OPINION: Democrats have to make asshole moves to win

My favorite online viral moment was during a live benefit concert for Hurricane Katrina in 2005 in which Kanye “I miss the old Kanye” West said, on national television, “George Bush doesn’t care about Black people.” 

While I don’t agree with most quotes from Mr. West, this statement rings true. If I was going to highlight anything about former President Bush, it was his willingness to be ignorant to the Black man’s plight. 

When New Orleans was hit by Hurricane Katrina, President Bush was on vacation and his staff “didn’t want to burden him” while he was on vacation. This type of ignorance stands out when the city that was hit was 67 percent Black at the time. It’s hard not to think of Bush’s response if it happened to a Texas town with which he has more in common.  

In many ways, I see the Democrats through this same prism as well. First and foremost, they are unwilling to be assholes on our behalf. One of the current ways this sticks out to me is the response to the conflict in the Middle East. The Biden administration has received a lot of media scrutiny for siding with Israel despite the offensive attack they have decided to take against Palenstine. When have you ever seen a Democratic representative take a stance for Black people in a similar fashion? Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi kneeling in a dashiki does not count. 

As a Black person, you know you have to develop some tough skin or this world will eat you up. Writer Ciarra Jones even hypothesizes that we have to stand our ground while walking on sidewalks to reclaim our space. Which begs the question — why do the Dems keep asking for our help while neglecting our well being? Hopefully questions like this will be answered at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next month. 

On March 16, 2016, then-President Barack Obama nominated Merrick Garland, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, to fill a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court. His presidential duty was objected to by a once-lively Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). As Senate majority leader at the time, McConnell said the next Supreme Court justice should be selected by the next president because Obama was in the final months of his last term. 

Fast forward eight years and look who it is: McConnell endorsed then-President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court justice choice, conservative Amy Coney Barrett, on Sept. 26, 2020, which was only months before what became the end of Trump’s term. She was chosen to fill the seat of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Politifact even labeled it a “full flop” in terms of how strongly McConnell flip-flopped on his reasoning. The Democrats can’t just come out and oppose this based on politics alone; they need to come out and fight fire with fire. The Democratic Party needed to be the assholes when affirming Garland and when rejecting the hypocrisy of the Barrett nomination.

Why not threaten to remove some federal funding from Kentucky? I’m not even saying this is the right decision; however, Democrats have to be willing to make an asshole move in order to make their adversaries think they are willing to burn it to the ground. 

In fact, here’s a quote from McConnell himself,  “One of my proudest moments was when I looked Barack Obama in the eye and I said, ‘Mr. President, you will not fill the Supreme Court vacancy.'” He was conveying not only to his political party, but especially to Democrats that he wasn’t afraid to be an asshole to keep moving his party in the direction they prefer.

Of course everyone knows the Supreme Court is important, but I think it was hard to grasp just how important at the time until years later, when Trump appointed two justices to the Supreme Court during his term. That move flipped the court from moderate-liberal to conservative.

The Supreme Court has ruled on cases involving affirmative action, gerrymandering and abortion. By being the aggressors, Republicans got the Supreme Court to overrule affirmative action, which has set back years of progress in making the world more fair to minorities. They also got the Supreme Court to rule in their favor for gerrymandering, which has allowed the GOP to change district lines so minority populated urban areas have less of an impact in state elections. 

Abortion is understandably a very polarizing issue, but Black and brown communities should be outraged at what the Democrats allowed to happen via the Supreme Court. According to a report by the Center for Urban Renewal and Education, 62 percent of Planned Parenthood surgical abortion facilities are within walking distance of relatively high Black populations. Also, 79 percent of Planned Parenthood surgical abortion facilities are within walking distance of relatively high Black and/or Hispanic/Latino populations. 

You can argue the GOP is trying to dismantle Black and brown communities by denying access to abortion, ignoring the past struggles of Black people and playing dirty politics such as changing political districts to fit the demographics that benefit them. I think this applies disproportionately more in major metro areas such as Detroit, where I live, and Chicago, where the 2024 Democratic National Convention is taking place in August. 

During election campaign years, we watch political ads where Democrats come to underserved neighborhoods, but when do they actually do anything for these neighborhoods? When are the Democrats’ words not just followed with “campaign promises,” but also actions containing aggressive countermeasures to the GOP’s agenda?

As someone who is biracial, I feel like I get to see different perspectives of our country. However, it’s more on a spectrum than a binary perspective. Binary politics makes you believe this is a zero-sum “game.” It’s not. 

There are plenty of resources to share for both political parties. However, the Republicans focus on helping the rich and robbing the poor. Sadly, Democrats’ only strategy is to claim to have the moral high ground and hope you vote because they are not the other guys. Democrats need to take a more aggressive stance, but I wish they would do it for the Black voters they claim to represent. Voting by omission is no longer good enough. Good versus evil is how it’s proposed, when really it’s the assholes versus the apathetic.