Former President Barack Obama on Thursday admonished Black men who he believes have not adequately supported Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign, telling them it’s “not acceptable” to sit out this election and suggesting they might be reluctant to vote for Harris because she’s a woma...
He then ends up suggesting the reason they don't like Harris is because she's a woman -
“Because part of it makes me think – and I’m speaking to men directly – part of it makes me think that, well, you just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president, and you’re coming up with other alternatives and other reasons for that.”
Black celebrities have been poisoning the community against Obama for over a decade now. Parading him around as the "token black guy" of the liberal movement isn't the move. Making policies that help the community, and actually getting them passed, is what will make the difference. Until the Democrats start actually giving a shit about black people, instead of virtue signalling, then the black voter doesn't have any reason to vote. No one is on their side. Will Kamala change that? Honestly, probably not. Tim Walz has a better chance of that.
Making policies that help the community, and actually getting them passed, is what will make the difference.
We can't pass any policy anywhere in the country without bipartisan support and the blessing of the courts. Since the Republicans are in opposition and the courts are stacked with cranks, that means the best we can promise is that one day we'll have a Democrat Supermajority capable of passing compromise legislation with its more right-wing members.
Sorry, but these are just the rules, which are immutable and which we must abide by no matter how much pain they cause to our constituents.
Also, please note that conservatives are fully unbound by these rules. They can and will inflict incalculable harm on you if any single branch is in their control. There is, unfortunately, nothing liberals can do about this because interrupting the harm caused by the rules-breakers would be against the rules.
So the message we need to bring to black voters is that they only have themselves to blame if things get worse. It's cake or death and we're all out of cake.
No one is on their side. Will Kamala change that? Honestly, probably not. Tim Walz has a better chance of that.
Glances at Walz's record during the Minnesota BLM protests
The answer when facing opposition isn't to throw up your hands and declare it too difficult. Keep pushing, keep fighting, keep trying to improve the lives of marginalized groups. The fact that the Democrats aren't willing to put in the effort is all you need to know for the lackluster support.
Side note, don't fucking blame marginalized people when things go sideways.
No one to blame but themselves? That's a great message.
"Hey, you've been marginalized your entire life by a system that has hated every generation of your family because of the color of your skin. I've got news for you, bucko, fix my problems, or I'll just keep blaming you."
So the message we need to bring to black voters is that they only have themselves to blame if things get worse. It’s cake or death and we’re all out of cake.
Is that sarcasm...? Honestly, I can't tell.
If it's earnest, then i would have to guess that what you're after isn't electoral victory but radicalization. I'm not sure how you expect to tell a marginalized minority 'you have only yourself to blame' and have them turn out for you, that's just... Hopeless?
It's an excellent message to turn progressives into anarchists and revolutionaries, though, and I'm actually kind of here for it.
Obama is full of shit on this, and a person worth ~$150 million assuming black men's political motivations are so superficial is pretty upsetting to read regardless of his race. The issue isn't gender, at least not primarily, but rather the Democrats' growing disconnect with working-class voters of color. Harris (a woman) is actually performing better than Biden (a man) did with Black voters, but that doesn’t change the broader trend: the Democratic Party is steadily losing support among people of color, particularly those without college degrees. Instead of addressing economic and social concerns that matter to these communities, Democrats seem to be pushing them away, allowing Republicans to gain ground. Obama implying black men are sexist if they don't vote for Harris instead of recognizing this complexity feeds the trend of alienating core democratic constituencies.
This trend is most evident in the party’s shift toward becoming the choice of wealthy, college-educated white voters. As polarization based on education deepens, Democrats are doing better with white voters who have college degrees, but they’re struggling to maintain their traditional base. Black, Hispanic, and working-class voters without degrees are feeling left behind.
What we're seeing is a realignment where the Democrats are slowly becoming the party of affluent, educated white voters, while Republicans are making gains with working-class and nonwhite voters. The erosion of Democratic support among these key constituencies isn’t because voters don't want to back a woman—it’s because the party has lost touch with the issues that matter to them. If this continues, the demographic foundations that have long been assumed to be Democratic strongholds could shift in the GOP’s favor.
Recent polling data, including surveys from sources like New York Times/Siena and NBC News/Telemundo, highlights these shifts in voter behavior and the growing educational divide within party support, and it has been covered by Nate Silver and the NYT in terms of racial-political depolarization, so this isn't just me talking out of my ass.
Edit: It is deeply ironic to see all these anonymous downvotes for a person of color daring to call attention to the growing white affluence of the Democratic Party. It's as if pointing this out is too much for some people to handle, which really speaks directly to the issue.
I imagine this situation would be even more dire if democrats weren't running against a literal fascist. One can't simply downvote away the reality that democrats are steadily losing the support of racialized minorities and the working class. Imagine how much that support will erode once the Republicans aren't running Orange Jesus.
the Democrats are slowly becoming the party of affluent, educated white voters
Except if your name is Elon Musk, or Peter Thiel, or David Sacks, or you're an affluent educated white supporter of them...
Some of your points might well be supported by polling (I don't know enough to say) but I'm sure there are plenty of affluent educated whites who support Trump.
Yes, obviously. The point is that the democratic party has consistently become more and more the party of white, affluent, and college educated people. That has not historically been the case, and democrats seem to get mad when people point out that their base is shifting.
And the super wealthy are like their own bizarro class. It's quite easy to list off names of billionaire democratic supporters as well. I am talking more about Tesla owners (before Musk took the mask off) than the owner of Tesla, if that makes sense.
Truth. To be clear, I'm not trying to dismiss that fact. But it's important to realize this is a "men" problem, not exclusively or especially a "black men" problem. There's more going on here in terms of political realignment.
To be clear, black voters still vote overwhelmingly democratic, but it's continued to shift over the last eight years, with Trump continually picking up more and more POC votes. He doubled black support, and the Hispanic vote is the closest to even it's ever been -- Harris still leads by 14 points in that demographic, but that's a big change that is part of a broader trend.
When people interpet your intent to vote for someone as an endorsement, but the candidate is un-endorseable, the only reasonable response to this question is "none of your fucking business"