COLIN SITCHOAZZ DOWN. That applies twice for you @Dr. Truth
I was going to do this later, and I've said most of this elsewhere in the past, but now lets go over non voting as a strategy vs a wing and a prayer, and why just general not voting would not be effective. Also keep in mind, voting is not the be all and end all of everything. There's not one single entity running all things, though the GOP tends to mimic the worst policies they can come up with every place they can. Each city and state has different laws and cultures. Voting dem doesn't mean everything is rosy. It doesn't mean everyone is 100% in agreement. You still have people within the party who are anti Black, anti woman, anti gay, anti immigrant, pro police over citizens. Not everyone is of one like mind or a hive. However, in general, dem policies will be more beneficial to black people and ALL Americans, than GOP policies. I can understand if people don't see voting dem as progress, but the important thing is that we don't lose any progress. You can still vote dem to keep the worst of the GOP at bay AND still organize or do black specific out reach/upliftment via third party/non government outlets.
Regarding non voting: For starters, even though black folks are second in the percentage of us who vote, above Hispanic and Asian and behind white folks, the PERCEPTION is that we don't vote. Obama years 2008 is the first year our voting number was on par with white folks and I think in 2012 we surpassed them percentage wise. Then it dropped again. So the rhetoric is that there is voter apathy or that you can't get black voters to come out on a consistent basis without a black candidate (Which BGOL don't vote crew says is pandering or white libs in blackface). Sitting out is seen as apathy, not punishment, and people will assume black folks are unreliable instead of strategic. So we may get courted, but most likely we just get written off and others sought to replace us as a reliable voting block. Secondly, it's what the GOP wants. Not voting helps white supremacy achieve their goals. They are passing laws to stop black folks from voting. Not Asians. Only Hispanics in the sense that they are using them as a boogeyman to say dems have illegals voting for them, but they are just collateral damage, not the primary target. Not voting helps racists achieve THEIR goals.
Not voting is not strategic. Voting for a third party who can't win is not strategic. Voting is currency. In order to get something, you have to spend/invest it in a candidate. It can't be banked to grow interest. Holding it does nothing but leave it for the moths to eat. To send a message, you don't SIT OUT, you spend your money elsewhere (cast your vote for another or back your own candidate.) Now don't get happy and say that is what you are suggesting, so I just agreed with you. The problem is, the non voting/third party voting as strategy advocates aren't following the concept fully or at the right times.
We are past the days when sane republicans existed, so WHEN you do this matters, so as not to concede power to the GOP. The Tea Party gave us the blue print for this years ago, and they still have members in congress making headaches for the GOP and the rest of us under the name of the Freedom Caucus, but we aren't as engaged/committed or organized as they are. When they had a candidate that they wanted to put pressure on, they gave them notice. (Giving notice is telling the candidate directly, not fussing and moaning on twitter and other social media.) Then if they didn't comply with whatever demand they had, the Tea Party primaried them with their own candidate to make them work for it, BUT IF THEIR CANDIDATE LOST, THEY STILL VOTED FOR THE GOP CANDIDATE IN THE GENERAL. They didn't sit out or let a dem gain power. Many times they won and unseated the establishment candidate. AND THEY HAD THE GROUND GAME/ORGANIZATION/CONSENSUS OF OTHER VOTERS ALL ON THE SAME PAGE, SO IT WASN'T AN EMPTY THREAT.
So vet the nominee, get their promises and commitments. Monitor for progress, keep the pressure on, and if they don't keep their commitments or show no evidence of trying to bring them to pass, then primary them and pull support. Set an example so the next candidate doesn't make the same mistake. But, if they win the primary anyway, vote for them to maintain dems in power and primary them again next cycle. We stop at the first step and then complain. It has to start EARLY and we have to get qualified candidates ready to primary EARLY. I've said before, candidates don't have to be our friends to work our agenda. They don't have to like us or we them. If they won't do the right thing because it is right, then they can be forced to do the right thing, because it is in their interest and benefits them to do so. (Keeping their job). You should know by the end of the first year whether or not someone is trying to keep their promises. Sitting out, especially midterms when all the racists vote, isn't the answer. That's how all the crazy candidates get elected.
Now the above scenario is how it would work, AS STRATEGY, in an ideal world. The REALITY is we don't PRESENTLY have the organization to pull this off to where the candidate is getting the message and able to notice and measure the effects (votes going for the other candidate in great numbers, having a candidate to primary them to begin with). So just telling people to sit out and not vote isn't going to have the intended effect that you want it to have. Ideally, we would also be able to get white voters or other PoC on board, as black folks are a subset of dem voters, and unless they are in an area with a significant black population, even an organized campaign of non voting or third party would not necessarily be NOTICED.
