Image says it all (from National Geographic)
Without a doubt, many people have reason to be angry with the country's political system and how hard it is to make it work. Some have totally given up on it. Our political system has failed to provide equal justice, housing, and education, while employment opportunities and voting rights are far from equable. The failures are many, and the improvements come slow, but most of the blame lies with the 60 vote filibuster rule and gerrymandering. Both are powerful weapons that the Republicans have used to prevent numerous Democrat bills from being passed. Lies, slander, and fear-mongering are others.
It is easy to forget many of the accomplishments when injustices and racism are still seen every day. At the end of this article will be a link to 50 accomplishments by the Obama administration and dozens by President Biden, which almost all Republicans fought tirelessly against, even though many of the issues were clearly beneficial for most Americans with many specifically crafted to benefit people of color.
This article was prepared to outline factual responses to many of the most common issues that are frequently misrepresented and often outright demonized. Civil conversations with family members and friends should be attempted, as hopefully election results will be based on facts and not on lies, slanders, and innuendo.
Clay Cane's new book The Grift, possibly the most important political book for this election cycle, is a must-read by all. It is a thoroughly researched and documented history of the political scene starting with Abraham Lincoln to the present day. He minces no words and name names in documenting how Black Republicans are used by the white power brokers to provide cover for their explicit bigotry.
He gives many examples of Black people being welcomed as long as they "know their place." The cost to them is to merely deny or significantly downplay the existence of racism in the country and blame any alleged inequality on the Black victims themselves. The better they do that, the higher they may go. He states that is one of the greatest threats to the liberation of Black and Brown people. If in doubt, when was the last time you heard a Black Republican attack Trump or even criticize congress for refusing to pass voter rights legislation or supporting anything that would help decrease inequalities?
Cane also has tough words for many Democrats too, in the likes of JFK, LBJ, and Joe Biden. He acknowledges that the political landscape is far from perfect but pleads with his readers to understand that only one party tolerates members who promote white supremacy and who has no intention of ever giving up their majority power and domination over the people of color. And only one party, the Democrats, fights for health care, voting rights, civil rights, equal justice, labor unions, increased minimum wage, paid family leave requirements, and among many other things, an environment with cleaner water and air, while the other party fights to block almost any attempt to bring meaningful and needed changes. Gerrymandering and the 60 vote filibuster makes many things extremely hard, and often impossible to pass.
Available at Amazon, Audible, and most Bookstores
The following list of reasons to say NO to Trump are all extremely easy to fact-check and confirm. While the Black community is certainly not homogenous, it is the author's opinion, like that of Clay Cane's, that Trump poses a major danger to everyone, but especially to people of color.
Trump's history of racism can clearly be seen by the following actions:
1. Trump aggressively supported the police who killed George Floyd by pressing his knee on Mr. Floyd's neck for over nine minutes, and the many other young and innocent Black males. He said the police were completely justified, just as he condemned the "Central Park Five" over three decades earlier, who served 13 years in prison until DNA proved their innocence. He still refuses to apologize.
Trump says that this was proper
2. He banned the government training on Critical Race Theory and mocked that there was such a thing as "white privilege." He supported the concept that if there was any discrimination, it was the white people who were now the victims and who are on the verge of "losing their country, unless they fight like hell." Affirmative action became reverse discrimination.
3. Black-owned businesses that applied were significantly less likely to receive loans from the Paycheck Protection Plan that was created during the Covid shutdown. A National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) study indicated that only 20% of Black-owned businesses that applied for PPP loans received funding, compared to 60% of white-owned businesses.
4. The Trump administration rescinded several things that were put in place under former President Barack Obama, such as encouraging colleges and universities to use race in admissions processes to promote campus diversity. Pell Grants were also greatly reduced but were expanded again after Biden became President.
