and Clark.” Until that observation, the game was just a game between the Sky and the Fever.  After all, there were other young women playing and donated to the score of both teams.

It’s obvious some of the critics want to promote a battle between Angel and Caitlin. Both young women are obviously great players, but being an African American woman, I can see the attempt by some to make Angel the “bad guy.”  She’s not.  Refuse to listen to the critics who are doing their best to put the young women up against each other and praise both for their talent! Angel has expressed her frustration with what she sees as preferential treatment toward Clark.  She said, “It feels like Caitlin gets all the attention and praise, while the rest of us work just as hard.” 

My advice to Angel is, “Don’t allow the disparate treatment to prevent you from doing your very best every time you go on the basketball court. Black women are accustomed to the disparate treatment no matter what we do, so just don’t worry about what is said in the media.  Just focus on doing what you do, and let the media do what they do.”

President Joe Biden spoke after he was rated badly in the Presidential debate a few days ago, but he didn’t quit.  He gave the best advice in North Carolina at a massive rally.  He said, “When you fall down, just get up.” In the eyes of those of us who know Angel and know how talented she is, will pull for her every time she goes on the court.  We don’t care about her critics. We love her, admire her and know she’ll be a true star in the WNBA! Among the women we know who love basketball also know great skill when we see it. Angel has got it and we are her eternal fan club! “There are young women across the world who see Angel and want to be like her. She’s the inspiration so many Black youth need. I pray that she’ll never stop being the real star she is. I know I’m a member of ‘Angel’s Fan Club.’"