OUR VOICES: The Democrats, President Biden, and The Black Vote

By Dr. John E. Warren

While President Biden appears to be the only hope for America. As we know this nation, it does not follow that many who understand this crisis could and will engage in not voting this November out of the feeling that there is no real choice given Biden and Trump on the ballot. The sad truth is that a Third Party candidate on the Democratic side could almost for certain guarantee that former President Trump would be elected. A Third Party candidate on the Republican side would certainly guarantee that President Biden would be re-elected. Likewise, a stay at home vote on the Democratic side could also guarantee that Trump would be re-elected.

Let us not forget that it was the Black vote that put Biden in office. With all he has done to bring the country back from the brink of collapse, including having a Black Vice President, he has still failed the Black vote. He has not used the power of his office to break the filibuster in the Senate so that the George Floyd and John Lewis proposed laws could have a fighting chance to become a reality.

How is it that a man who spent 36 years in the Senate and 8 years as Vice President has failed to learn how to use the power of those positions, as such men as the late President Lyndon Baines Johnson did, to get the Voting Rights and Civil Rights laws enacted? President Biden was more worked up over the Supreme Court’s Decision on Roe vs. Wade than the voting rights and civil rights legislation mentioned above. The President and the Democratic Party should understand that Black people can and will live with Donald Trump if necessary, because our fight for equality and inclusion has never ended.

The Black vote, just like all other votes in an election, needs more than the waving of the flag and promises, many of which have been made before. Dollars must be invested in our Black communities the same way they are being, and will be, invested in other communities to get out the vote. It should be remembered that Black faces in the White House do not mean Black faces at the voting booths.

BLACK VOTERS should also remember that in addition to re-electing President Biden, the Democrats need four more seats in the House of Representatives to RESTORE A DEMOCRATIC MAJORITY and to make Hakeem Jefferies the first Black Speaker of the House of Representatives. It takes money to educate a public to save democracy, as we know it, rather than endure the browning of America.

At the end of the day, Donald Trump is not the problem but the instrument of an old idea that says America has to be ‘white in order to be right’. This idea only sees “We the People” as White. Fortunately, there are still people in this nation Black, White, Brown, Yellow and Red, immigrants and citizens by birth who believe that America is all of us, even when we disagree with each other.

The Black vote is still strong enough to once again make the difference. The question is, will WE get the support necessary to make that vote once again, go to the polls and re-elect this President who must do more. The issue is not his age, but his commitment to getting our vote. People are not as concerned about “saving democracy” or the number of jobs recovered as much as they are concerned about the value of our dollars, food, rent, housing and gas. If the Democrats reach us where we live on these issues, the salvation of democracy will follow.

Dr. John E. Warren is publisher of The San Diego Voice and Viewpoint.