Democrats and the Mediocre Black Misleaders

Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist

07 Feb 2024

Joe Biden and Symone Sanders Townsend in 2020 (Photo: Matt Rourke/Associated Press)

The Democrats offer nothing but fake opposition and the duopoly is splitting. The chosen Black spokespeople are predictably hacks who get paid to spout meaningless drivel.

“There are people who say, ‘We would like choice.’ To those people I say yes but now is not the time. Like I would like to be a size 6. Ok but that means I got to go to the gym. That means I can’t eat them oreos at night. That means I probably need to not put no sugar in my coffee.”
Symone Sanders Townsend, MSNBC

“Those folks who were in bondage, the progeny of the folks who picked cotton, now those folks won’t be picking cotton, but will be picking presidents.”
Jaime Harrison, Democratic National Committee Chair

The Democratic Party shows its contempt for the Black voters they depend upon in a myriad of ways. They talk a good game and pretend to do what Black people want while also engaging in duopoly treachery, falsely pointing to republicans as the obstacle to doing what the people want. “But Trump!”, will be their most popular expression in 2024. This year will present numerous occasions for patronizing treachery against the people whose support they need the most.

One would think that as Joe Biden struggles to reach an approval rating that would ensure re-election success that he and the rest of the party establishment would choose better people to represent them in the group most likely to vote for democrats. They don’t because they are on the horns of a dilemma. They don’t really want to be too closely identified with Black people, the group they need most. They also can’t be in conflict with the oligarchs who make all of the political decisions in the country. The end result is a parade of foolishness meant to keep Black people in support of a party that actively works against their interests.

In 2024 democrats put the South Carolina primary first, pushing it past New Hampshire, where they didn’t even bother with a primary campaign. As in the rest of the south, registered democrats in South Carolina are usually Black. The decision to have an early contest in a southern state is politically sound but nothing comes out of it for Black people except photo ops with the likes of Congressman James Clyburn, a leader of the congressional establishment who has been falsely portrayed as an independent actor, a kingmaker.

It is true that Biden recently won in South Carolina overwhelmingly with 96% of the vote, but with only a 4% turnout of registered voters. One can hardly blame those who chose to stay home. He had no credible competition and the fix, as they say, was in. But that doesn’t excuse the likes of Jaime Harrison from using one of the most trite and offensive stump speech lines about picking cotton and picking presidents.

Not to be outdone, Symone Sanders, once a press secretary for the Bernie Sanders campaign in 2016, and an adviser to Biden’s 2020 campaign, who then moved on to work for Vice President Kamala Harris, added to the tomfoolery by telling viewers that wanting to have a choice other than Biden is akin to going on a diet.

The quadrennial election process is a grifter’s dream come true. The democrats throw money around to anyone who is willing to repeat the party line, and if the grifters in question are Black, they lower the standard even further. The electoral propagandists don’t need to be smart or offer anything new. In fact, that is the last thing their patrons want. Any skills or intelligence go out the window and we are left with sad analogies about picking cotton. Doing otherwise would rock the political boat and expose the fakery that is rife in American politics.

Of course, this is a difficult moment as the ruling classes are openly splitting on key issues. The Democratic Party is saddled with an unpopular president and a discredited former president who is still managing to lead in the polls. Democrats gave away the store as the saying goes in coming up with an immigration bill that republicans demanded. The border wall, which liberals were supposed to revile, was back yet again, along with other measures intended to stem the flow of asylum seekers at the southern border. Republicans were on board until Donald Trump told them to scuttle the bill, and scuttle it they did.

Republicans held military spending for Ukraine and for Israel hostage, claiming they would give billions of dollars more if they got the border bill they wanted. But Trump spoke and the wheeling and dealing fell apart. Enter Symone Sanders Townsend. “In a world where the U.S. doesn’t fund Ukraine, Taiwan & Israel as well as provide $$ needed for border security…more people will die, Putin will win, the Chinese government will follow Putin’s lead and America is no longer a reliable partner.” This sort of word salad is all that is left of what passes for Black leadership. The misleaders are even worse than they used to be.

Hoping for a better class of party hacks is a loser’s game but they must be exposed nonetheless. It is vital for Black people to see what kind of games are being played against them. Democrats offer nothing but quieter Trumpism and that is why a Black media personality like Sanders Townsend will make silly statements about Russia and China. It is what she is being paid to do after all and the people doing the paying are scoundrels and hacks themselves.

Margaret Kimberley is the author of Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents. You can support her work on Patreon and also find it on the Twitter, Bluesky, and Telegram platforms. She can be reached via email at [email protected].