By: Roy Douglas Malonson
When Donald Trump asked Black Americans “What have you got to lose?” he should have been asking himself that as he surely found out what he had to lose – the presidency – no matter how much he tries to dispute it. The days of his manipulation and race baiting will no longer be tied to his “commander in chief” title.
And in classic Trump fashion, he is going down kicking and screaming like a “terrible twos” toddler, unwilling to concede and attacking the votes of the people he begged for support.
The president is challenging the votes of minority-heavy areas, contesting election results in cities where he was the clear loser and doing everything he can to hold up the country from “getting about its business and moving on.”
Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie finally had the courage to do what most Republicans have been afraid to do – speak out against the president’s actions and call them exactly what they are — an embarrassment!
The president is aggressively trying to invalidate ballots cast in Philadelphia, Detroit and other heavily Democratic cities, an effort that would disenfranchise a disproportionate number of Black voters, but he has not been successful.
The Trump team is trying to dismiss these challenges as merely questioning results in cities where, in their eyes, fraud is most likely to have occurred, but most people say it is time to just call it what it is: RACISM!
“The targeting of the African American community is not subtle,” Bob Bauer, legal adviser to President-elect Joe Biden’s campaign, said. “I think it’s quite remarkable how brazen that is. It’s very, very disturbing.”
Trump’s “elections fraud” claims focused on cities with large Black populations, and it should be noted that he also lost in places outside the urban centers of battleground states. In suburban counties in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, Biden improved his margin of victory by nearly 6 percentage points, compared to Hillary Clinton in 2016, or a combined 361,000 votes.
According to reports, in urban counties with more than 1 million population, Biden’s margin increased just 1.6 points, or 193,000 votes, relative to Clinton.
In Pennsylvania, the most hotly contested state, those suburban voters alone were enough to flip the state to Biden.
If you need more clear proof of Trump’s team attacking Black voters, just look at how they targeted Detroit, a city that is 79% Black.
Two Republican members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers initially refused to certify the Nov. 3 election results, claiming the vote in Detroit was suspect, and the Republican chairwoman of the board, Monica Palmer, said during the debate that she would be open to certifying the vote in “communities other than Detroit.”
The members of that board reversed their decision after the NAACP came out publicly against them, releasing a public statement saying, “Shame on you. Shame on you!”
Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney, has repeatedly accused Philadelphia, Detroit and other “Black” cities of being run by corrupt political machines with a history of election fraud. He said there was a national conspiracy to rig the election, and that Democrats chose cities where “they can control” workers and law enforcement.
Of course, none of this has been proven and Trump’s string of lawsuits filed have been either rejected or dismissed.
What did Michelle Obama say? “It is what it is.”
Being a true leader is as much about how you FINISH, as how you START.
If Trump were a schoolboy, would we chastise him for being a “sore loser?” We think most adults, educators and parents would agree that we would.
So, again. We go back to the original question, “what have you got to lose?”
The answer is – “you already lost it – your damn dignity.”
The votes have been counted. Democracy still has its place in America. Time to find a new address. The people have spoken, “Goodbye Mr. President!”
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