A few days ago, I posted, Folks, Be Wary of Platformed Voices Claiming to Know Politics — Despite Repeatedly Proving Otherwise (Civics 101) in my initial efforts to provide a rudimentary explanation of civics — an understanding of American politics and government that too many know little about. That entry focused exclusively on the three Levels of Government (local, state, and federal). And no more than 48 hours after posting that entry, I scrolled on my Twitter timeline (@keithericbenson) to find that Luther Luke Campbell (@uncleluke) would be hosting a Twitter Spaces entitled, “Years of supporting the democratic party, why Black still in poverty” where it appeared 77 people were committed to participating or, at the very least, listening. Here we go… So that there’s no misunderstanding, I fully support individuals becoming more curious and engaged in politics as well as holding meaningful conversations connected to matters pertaining to our community. Afterall, there’s only so many conversations we can have concerning who the GOAT is, Michael Jordan or Lebron (it’s Jordan by far), or exchanges about Tupac, who’s been deceased for nearly 30 years. At some point, we have to expand our dialogue beyond the infantile to more consequential topics. But as I expressed in the previous post, we have to be far more discerning with who we lend our attention to, and receive advice from.
In my presentation based on an article entitled, “Crying Wolf: The Campaign Against Critical Race Theory in the Age of Fake News”, I described our democratized social media space that allows any and everyone access to people’s attention even on matters upon which they know nothing about. I explained to attending audiences that though I know some things pertaining to education, and public policy’s impact on education, I for example know nothing about aviation — even though I’ve flown on planes. As such, my opinion on aviation and any matter connected to it, aside from hoping passengers depart and arrive safely, does not, nor should ever matter. I have no viewpoints or opinions regarding plane travel that should ever be considered in any public square. With respect to Luke Campbell, perhaps Uncle Luke of 2 Live Crew may not be the best person for folks to receive political perspective or advice from — but there are, however plenty of informed, committed, and knowledgeable people from which we can learn politics.
In the era we’re in currently, anyone who has a following, can pose as an expert on matters they actually know very little about and, thus, the risk of them either purposely or inadvertently misinforming listeners is quite high. The idea is that after having read these relatively short posts, readers will have a better understanding of why things happen in politics as they do, and that understanding will yield better decision-making and better information sharing within our community. In that there is so much impassioned, yet non-contextual or outright wrong information out there relating to politics targeted not to #MAGA white folks but younger Black folks as well, this entry is a continuation to provide some useful information for people who simply want to know more about the government and politics that impacts our daily lives — whether we recognize it or not.
This entry’s focus, as promised, will be on the difference between campaigning and legislating.
Every election season, no matter the candidate, we hear office seekers lay out their vision for what they will do, what they will advocate for, and what they will accomplish. Typically, their platform, their list of positions, will sound amazing. They commonly sound inspirational, motivational, fresh, new, and a clear departure of what exists currently — and yet, by the time those folks get in office, if elected, what results from their tenure resembles very little to what the candidate initially campaigned on. And thus, their constituents, people that voted for them, are left feeling disappointed and essentially wondering, “what the f@#k happened to x,y,z that they said they were gonna do?” This is what happens when the campaigning meets legislating.
While campaigning is designed to capture potential voters’ imagination and support, campaigning has very little to do with actual legislating — getting things done. Why? Because there is no competing interest in campaign speeches or laying out a candidate’s platform. Office seekers are simply free to convey what they’d like to see done in a perfect world. A political ecology where opposing political motivations and ideologies are non-existent; where budgets are irrelevant; where deal-making is not a requirement for governing, etc. All told, campaigning is the equivalent to a political layup line; there’s no resistance at all but there is a free run right to the basket. When campaigning shifts to politicking, that’s where we see what many interpret as broken promises. For sure broken promises do happen, like when NC state congresswoman Tricia Cotham ran for the state’s congressional seat as a pro-choice Democrat, won, then promptly switched parties and is now a pro-life Republican, but more often than that, what we witness is not so much broken promises per se, but what happens when campaigning meets legislating and deal-making. Far more often than not, those realities look starkly different, often disappointing candidates’ voter base — especially if that base is looking for justice, fairness, or equity.