5. There are 30,573 documented false and misleading claims he told the public during his four years as president. That is over 20 a day! These can all be found at no one can possibly trust Trump. This is one of many reasons why only five of the 44 cabinet members Trump appointed are now endorsing him. All of Obama's appointments did when he ran for reelection, as did all of Biden's. Thus, is it even possible to ever believe a word he says?
6. He slandered President Obama hundreds of times by accusing him of not being an American. He is now doing the same thing to Kamala Harris.
7. He attacked the groups who were advocating for the removal of confederate monuments and blocked the military from changing the names of military bases that were named after confederate officers. He called for ten-year mandatory prison terms for anyone who defaced any of those monuments. Yet, he promises full pardons to those who invaded and defaced the Capitol Building on January 6th.
8. We hear all the time that the southern border is broken. While it certainly is, we recently witnessed that Trump demanded that his congressional followers block a consequential and bipartisan compromise reached that would improve the problem significantly. The reason he gave is that it would provide a victory to Biden and remove a major platform issue from his campaign. That conclusively proves that he could not care less about the problems at the border, but only wants to use it to create fear in order to gain more votes.
9. He referred to several countries in Africa as "shithole countries." He also mentioned the predominately Black country of Haiti.
10. He fought to undermine voting rights, which heavily affects minorities. He supported the states that enacted dozens of laws that will result in fewer individuals being able to vote. Just two examples are the Texas law that restricted only one drop off box per county and Florida making it illegal to provide any assistance such as water to voters standing in line.
11. He attacked on numerous occasions, the Black Lives Matter protesters and even asked advisors "if the police can at least shoot them in the legs." He called these protesters terrorists, while those attacking the Capitol Building on January 6th, were "true patriots" and would be given presidential pardons if re-elected.
Trump has proven over and over again that he really hates people who support this type of free speech.
12. He fought very hard to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare, which would have taken away health care coverage from over 20 million individuals while removing protection from the 100 million citizens with preexisting issues. When congress refused, he mandated that the enrollment period be shortened and stopped the advertisements that the Democrats had in place to inform the public of the deadlines for new enrollments. Almost every single Republican member of congress supported Trump's attempts, despite the fact that great suffering and early death for many would be the obvious result. That resulted in a decrease of 2.3 million people with health insurance.
13. He advocated that states not expand their Medicaid program, even though the Federal Government would pay almost all the cost. Medicaid, of course, affects the poorest children and families. What could possibly motivate anyone to prevent millions of the poorest of the poor to obtain health care? Almost all the Republicans also fought Biden's attempt to lower prescription drug cost. Thankfully, Biden won. We must never go backwards again.
14. Under his leadership, his administration worked to undo many of the existing Civil Rights protections. Reverse racism became their standard cry.
15. He proudly dined with and appointed many white-supremacists and known racists to high positions in his administration. His Cabinet was the least diverse of any in modern history. Trump even refused to disavow the KKK without any pushback from his MAGA supporters. He has a few well known Black supporters backing him, but can you think of even one person of color in his administration that supports the policies of most Black people? Do they not fit Clay Cane's definition of Grifters?
The culture of Jim Crow laws are alive and fighting like hell. A VOTE FOR TRUMP IS A VOTE FOR THE KKK!
16. Trump attempted to steal millions of votes cast by Black people and have them thrown out by his fraudulent plot to overturn the 2020 election. Even after dozens of lawsuits filed on his behalf were denied, many by the judges he had appointed, he continued with his insurrection plot to remain in the White House. He knew that prison was very likely unless he maintained the power to prevent it. He accused Black voters in cities like Philadelphia and Detroit of cheating, and Black election workers in Atlanta of destroying some of his votes. All 100% lies and slander.
17. He demanded and obtained massive tax cuts for the very rich, while doing a reverse Robin Hood by cutting important and necessary safety nets. While the tax cuts are projected to add 3.5 trillion dollars to the national deficit, he, along with almost every Republican member of congress, fights very hard to prevent the IRS from even auditing the tax returns of the very rich.
