Four years ago, the lame excuse made by many Democratic voters for not voting or not voting for Hillary Clinton was, “I just don’t like Hillary.”
Other would-be Democratic voters made the absurd argument that, “I can’t vote for Hillary because she stayed with Bill” after the Lewinsky affair.
These kinds of stupid and inane attitudes, along with voter apathy, the people who said, “Let’s give a businessman a chance,” or “I’m voting for Jill Stein” voters, are the reasons we have a crazy man in the White House who has brought every racist in America out from under their sheets.
This election season, the “I just don’t like Hillary” contingent and company have shifted to new buzz words and dog whistles to give themselves an excuse not to vote Democratic in November or not vote at all. They question Joe Biden’s mental capability; roll their eyes and say that Biden is only the lesser of two evils; and infer that Kamala Harris slept her way to the top — a classic example of the double standard so often applied to female candidates.
Fortunately, T-shirts with the motto “Say No to Joe and the Hoe” were taken down from Amazon this past week after women across the country bombarded Amazon with calls and emails with threats of canceling their Prime memberships. Amazon listened.
This year many Democratic and swing voters are quietly and sadly buying into the racist legacy of Willie Horton, now cloaked in the equally racist banner of mob rule or the idea that black rioters will take over your neighborhood and kill you while you sleep.
The St. Louis couple who pointed their guns at peaceful demonstrator outside their home (and now are facing felony charges) were made heroes by the right and were featured speakers at the Republican National Convention. Their subliminal message — fear that black or brown person that walks down your street. They may be there to kill you. That is what will happen in a Biden/Harris administration.
This type of rhetoric carries over to otherwise liberal white people in their responses to the ever-growing number of black men being shot by the police. Many white voters either consciously or unconsciously blame the black and brown victim, no matter how heinous the conduct of the police. “Oh, the police were terrible but….”
Didn’t Jacob Blake, shot seven times in the back by Kenosha, Wisconsin police, have a knife? Blake, who is paralyzed from the waist down, was shackled to his hospital bed until media pressure forced the police to remove the handcuff that kept his now useless leg attached to his hospital bed.
When Ahmaud Arbery was gunned down by vigilantes, a white person I know asked, “Wasn’t he trespassing?” That response assumes that death was a reasonable penalty for an alleged trespassing. It took weeks for charges to be brought against the shooters and, but for the video that went viral online, it is unlikely that anyone would have even been charged.
When I talked to another white friend about the Breanna Taylor, who was shot while sleeping in her bed, her comment was, “Well, didn’t the boyfriend have a gun?” No one has been charged in connection with Taylor’s death, caused by a bungled no-knock search warrant.
A lawyer for one of the police officers that killed George Floyd was on cable news the other night. With a straight face he argued that Floyd died because he was on drugs.
Twelve-year-old Tamir Rice was killed because he had a toy gun. The Kenosha police chief said police saw no threat when they saw 17-year old Kyle Rittenhouse walking down the street with an assault rifle in the middle of a riot. They even tossed him a bottle of water. Rittenhouse now claims self-defense. The police chief made a point of saying that the victims were violating the curfew law. Guess he forgot that Rittenhouse also was violating the curfew.
These are just some of the reasons that black and brown people are righteously angry.
Franklin Roosevelt famously said, “We have nothing to fear, but fear itself.” Democrats and those who want to evict Donald Trump from the White House have nothing to fear but mealy-mouthed pseudo liberals and apathetic voters — black, white and Hispanic — who cave into inbreed racial fears, prejudices and stereotypes about black and brown people or are just too lazy to vote. That coupled with a less-than-enthusiastic support of the Biden/Harris ticket could put Trump back in office for four more years.
Even the recent revelations that Trump’s good buddy and spiritual advisor, Jerry Fallwell Jr., is a hard-drinking, voyeuristic pervert did nothing to shake the Trump base. Fallwell, the classic evangelical hypocrite, formerly headed a college that denies admission to and requires expulsion of any students that drinks or engages in pre-marital sex. That kind of information just rolls off the KKK robes and bibles of the forever Trumpers.
We will not have a perfect American under a Biden/Harris administration. But we sure as hell will have a better American than we do under Donald Trump. As historian Jon Meacham told CNN’s Don Lemon Friday night, “Life during a Trump presidency is as if Strom Thurmond had been elected in 1948 or George Wallace in 1968.”
If you are white and reading this article, put yourself in the place of your black friends or neighbors. We appreciate all those Black Lives Matter signs in your front yards and those who demonstrate and support police reform. But you must understand why we are angry. Black men are killed every day by the police. George Floyd is yesterday’s news. Today it is Jacob Blake. Whose son, husband, father, or brother will be tomorrow’s news story? Tomorrow’s grieving family? That is why black folks are angry. And that is why we must vote Donald Trump out of office on November 3.
C. Ellen Connally is a retired judge of the Cleveland Municipal Court. From 2010 to 2014 she served as the President of the Cuyahoga County Council. An avid reader and student of American history, she serves on the Board of the Ohio History Connection, is currently vice president of the Cuyahoga County Soldiers and Sailors Monument Commission and president of the Cleveland Civil War Round Table. She holds degrees from BGSU, CSU and is all but dissertation for a PhD from the University of Akron.