Why Black Voters Might Vote ‘The Couch’ in 2024
In light of the major political stakes of the 2024 US Election, it brings me no joy to write a piece like this. Black voters might vote “The Couch” and stay home on election day. Looking at the latest polls, some Black Democrat voters might even vote for Trump or some other third-party candidate.
Last week, the Biden and Harris team returned to Philadelphia for the “Black Voters for Biden-Harris” at Gerard College to build momentum around Black voters to support the Biden/Harris ticket in November’s presidential election.
Although lowering the cost of insulin for diabetes and eliminating student debt for some are laudable, it might not be enough. The latest polls from Pew Research show that more Blacks are aligned with the Democratic party, but that’s just part of the story.
For the Democrats to win, they need an overwhelming majority of the Black voting bloc. They need at least 85+ percent of Black registered voters to vote Democrat to win the presidential election.
Full disclosure: After Obama’s last presidential term at the end of 2017, I changed my party identification from Democrat to Independent. I’ll get to why I did this later.
As a former Democrat, it feels like I’m airing the dirty laundry of my former political family. Similar to Joy Behar, co-host of The View, readily admitted with guest Bill Maher two weeks ago that she practices a degree of self-censorship as it relates to criticizing Joe Biden for fear of creating an environment that is hostile to the political prospects of the Biden administration in the upcoming November 2024 presidential election.
Behar said to Maher
I’m nervous about saying anything against Biden, because I feel as though — not that I have so much power, and you have some more than I do, obviously — but are you afraid that you might, you know, influence the people who are on the fence?
Will the Black voting bloc continue to kick the can down the road and choose what appears to be a president who is experiencing a degree of cognitive decline while mercilessly arming Israel to the hilt to continue to evaporate the Palestinians while fighting a proxy war with Russia via Ukraine, or confide in what appears to be a man so unpredictable and somewhat authoritarian who once joked in 2016 at a campaign stop at Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK?”
I’m well aware that the line between tongue-in-cheek political jokes, which Trump is masterful at, and ego can be blurred. I have to admit, some of the things Trumps says, belongs in a sketch comedy show. No matter how you feel about Trump, he can be funny.
But I’m not here to quibble about the limits or the sempiternity of Trump’s comedic wit but to review the historical record of the Democratic party and the Black voting bloc.
The Black Voting Bloc is Different from other Voting Blocs
There is no voting bloc along racial lines that votes like Black people in America. For more than half a century, Black Americans have voted Democrat. Depending on what decade, anywhere from 80 to 95% for the Democratic Party. I won’t dig too deep into the historical record, but I would consider the following moments around the Civil Rights Movement, lured the Black voting bloc away from the Republican party.
Harry S Truman signed an executive order in 1948, ordering the desegregation of the US Armed Forces to President Lyndon B Johnson, the Civil Rights Act, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. There are several other milestones in the pre-Civil Rights era but we can use the 1950s as our starting point.
To be clear, there is NO voting bloc that votes like this. White, Hispanic, Asian, Muslim, Jewish, Christian, etc. You can slice and dice along many other demographics, and can’t replicate the dedication and unconditional support that the Black voting bloc has given the Democratic party over more than half a century.
Now the question you need to ask is, what have you been given for all those years of unconditional support?
In general, here’s how other voting blocs have voted according to exit polls in the 2020 election. Notice the stand-out difference with the Black voting bloc
How have Black Americans faired under the Democrats?
Before we get into the numbers, what I’m going to showcase is something in the product management world we call KPI (Key Performance Indicators)
“A Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is a measurable value that shows how effective an organization is achieving its key business objectives. KPIs help organizations track progress towards specific goals and assess performance in critical areas.”
KPIs can measure wealth accumulation, quality of health care, education levels, housing, crime rate, and employment rate for starters.
I won’t go through all of these indicators, but many of the numbers below are adjacent to these other meaningful indicators. Meaning, if you have a high wealth accumulation rate, then access to education and many other social development indicators go up.
If we want to measure progress and so-called change, we need to look at the main indicators that inform us whether we are moving forward or moving backward.
One key 2023 report by the Institute for Policy Studies is Still a Dream: Over 500 Years to Black Economic Equality, by Dedrick Asante-Muhammad, Chuck Collins, Omar Ocampo, and Sally Sim.
To put it lightly, the numbers are grim.
