THE BRIDGE: The Duping of America
By
Darryl James
More
than a month after the elections, there are still whispers about how
the election was stolen.
George Bush did not steal this election.
He simply duped America. He duped America into believing that he is
a man of God and that all men and women of God should follow him.
George Bush made many people believe that his presidency was about
preserving life and that John Kerry would have the nation up to its
ankles in aborted fetuses.
The president made people believe that gay men and women would line
up at the altars taking marriage vows, and in doing so, would change
the very definition of marriage for heterosexuals.
George Bush appealed to people by espousing Christian core "values,"
but that appeal was simply part of the duping process.
You see, even as he sent soldiers to bomb and shoot Iraqi men, women
and children into oblivion, Bush pontificated on abortion. As he railed
against "quotas" for Blacks and called for radical Social
Security reform, he was providing billions for corporate bailout and
tax breaks for the rich.
Bush and the Republicans duped America into focusing on "values"
and "safety," while ignoring the fact that many of them
are losing jobs and have no place to live. It¹s like punching
a person in the stomach so that they can forget their headache. But
it worked well, because sadly, many Americans, even some of those
steeped in poverty, voted for Bush¹s re-election, thinking that
they were voting to preserve Christian "values."
America spews rhetoric about the separation of church and state, but
many Americans believe that the church should dictate the state. And,
this election, it appeared to have done so, stumping Democrats who
thought that a president with the sorry track record Bush holds would
not be able to garner a re-election.
Religious values are a hot button issue.
The problem in this election, and for the future, is that Democrats
do not appear to understand that.
What the Democratic Party failed to examine is that one third of Americans
are Evangelical Christians who will readily abandon all reason based
on an appeal to their faith. When it came to hot button issues such
as abortion and gay marriage, Democrats were viewed as hostile to
the Christian faith, while Republicans appeared to be protecting Christian
"values."
Many of those Evangelical Christians were Blacks who lined up to give
Georgie nine per cent more Black votes than in 2000.
Many of those were also Hispanics. One third of Hispanic voters reported
being born-again Christians and close to twenty per cent listed moral
values as their top issue.
While the Democrats stored their hopes in the increased numbers of
registered young people, union members and Blacks, the real increases
came from rural and evangelical voters, who supported George Bush.
In the all-important states of Ohio and Florida, state ballot measures
to ban gay marriage were perhaps the impetus for the surge in the
Republican vote.
The reality is that there were never any huge groups of gay people
lining up at altars across the nation. And even if they began to,
the truth is that marriage for heterosexuals would go unchanged.
The issue was manufactured and used to dupe America. Now American
Democrats need to face the truth and explain to what is left of the
party.
It wasn¹t the first time that the nation was duped.
In the 1980¹s, President Ronald Reagan declared war on Blacks
in impoverished, drug-infested communities. He duped America into
thinking that the problem with drugs and crime in America lay solely
in the hands of the young Black men who sold and bought the drugs.
He even duped many Black Americans into supporting tougher laws in
fear of Willie Horton and Tyrone the violent drug dealer who would
bring crime, gangs and guns into their communities to sell drugs.
America has been duped into believing that Black drug dealers are
worse than the covert drug trade Oliver North began in the early 1980¹s,
and that Black gangs are worse than the country¹s military operations
in sovereign nations. Many Blacks have also been duped, which is why
they simultaneously fear, hate and vilify impoverished Blacks, who
they believe have no "values."
This past November 2, George Bush duped throngs of Blacks into abandoning
reason and community concerns. He also scared the crap out of the
ignorant, scared little men and women who believed that John Kerry
would be unable to protect them from foreign boogeymen.
But I also have been telling Blacks that they have been duped into
thinking that the Democrats have their best interest at heart. The
Democratic Party is going through some changes, and just as we did
when we moved from Republican to Democrat, we must look at those changes
and make some careful choices.
While they still have many of our hearts, they do not really have
our best interests at heart.
According to Thomas Frank, author of "What's the Matter With
Kansas: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America," Democratic
leaders have been so eager to win over suburban professionals that
they have lost touch with blue-collar America, which includes many
Blacks and Hispanics.
And it¹s true. John Kerry did flip flop over issues that Americans
are already spooked about. For example, he began his campaign promoting
a "quick exit" from Iraq, yet during the first debate, he
was telling the people that we would win the war. He lost the faith
of people who are already afraid, believing that a change in administration
would allow terrorism to reign supreme, even though it can¹t
get much worse than the bombing of the World Trade Center on Bush¹s
watch.
It also didn¹t help that John Kerry was against reparations and
was admonished for not being a "true Catholic."
Contributing to the problem is the fact that there are Blacks who
work every day at great jobs and have seen no oppression and very
little racism. For them, there is no racism in the Republican Party.
And Democratic supporters have spent way too much time, effort and
energy trying to dog them out, while still convincing people that
the Democrats are our best bet.
Democrats who try to force Blacks into an either or situation are
really playing with fire and they got burned in the recent presidential
election. In my recent column, "To Vote or Not To Vote,"
I tried to warn Democrats away from simply feeding people the same
old lines about the right to vote and the power of each individual
vote. The refusal of groups like African Americans to discuss the
failings of both parties allowed others to focus on the failings of
the Democratic Party.
America was duped into thinking that George Bush was deserving of
four more years. As a people, Blacks have been duped into thinking
that solutions to our problems will be found in politics, representing
by white men who provide lip service, or silly Negroes who are merely
seeking personal gain.
Our solutions will be found in focusing on the real problems we face
as a people and striking real solutions for them. Those solutions
have to be beyond the protection of Welfare and Affirmative Action
presidential candidates dance around, because we will lose those battles
and we need much more anyway. We have been duped into thinking that
economic solutions are not really reachable and not really viable.
America was duped into re-electing Georgie. In many ways, Blacks have
been duping themselves.
