Until President Barack Obama ran for office, I voted for Democrats, but I’d lost my enthusiasm for my Party. My enthusiasm returned full force in 2008 and 2012. By 2016, I still enthusiastically supported Secretary Hillary Clinton. I did so because she was a Democrat, but also because she was a woman–and, just as we had waited for the election of an African American, we women had waited too long to see a woman elected President. African American women worked so hard and had such high hopes, but so many of our White friends—especially White women—betrayed us and voted for Donald Trump! My enthusiasm was once again damaged.
Now, I see a Party leadership enslaved to misplaced loyalties. Rather than growing and rewarding that portion of the base that has given unwavering allegiance to party objectives, leaders debate the how-to’s of making White males happy and bringing White women, who rejected the Party en masse, back into the fold.
A pragmatic post-mortem of Election 2016 indicates a party failure to focus on registration efforts in the Black community. There was a reluctance to spend money with organizations and efforts by the Black press to help Get-Out-the-Vote. The party lost opportunities to place our issues up front and center, to hire more of us on their staffs, and to do more to show their appreciation for our loyalty.
Despite the current discord in national politics, we need to be able to identify who we can confidently call “leader.” Whatever the party agenda, it must specifically address a realistic plan to improve our communities, put our people to work, fix our schools and streets, and put an end to the insane racist behavior trending throughout the nation. Democrats, your most loyal supporters are waiting for you to recognize what The Party would look like without us!
(Dr. E. Faye Williams, President of the National Congress of Black Women. www.nationalcongressbw.org. 202/678-6788)
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