The 2024 Elections: Black Voters Dilemma
As 2023 nears its end, more people will start turning their attention to the 2024 elections. This is the time when the media steps up its coverage of the elections, which is a big money-making period for them as candidates invest heavily in marketing their visions to the public. Most voters, typically not deeply engaged in politics year-round, begin to focus more in the final months before the election. When making their decisions, they often prioritize one or two major issues that are most important to them. This is true for Black voters too.
As a Black immigrant, I feel frustrated by the apparent lack of appealing choices in the upcoming presidential election.
On one side, the Republican primary seems poised to nominate former President Trump, whose policies and rhetoric have often been divisive and harmful to my community. On the other side, the Democratic party has essentially hand-picked its candidate, bypassing a primary process altogether. This leaves us, the voters, with a stark choice: an 81-year-old incumbent or a 77-year-old former president.
The base of the Republican party remains solidly behind former President Trump, who was twice-impeached and faces four indictments that include 91 felony counts. Meanwhile, the base of the Democratic party was not given a choice. Soon after taking power in 2021, the party changed its rules to prevent any challengers from running against President Biden in the primary. This happened even though President Biden had previously signaled to aides that he might only serve one term.
To be sure, my choice in 2020 was clear and I campaigned for the Biden/Harris ticket. I don’t regret my efforts or my vote. But nearly four years later, the Biden administration has not lived up to the promises it made to the black community. Indeed, black voters rescued Biden's struggling 2020 presidential campaign in the South Carolina primary. We worked as hard as any other group to send him to the White House with Democrats in control of the Senate, thanks to further success in Georgia.
In return, black voters expected President Biden and Democrats to push new federal protections against restrictive local voting laws, police and criminal justice reform, and economic empowerment in our community. Time after time, and issue after issue, the promises to the black community seem to always end up on the cutting room floor of the dealmaking. Indeed, the deals are often made at the expense of the black community.
The Republicans' strategy has aligned itself with the white nationalist brand, whom they defend vigorously.
Democrats, black or white, for the most part, talk a good game. However, when it comes down to it they are always reticent to use the levers of power, like changing the filibuster, to make transformative changes, especially to benefit the poor and marginalized. We watched as the Democrats rightfully used their political capital for issues like gay rights or abortion. And in a role reversal, it is the Democrats who have been expending precious political capital to find billions of dollars for Ukraine while the people in Jackson, Mississippi, and Flint, Michigan - cities with black majorities - do not have access to safe drinking water. We also do not see the same energy, and pushback on the Republicans' continued attempt to limit the black vote.
This is not new. We experienced it under President Obama and President Clinton before that. Their indifference to the issues of the black community resulted in frustration among Black voters, leading some to disengage from the political process altogether – a rational choice.
I can still remember a period in 2009 when all the levers of power were essentially under Democratic control. As a New Yorker, my elected representatives from the City council to the mayor, state assembly members and senators, House of Representatives, and senators and President were all Democrats. Indeed, the most powerful office after the president is the chair of ways and means, which was held by Charles Rangel. Yet, according to a report by the Community Service Society of New York, at the time "the highest unemployment rate in 2009 was among men 16-24 years of age—their overall unemployment rate hit 24.6 percent during the recession and early recovery period. Breaking this down by race, young black men had the highest unemployment rate in this group—33.5 percent." This history is one of the reasons why it has been difficult to convince a generation of black men that voting matters.
Over a decade later, in the 2021 campaign to elect Alvin Bragg, a Black Harlemite poised to be the city's first African American District Attorney, I canvassed for him so he could get on the ballot and mobilized voters in Harlem. The most interesting experience was that I couldn't convince a single Black man to either sign the petition or commit to voting for Alvin.
I fully understood their perspective then and find myself equally conflicted today as we approach the 2024 elections.
We now find ourselves at a crossroads, torn between the fear of Trumpism and our disillusionment with the Democratic Party. Can we, in good faith, cast our votes for a party that has failed to deliver on its promises to our community? Yet, can we ignore the clear and present danger of the other party, which is bent on erasing the rights we gained from the sacrifices of previous generations? Can we afford to live under the Republican regime if they succeed in their goal to “Make America Great Again,” which is to essentially turn back the clock?
I am torn but as we navigate another election cycle, I know that we stand at yet another critical juncture. We face the disillusionment of unfulfilled promises and the specter of a past we thought long-buried. Yet, amidst the uncertainty, a singular truth endures: voting remains one of our most potent weapons to forge a brighter future for the generations to come.