That was just the foundational information, but let’s not stay there. Let’s dig a little deeper. The preceding paragraphs discussed the differences between campaigning and legislating and what happens to candidates’ campaign goals once they have to legislate. Frequently those campaign aspirations that garnered so much applause and belief, get watered down due to having to make deals with other legislators. What I did not mention, but certainly bears noting here, is the presence of lobbyists and big money impacting politics. Ever wonder why no significant gun legislation can ever get passed no matter how many people are killed by guns? Blame the National Rifle Association (NRA) and their contributions to Republicans and “gun-rights Democrats”. Wonder why we cannot see any pro-environment bills get passed though our one planet coming to boil and causing devastating natural disasters? Blame energy corporations that donate enormous money to both Republicans and Democrats. Wonder America is one of the only wealthy nations that does not offer free healthcare to its citizens? Blame the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry that donates to both sides of the political spectrum. Why can’t we see meaningful police reform bills be passed that curtail police abuse and strengthen accountability measures to make sure police kill less people and are disciplined for their wrong doing? Blame police unions and the funding they direct to lawmakers. Why were Wall Street bankers who collapsed the global economic market and plunged the world into a recession due to unbridled greed in 2008, allowed to get away with such an and be rewarded for it financially with taxpayer dollars, while most of us cannot get much in the way of student loan relief? Look at whom financial institutions are giving their money. By now you should be recognizing a theme in why legislation happens and why it does not. Money in politics, and where it goes, is the indicator. Gilens and Page (2016) found across 1800 policy issues, the preferences of regular people HAD NO EFFECT on what lawmakers did once in office. What groups have the most impact on legislation? The wealthy and powerful interests groups — not public opinion, not voters. They conclude that the American government operates far more like an oligarchy than the representative democracy it is touted to be. That’s a lot to sit with, so take a moment.
So before walking away with the wrong message — that voting doesn’t matter — let’s be clear about one thing. Both parties are in the pocket of their rich funders, and that is pretty wack. That said, there are degrees of wack-ness that we need to consider come election season and moments in between elections. To be able to ascertain what Party is more aligned with what impacts you, simply consider your own lived experience along with the people in your community you know and care about. I’ll repeat, both parties are owned by the rich. Knowing that, it is important that we recognize one of the two major political parties wants to make it harder for Black people to vote at all. One party more than the other wants to reduce SNAP benefits (food stamps) and other social safety net programs. One party more than the other advocates for keeping minimum wage low. One party more than the other advocates against providing student loan relief. One party more than the other wants to make abortion access illegal. One party more than the other wants to make sure there are virtually no restrictions on gun ownership, no matter how many children die in schools… or people are killed at movies, shopping malls, supermarkets, Walmarts. One party is all in favor of banning books that explore Black History. One party wants to cut social security… the “one party” that I keep referencing is, surprise, the Republican Party.
The sad part that is becoming increasingly obvious in this noisy social media space, is that many people simply don’t know where parties stand on very important issues. True story, during the summer of 2020 after hoopin’ on a Saturday morning, a group of fellow Black men that I was balling with began discussing the upcoming election between Trump and Biden. One of the conversants, he shared, “Fuck man, I’m a just vote for Trump. I mean, I know he’s racist but at least I know where he stands…” I said, “Bro, assuming both of them are racist, which certainly is possible, you find it better for someone to not even hide their disrespect of you…like you would rather someone just blatantly disrespect you right to your face and not even feel the need to hide it? And you think that’s better?” I went on… “Aside from all that, you gotta grandmom who’s retired?” “Yeah”, he replied. I asked, “Does she get social security?” “Yeah”, he remarked again. “You know anyone on food stamps? Or anyone that uses medicaid or went to Head Start?” “Yeah”, he said again. “Well then homie you better tell all them to vote for Biden, cuz Republicans tryin to give all the programs the axe.” “Oh…word? I didn’t know all that. I don’t really pay attention to politics like that.”… and therein lies the problem with the messiness of social media spaces like the one being hosted by Uncle Luke here. He readily isolates Black poverty as a unit of discussion and associates it exclusively with the Democratic party to a group of people who trust him enough to listen, though he has no track record of being able to analyze or contextualize the topic of which he’s hosting. Damn…
So far we’ve covered the three levels of government, and today we explored campaigning, legislating, and a bit of lobbying that ultimately influences what happens in politics. Next, we’re gonna explore why substantive change for the poor, working-class, Black and Latinos is so hard to achieve on the local, state, and federal levels even when we have Black Democratic leadership. After that, we’re gonna take a dive in trying to explain our community’s steadfast allegiance to the Democratic Party — even though it may seem like we’ve not gotten much return for our loyalty…and that it certainly seems en vogue for some entertainers and platformed voices to speak out against it.
Just stick with me, and let’s keep making sense of what’s going on around us.
