Do The Right Thing...
Last edited Sat Oct 31, 2015, 07:44 PM - Edit history (3)
It's still pretty hard for our candidates to get right with BLM. Which is why I believe that constant engagement is required until they start listening.
Knee jerk reactions, or the incessant need to tailor their own message to a different message that BLM is sending is not listening, it's whitesplaining. And quite frankly, until the whitesplaining ends, activists need to persist. As I've said many times before, candidate supporters should welcome BLM protests, because as long as protestors care enough to send the candidates the message that Black Lives Matter and in a way meant by black people themselves, there's still the expectation that those candidates will eventually understand and finally respond accordingly.
But even today, I find the candidate responses, however perceived as sincere on their part, insufficient. So to me, it's easy to see why BLM activists still disrupt. For one thing, appropriation can occur. If activists are not available to reinforce their messages, in their absence, those messages can be warped and shaped by different agendas. That's a political reality that happens regardless of ideology: Politicians shape themselves into what they think the people want, even if the people want something different.
Now, it's still true that I haven't as yet chosen a candidate in the primary, I may never do that. I will however, support the one that we nominate, without reservation and in spite of how much I agree and disagree with them. I'm an avowed Democratic partisan, after all. What's the most important thing to me is to understand why I would support any of them as a nominee, despite of how much I disagree with them, rather than putting any one of them on a pedestal regardless of their shortcomings.
They're all better than Republicans, and that will always be in their favor.
Unfortunately, I have to deal with the things that make them problematic as well:
With Hillary, she has a very hard time accounting for the reasoning behind her and Bill's past policy decisions that has made life harder on the poor and on people of color. She has plenty of excuses and lots of justifications. But she also has an extremely hard time dealing with admissions about mistakes. Now, her defensiveness is quite understandable, because the Clintons have always been unfairly attacked by the wingers. It's much easier throw up a wall to defend against all criticism, rather than accept what's fair vs. the unfair.
The unwillingness to admit where one screwed up, especially in the light of fair and impartial scrutiny isn't a very likable trait to those who value humility. It looks just like arrogance. Yes, I do understand that our political landscapes rewards arrogance over humility, but we don't have to like it. If you want to understand what the source of her unfavorability is, that's the perception right there.
With Bernie, his problem usually comes up when he tries to match his own agenda to the message of BLM. Now, just for the record, I actually agree with him the most. But whenever I hear him address the message of BLM, he makes me cringe.
Bernie has this bad habit of inserting respectability politics into his messages. I'm sorry, but educated and employed black people are getting killed by the police as well, Bern. Yes, education and an improved economic outlook will also improve our overall picture, but how in the hell will that reverse centuries of white supremacist policies, conditions and ideas?
Bernie knows what he knows, which is all good for some, but he needs to know more. I do credit him for not clamming up and reacting defensively at the drop of a hat. Hopefully, he'll eventually get it.
With Martin, my problem with him stems from his tenure as Baltimore's mayor, when he aggravated the problem by adopting Broken Windows policies. If he's accounted for that shortfall, I really don't know. All I've heard him do was campaign against his primary opponents.
He has some serious skeletons in his closet, which led up to what happened to Freddie Gray. I need for him to be more accountable for that.
Now, with that being said, I'll also state that all of our candidates are ultimately redeemable, because we ALL have to deal with the Republicans in 2016, by standing up for the one that we will nominate.
However, at this point, I'm not interested in all the petty bickering between their supporters. I see both good and questionable elements in all three of our guys. Is there anything about any of them that's impossible to reconcile for me?
Surprisingly, no. I will stand up for any one of them against the GOPers, once we nominate.
Because, with our continued insistence, the liklihood that any of them will do the right thing while in office is greater than that of any GOPer.
Always keep your eyes on the prize.
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