I stopped blindly supporting Democrats for many reasons, but their obsession with identity politics tops the list.
Race has always been a component of political discussion. But even as a black man, it always seemed to me like an appetizer, not the entrée. Now instead of aiming for common-sense policies that benefit the most people, Democrats carve out niche superficial interests that benefit barely anyone. Kamala Harris is both a beneficiary and the perpetrator of the Democrat Party’s identity infatuation.
Harris plays the identity politics game, pretending she’s authentic but changing her accent and mannerisms whenever she enters a different environment. However, when you question the substance of her advocacy and question her authenticity, especially as a black man, you’re the one who will be chastised for attempting to treat her the same way as any other person who is seeking power in office.
During Joe Biden’s election run, I was turned off by the party I had felt emotionally attached to for well over a decade. I discovered that the media’s Charlottesville narrative — that Trump called white supremacists and neo-Nazis “very fine people” — was a disingenuous fable spread by propagandists masquerading as journalists. Then during his 2020 campaign, Biden flippantly remarked, “I tell you what, if you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.” In other words, my blackness was contingent on supporting Biden over Donald Trump — a true slap in the face.
I was already feeling politically on the fence, but hearing this declaration plus the enabling replies coming from other Democrat pundits turned me off faster than the lights with an unpaid electric bill.
My old party had worked tirelessly to convince me Trump was a racist and obsessed with repeating history to enslave me, but the only people I ever heard talking about race were Democrats. It was like realizing that the killer of rational political discourse was actually calling from inside the house. The Democrats are the curators of this fear narrative, and they’ll even travel back to our country’s oldest sin to gain power.
Democrats have pornified slavery so much that it’s all they see within black men like me. Everything is in measurement to chattel slavery. They manufacture scenarios only to compare it to their politicized slavery fan fiction.
It made me realize there is a massive manipulation campaign conducted by one political party to resurrect historical trauma in modern black voters, hoping they’ll react instead of think. You’re not supposed to research if the “racism” slurs against Trump are true. You’re just supposed to believe he’s uniquely evil without solid evidence.
I’ve also noticed that Democrats permit voters of other skin colors to be fluid with their political aspirations and to choose the politician they believe will satisfy their desires. But if you’re black, Democrats have forbidden you to stray outside the box they’ve constructed for you. They ironically call you a slave if you decide not to listen to their demands while giving other demographics the freedom to sway left or right.
In other words, black Americans are the only racial demographic told rather than persuaded how to vote.
We are shamed if we ask legitimate questions about policy positions and ridiculed if we conclude that Democrat candidates don’t meet the high standard for our precious votes. Democrats think so little of us that they claim we can’t even figure out how to get voter ID!
I’m not voting for Kamala Harris because she has never come close to satisfying my top policy priorities: resolving mass illegal immigration, protecting the employment of the working class, and ending the mutilation of children in America. I believe her negligence in addressing major issues like these is why key demographics, such as black men, are becoming more open to voting for Trump.
For instance, a recent battleground state poll from The Wall Street Journal shows that while Trump has only 11 percent support among black women, it jumps to 24 percent among black men. Even NAACP polling shows 1 in 4 black males under age 50 supporting Trump, which could result in the highest support for a Republican presidential nominee in decades.
I’ve been following Harris closely for many years, and even when I was a Democrat, I didn’t find her to be impressive whatsoever. It always appeared that the media wanted her to be much bigger than she should have been. They gave her nicknames like “Momala,” brought her on daytime television to cackle, and repeatedly told us she was relatable even if we didn’t see it.
When I listened to her speak in various interviews, however, it was abundantly clear that she is the classic politician who will do or say anything for power. She’s an obvious chameleon, not just with policy stances but with behavior. She alters her performance when it suits her, and that’s exactly the problem: It’s always a performance.
But as good of an actor as she is, she could never play “leader” convincingly. Even if I agreed with her policies, she does not give me confidence that she’ll do the right thing in a time of abundant wrongs. I don’t believe for a moment that she’ll avoid conflict if all her advisers are cheering on an avoidable violent intervention.
On the other hand, I know where Trump stands, and we saw what a Trump presidency can do for our economy and stability. There are many ridiculous things Trump has said and done, like pushing his Trump trading cards and advocating for the death penalty for drug dealers without any details. So I’m nowhere near a Trump sycophant, and I’ve said publicly I would have preferred Ron DeSantis over Trump as the Republican nominee.
But here we are, and there are only two choices: I’m pragmatically choosing Donald Trump.