Here are some of the key findings:
- For every dollar of white family income, African Americans had 58 cents in 1967. In 2021 African Americans had 62 cents to the white household’s dollar. At this rate, it would take Black households 513 years to reach income parity with white households.
- Median household income for African Americans has grown just 0.36 percent since the turn of the century and it is still lower today than the white median family income in 1963.
- In 1962, African Americans had 12 cents for every dollar of wealth of non-Black Americans. By 2019, African Americans had 18 cents for every dollar of wealth of non-Black Americans. At this rate, it would take 780 years for Black wealth to equal non-Black wealth.
- Black homeownership increased from 38 percent in 1960 to 44 percent in 2021, an increase of 6 percentage points. White homeownership has increased from 64 percent in 1960 to 74 percent in 2021, a 10 percentage point increase. In over 60 years, there has not been a bridging of the Black-white homeownership divide.
The numbers from this recent Lending Tree report in February aren’t any better.
Some key findings:
- The median income for Black households in 2022 was 32% lower than that of white households in the U.S. This is a modest improvement from the 35% gap in 2021.
- Black Americans had $4.9 trillion in wealth as of the third quarter of 2023, compared with the $120.4 trillion held by white Americans. White Americans held 85% of the country’s wealth, while Black Americans held 4%, despite representing 59% and 14% of the population, respectively.
- Between 2019 and 2022, the median net worth for Black families skyrocketed by 58% to $44,100, while the median net worth for white families spiked by 30% to $284,310.
Why I went Independent
To be clear, this is not a rallying cry to jump from the Democratic party to the Republican party. This two-party duopoly is not working for Black Americans, and to a certain degree, it’s not working for most Americans either. In a recent 2023 Forbes survey conducted by Payroll.org, 78% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, a 6% increase from the previous year.
I went Independent because I realized that the Democrat party has become a vacuous neo-liberal corporatist haven of political opportunists. The Republican party is no different. The endless pandering and public displays of political pageantry devoid of tangibles is a tiring act that should have been retired ages ago.
How many chances can you give a party to make amends?
Pandering over Policy
When you listen to the latest speech in Philadelphia from President Biden, I wonder if Biden remembers the types of policies he supported that were destructive to the Black community.
In the latter third of the speech he states, “This is the same guy [Trump] who wanted to tear gas you as you peacefully protested George Floyd’s murder. The same guy who still calls the Central Park Five “guilty,” even though they were exonerated.”
That might be the case, but Biden was one of the biggest advocates for the 1994 Crime Bill that contributed to the mass incarceration of many African Americans. The Reverse Mass Incarceration Act is still collecting dust.
This is also the same guy who in 2020 said to Charlemagne Tha God, host of one of the largest syndicated Black and Latino shows in the nation, The Breakfast Club, “Well, I tell you what, if you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black”
Really, now?
In 2019, Biden’s Vice President, Kamala Harris said on The Grio, one of the largest media outlets that caters to African Americans, “So I’m not gonna sit here and say I’m gonna do something that’s only gonna benefit Black people. No. Because whatever benefits that Black family will benefit that community and society as a whole and the country, right?”, when asked about supporting reparations.
Here’s a perfect example of pandering. In February, the Democratic party released a so-called “Hip Hop Task Force” to address racial inequality. Led by Rep. Jamaal Bowman, Reps. Hank Johnson (Ga.), Delia Ramirez (Ill.) and Andre Carson (Ind.)
Let’s do a quick Google search on what progress the hip-hop task force has made in three months.
In addition, Biden’s window dressing of a Black Secretary of Defense, Black-Indian Vice President, and Black Supreme Court justice can’t cover up the fact that his administration is coming up short, especially for African Americans.
And to make the claim that you have “our back” when your Lift Every Voice: Biden Plan for Black America has stalled, George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021 is collecting dust, and John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021 doesn’t even get mentioned, shows us that you can’t claim that you have our back and nor can the Democrat party.
No more shaming, no more pandering, no more fear-mongering, and no more excuses. Deliver on your promises or move out of the way. You are wasting Black people’s precious time, resources, and energy.
No amount of press fact sheet claims of what you have done for Black Americans will matter, if, on the other side of the political coin, you can’t control inflation.
If we are going to move water from the left side of the pool to the right side, can we honestly say, we are making progress? I don’t think so.