18. His attacks on women and on their rights are atrocious. His conviction of sexual assault, that the Judge said constituted rape, and his bragging about other sexual assaults is only half the story.
19. His latest thing now is to tell our NATO allies that unless they "pay," he will not only tell Russia that they can do anything they want to those countries, but that he would also encourage them to do so. While this is shocking, it can be no real surprise considering how he attacked Muslim Gold Star parents, ridiculed John McCain for being captured in Vietnam, although he himself obtained a military deferment by having his doctor claim that he had a bone spur on his foot. He later said that Putin was a genius for invading Ukraine and that soldiers who died in battle were "suckers and losers." Has he ever watched a WW 1 or WW 2 documentary?
Trump said he would encourage Russia to do this unless he determined that NATO was paying enough money.
20. President Biden announced a full, unconditional pardon for prior federal and D.C. convictions of possession of marijuana. The President's pardon lifts barriers to housing, employment, and educational opportunities for thousands of people with those prior offenses. Presidents do not have the authority to extend the pardons to state convictions.
21. Biden's Student Debt Relief program has already helped millions of people, with the Republicans of course fighting very hard to stop it. After all, they had already given the super-rich almost a trillion dollars in tax cuts and many of these students were victims of fraud.
There are many sincere and devoted religious people of color, who while appalled with the above issues, still find it difficult to vote for the Democrats due to personal religious beliefs. Those mainly deal with abortion and the gay community. For those who have great difficulty accepting either of these two issues, let us take a closer look at just what they involve, and maybe it may not need to be all or nothing.
Abortions:
It is fair to be against abortions. But it is not fair to use God or the Bible as the reason for that opinion. See the link below, "Many passages in the Bible that are not Pro-Life."
A major misunderstanding of the "pro-choice movement" exists. While it is more complicated than either side often presents, the fact is, it has been the Democrats that fight for child day care, child health care, school breakfasts and lunches for children, better schools for children, regulations that help prevent children from getting sick or injured. Yet we see the so called "pro-life" Republicans usually fighting against the very things that protect children.
So the bottom line is when one votes strictly to outlaw abortions, unfortunately, they are also voting against many things that are truly pro-life that the Republicans fight hard to prevent.
Sincere "pro-lifers" should join the "pro-choice" folks in at least helping to limit abortions by supporting the availability of contraceptives, sex education, and easier adoption options, while supporting the expansion of "safety-nets" for those already born.
A study conducted by Washington University School of Medicine found that women who have access to birth control, abortion rates decrease by over 60% compared to the national average. Here is a link to that study.
LGBTQ+
One does not have to like or agree with homosexuality. Different perspectives are fine and fair. While Leviticus 18:22 does seem to refer to gay men, the Bible, in the very same book of Leviticus, also condemns having tattoos, wearing clothes that are made with mixed fabric (cotton, linens, polyester, etc.,) adultery, eating pork, cursing your parents, planting more than one kind of seed in a field, and the trimming of sideburns and beards (see Leviticus chapters 19-20). It makes no judgment as to any of them being worse than the others.
Elsewhere, it calls the following things, abominations: a lying tongue, justifying the wicked, cheating, adultery, slander, injustice, love of money, oppression of others (particularly of the poor and vulnerable), violence, a proud heart, and a sower of discord to name just a few. The Republicans have, shamefully, turned this one single item out of many in the same passages into a political hate tactic.
Can you imagine the Bible quoting Republicans trying to outlaw adultery, lying, gluttony, or having love for money? Or worse yet, think of the backlash if they tried passing a law that would require all humans to be treated with love, respect, and compassion.
Obama's Top 50 Accomplishments, Revisited | Washington Monthly
Biden's accomplishments in just his first two years
Twelve Moral Reasons why True Christians should say NO to Trump
Many passages in the Bible that are not Pro-Life
Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: How Republicans use the Bible to Unscrupulously Exploit their Members