Now that the election is over, and the Republicans took the House and Senate, and a Democrat won the governor’s race in Pennsylvania, what does all this mean for Black people?
First on the Republicans taking the U. S. Senate and widening their majority in the U.S. House, many are saying they were able to do this because of the failed Obama programs. I say they are dead wrong. Americans were even more dissatisfied with the dysfunction in Washington. They were able to do this because Obama and the Democrats didn’t push and promote the many successes of his administration. Even though most polls had the president in the mid 40s in popularity Congress was in the high 20s.
Most Democrats ran from the president much like Al Gore ran from President Clinton in the 2000 presidential election, which cost him the presidency. That was the same case in this election. The majority of the people were more concerned about economic conditions in this country instead of who Bill Clinton was sleeping with at the turn of the century, and that is the same case with Obama. Domestic not foreign terror, namely the economy.
If the Dems had focused on the economic issues, the condition of health care in American before the Affordable Health Care Act they would have done much better. All three major networks stated that Urban Americans had fared much better economically under the Obama administration but rarely was this pointed out by the Dems running for office. The areas, which are hurting the most economically, are the rural areas, which showed their frustrations by voting, as they usually do, heavy Republican.
I say that rural America is partly to blame for their own plight because of their blindly following the Republicans like we Blacks sometimes blindly follow the Democrats.
Of course when the country grows economically generally Blacks are able to get some of the crumbs. That was the case under Clinton, and Obama, but when we struggle Blacks are the first cut, as it was under President Bush, and even Reagan. So what we as Blacks have to do are make sure the diversity programs in the many corporations, businesses and government agencies throughout this country are kept in place.
No we aren’t where we would like to be as a country but how close would we have been if the Republicans had not said no to everything Obama proposed?
I am a big critic of the Affordable Care Act, but it’s better than nothing, which is what we had before. I agree that it needs to be improved upon to benefit all people but it shouldn’t be repealed because that would mean we go back to what we had, nothing. More than 85 percent of Americans agreed we needed health care reform before ACA.
Will things flow in Washington now the Republicans have taken over? Well, did it for the six years from 2000 through 2006 when the GOP ruled Washington and even had a Republican president in George Bush? We ended up in a recession, which was a depression for Blacks.
No matter which party is in office, or controls Washington we as Blacks have got to fight for our share of the pie. If we don’t neither side is going to just give it because it’s the right thing to do.
As for Pennsylvania, I was glad to see Tom Wolf defeat Tom Corbett. I was hoping Corbett would be a better governor and that he was more of a moderate Republican, but he like so many others he moved to the far right, especially in education.
I still don’t understand that. Why such deep cuts in education considering how important education is to our future. Wolf impressed me in our Editorial Board meeting, but like all politicians we must hold his feet to the fire if we are to share in the Pennsylvania pie.
And it’s up to the Black activists, citizens, newspapers and social media to know what’s going on in Washington and Harrisburg, so we can keep the masses informed, to keep pressure on these politicians to include Blacks at the table.
When we look at Black communities throughout this country can we say they have gotten better since Obama has been in office?
Even though I’m not a fan of the Republican Party, I have voted for individuals who had programs or projects that had the best interest of Blacks at heart and against Democrats who didn’t. So what we need to do is keep a close eye on all elected officials and make sure they are working to our best interest. And we shouldn’t just depend on them. We need to make sure positive programs and businesses are created in our communities, which are going to benefit Blacks in employment, health, education and any other walk of life.
(Ulish Carter is the managing editor of the New Pittsburgh Courier.)