IF IT'S NOT NOTICED, RECOGNIZED BY OTHERS/THE INTENDED TARGET AS STRATEGY IN AN ORGANIZED EFFORT, AND MEASURABLE, IT WON'T HAVE THE INTENDED EFFECT.
Furthermore, everyone wants to complain about what other groups get, but we don't act and organize like other groups. Other groups court both dems and GOP. THEY GIVE MONEY to candidates and superpacs. They apply pressure year round, not only during campaign season. They have publicized scorecards for how they vote on their issues. They write letters to candidates and show up at town halls. They lobby year round. But they don't give up voting because that gives up power. Voting is just a step in the process, not the only step or action taken. I've shared before that I was looking for a black superpac and couldn't find one to give to. I found one mention of one and couldn't figure out how to donate. The closest thing to one is color of change, but they aren't really a superpac and deal with various issues. Someone gave me black Americas political action comittee, but that is for black conservatives. bampac.org.
In the current political atmosphere, we don't have the luxury of sitting out like we did before. With the gutting of the voting rights act, when the GOP gets in power, they craft and execute ways to diminish our vote, gerrymander areas, and will pay little to no penalty for it. If we sit out and the GOP gains control, by the time people decide to get back in the game, then they have to have 3-4x the dem vote to equal the political power of 1x the GOP vote. We saw this with Obama and the midterms. Dems lost and it took until Trump to get a majority in congress again and that didn't last long. A DECADE of progress lost because (primarily white) dems sat out.
IN GA 50,000 majority black registrations were held by Kemp. If you mom named you De'Asia and someone entered the name as De Asia or DeAsia on some public record at some time, you were SOL, and the GOP SoS Kemp had carte blanche to do what he wanted. All the legal actions came too late. HOWEVER, had we voted dem and kept power in states instead of losing governorship's, then our vote wouldn't be diluted or suppressed. Medicaid would be expanded. We wouldn't have had a lawsuit trying to end protections for preexisting conditions and the ACA. We'd have liberals on the Supreme Court so likely still have Roe vs Wade and affirmative action. We wouldn't have had the GOP doing like they did in Ohio exempting white areas from work requirements to get food stamps, while black area's even with higher unemployment rates, still had to be subject to them. Who is in power determines how much we get fucked over. If nothing else, letting them win is letting the racist rhetoric that Trump has popularized win and influence others because they see there are no consequences for it. Why help white supremacy spread? DeSantis is following his racist playbook and trying to expand it, because it worked for Trump. Why shouldn't other white folks be emboldened to do exactly what he did?
Alabama was ordered to redo their maps and they said eff the SCOTUS.
It's being reported that this is planned to get the case back to the SCOTUS to further erode black rights, and we have three justices appointed by Trump instead of Hillary because the no vote/third party votes couldn't discern the danger Trump posed and failed to heed the warnings of those who did.
Inside Alabama Republicans' plan to overturn Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act
Republicans in the state Senate want to break Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, a long-held goal of many conservatives.www.alreporter.com
White folks are playing the long game, actually crafting and passing shady legislation designed to make it to the SCOTUS to erode our rights, pass their agenda, and keep their power consolidated, yet we have folks who just want to punish dems because they aren't moving fast enough on reparations or some ONLY black agenda, when they can't even get main stream agendas like voting rights passed, which would help save their own jobs because THEY DON'T HAVE THE VOTES. Also I'm in a red state, but I'm in the midwest. The don't vote message is probably only going to resonate with black folks in safe blue areas or with people who don't understand how government works. If you get a chance, check out this space, at least the five minutes from about the 58 min mark until Nikki Barnes finishes speaking around 1:03. She lit a user named Koala Masala up.
It's not about a white savior. I vote partly to keep the GOP out of my business and so we don't have a party in power actively putting obstacles in front of black folks. Many don't vote advocates are making a conflict where there doesn't have to be one. Why are the don't vote crew so investing in what someone ELSE has to physically do? Many don't believe in supporting dems or the GOP, but they can't stay out of political threads or stop shitting on dems to save their own lives. If you think all the parties are trash and work needs to be done without them, what is stopping the work from still getting done? Work as though they don't exist. It doesn't have to be either/or, it can be both/and. Black folks have always worked outside the system as it sought to change and influence the existing one. No one is stopping you or anyone else. Why waste time focusing on stopping people from voting?They can vote and still seek solutions that don't involve government entities. Voting is one or two days out of a year. There are still over 360 days for other actions. What plans and actionable steps are you taking during the rest of the year? Check out Sandy Darity's twitter page to see people taking actual steps toward reparations. https://twitter.com/SandyDarity
@sammyjax seriously listen to that same five minutes if not the entire space. I'm convinced some of the speakers were BGOL members.
Please make your talking points down to two or three paragraphs. thanks
