Should White People Control the Democratic Party?
Racial minorities make up close to 40% of the general population and 43% of the active Democratic voting population; however only 13% of Democratic Senators identify as non-white.
The Democrats in power prefer to speak on our behalf than allow us to speak for ourselves. They prefer to legislate on our behalf, so that we cannot legislate for ourselves. They have refused to fight for our rights but continue to rhetorically assert that they are our defenders and white messiahs. And they literally advance their agendas and group mobility on the backs of minority voters.
When we demand legal protection, intervention, and independent investigations in cases of police brutality, the Democrats hand us more training and community meetings. (As they ironically clamor for their own independent investigation into Russia.) When we demand the honor of the sovereignty of our indigenous people, the Democrats hand us over to a pipeline. When we demand an end to stop and frisk, gang injunctions, and voter suppression — the Democrats offer excuses and compromises. They have abandoned their pro-choice position, completely refused to form a united front against the white nationalists in the White House, didn’t even bother to form a counterstrategy to save SCOTUS or Obamacare, left Muslims and immigrants completely undefended from hate groups and ICE, abandoned transgender rights, excluded the disability community and flat out refused to enforce our voting rights — even though the latter would have kept the Congress in Democratic hands and Trump out of the White House.
And even now in the era of Trump, the Democrats have assumed an alt-centric position that roots itself in the comfort of the white middle-class and insists on bipartisanship with traitors and white supremacists. They now have a front row front row seat to the dismantling of the federal government, the destruction of every strand of our social safety nets, the dissolution of our global position in the socio-political economy, a detachment from our strongest allies and the reformation of the United States into a Russian Confederacy. Where they continue to play devastated witness while refusing to launch any sort of legislative counter whatsoever.
Why should we keep voting for this shit?
I am from one of the most liberal cities in the most liberal states in the nation. I came up wavering back and forth between the underclass and working class as a disabled and intersected minority. I spent most my personal life and political career fighting police brutality and the criminalization of poverty, disability, and race.
My work did not stop when Barack Obama took office.
Even when the Democrats had control of the White House and Congress — and couldn’t hide behind a minority status in Congress, they refused to stand up to the GOP or for minority rights. I remember the waves of false optimism that accompanied the chants of “yes we can!” I also remember when we it became clear that line was followed with a resounding “but we’re not going to.”
Those good old days under Obama still brought with them a refusal to raise the minimum wage, decriminalize or legalize marijuana, increase affordable housing, remove anti-poverty legislation, or stand up to any of the advances of the GOP on our communities. The Democrats had the chance to enforce our rights, protect our communities, expand our opportunities, and push back the growing momentum of the GOP.
The Democrats chose to do nothing.
For the white middle-class Democrat, there is an odd nostalgia for the good old days under Barack Obama. For the rest of us, there is a continued and building frustration with empty promises, political failures, and outright hypocrisy of the Democratic days of glory.
The alt-centric, white middle-class Democrats have done everything in their power to shut out the voices of minority individuals, organizations and networks. The truth is, though, the Democratic party belongs to poor, working class, disabled and especially minority voters.
And there is power in that knowledge.
Approximately 66 million people voted Democrat in the 2016 presidential election. Of these 43%, or around 28 million, were voters of color. 57%, or just over 37.5 million identify as white. So, it would seem as though minorities are outnumbered by approximately 9.5 million people. But these numbers only tell a small part of the story.
Now let’s add suppressed voters.
The Interstate Crosscheck System, which is responsible for purging eligible minority voters from voter registration lists in key states, removed over 1 million voters from the system just prior to election day. 6 million more have been identified for purging. Initiated in 2005, Crosscheck has spread to 29 states and has been almost completely un-countered by the Democrats.
Voter ID restrictions have spread to 33 states and rendered 21 million voters unable to vote because of lack of ID and the GOP’s un-countered gutting of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Minority voters are more than twice as likely to lack photo ID than white voters. So, that adds roughly 14 million black and brown voters to the tally.
And finally, there are a number of reasons the GOP is so invested in criminalizing people of color — it keeps Democrats from voting. Over 6 million people were prevented from voting in 2016 because of felony disenfranchisement. And estimated 2 million black and 3 million latinx voters lost their rights to vote.
That rounds out our total of suppressed minority voters to 20 million.
If minority voters that have been purged, suppressed and otherwise disenfranchised were added back to the voter registration rolls, white people would no longer make up majority of the Democratic party.
Re-enfranchising suppressed Democratic voters of color would leave us with approximately 45.5 million white democratic voters and 48 million voters of color.
But people of color are not the only minorities that the Democratic party have sold out in order to pander to the white middle-class. Voters with disabilities and white working class voters have also been completely shut out of the Democratic agenda, except in rhetoric and false compromises.
Suppression of voters with disabilities remains one of the most ignored electoral issues in the United States. While 1 in 6, or 34 million voters, is living with disabilities — 75% of polling places were inaccessible.
While a middle class income rests at around $37,000 per year nationally, 51% of all workers make less than $30,000 per year — placing them solidly in the working class. 40% of workers make less than $20,000 per year and 13%, or 43 million people, live below the poverty line.
If we remove the 1/5 of Democratic voters with disabilities from the white pool, that takes just over 7.5 million voters from their ranks. And if we remove the approximately 40% of white working class voters and 14% of poor white voters from the middle-class voting pool, we can remove an additional 8 million more, for a total of 24 million white working class and poor voters.
That leaves the party of the white middle-class at around 21.5 million normative white middle-class Democratic voters and 72 million voters of color, voters with disabilities, poor white voters and white working-class voters.
The white middle-class left is dramatically outnumbered.
But even so, 72 million poor, working class, disabled and minority voters are forced to sacrifice their rights and lives in the name of 21 million middle-class white people. A minority vote is worth less than 1\3 of a white middle-class vote under the Democrats.
And perhaps this is how the Democrats in power would like to keep it.
People of color, poor people, the working class, and people living with disabilities are the ones who pay the price for the Democrats’ failures against GOP advancement, but rather than allow us to stand as equals in the party — the Democrats strategically allow our disenfranchisement at the expense of both the party and the nation.
Re-enfranchising and re-uniting voters of color, voters with disabilities, poor voters and working class voters would destroy the Democratic party as we know it. And perhaps that is a good thing.
The Democratic party would more than outnumber the GOP and its white supremacist driven, Russian puppetted network of racists, traitors, and eugenicists. It would be a party that demolished the barriers of inaccessibility, enforced, and expanded minority rights, passed a living wage, provided safe and secure housing, legislated national transgender rights, actively protected indigenous sovereignty, and ensured universal healthcare. If minority voters were re-enfranchised, the Democratic Party would be the party of the People.
First, though, the people must unite and take control of their party.
