A Black Agenda Radio commentary by BAR executive editor Glen Ford
Former NAACP chief Ben Jealous couldn’t wait to get back in the good graces of Democratic Party corporate power. Released from allegiance to Bernie Sanders, he joyously endorsed Hillary Clinton and slandered the Green Party’s Jill Stein as aiding the “fascist” Donald Trump. But, “Ben Jealous doesn’t know what a fascist is, and could care less; he only knows that his job is to keep Black people inside Hillary Clinton’s big corporate tent.”
To Serve Clinton, Ben Jealous Slimes Jill Stein
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by BAR executive editor Glen Ford
“Jealous flaunted his utter subservience to the Democratic Party.”
Ben Jealous looked so happy to be on the prime time stage at the Democratic National Convention, Monday night – thrilled to be endorsing Hillary Clinton for president. Jealous got to the convention as one of Bernie Sanders’ high profile Black supporters, a position he took to ensure that the Black Misleadership Class was represented everywhere within the Democratic Party – including its insurgent wing. The NAACP, which Jealous led for four years, is a virtual annex of the Democratic Party. But, since Jealous was no longer president of the organization, it was safe for him to temporarily join the Sanders camp, with confidence that Bernie would at some point capitulate, and they could all be welcomed back into the bosom of corporate power, personified by Hillary Clinton.
You could see the utter joy in Jealous’ face, like he was coming in from the cold. One of his next stops was the studios of Democracy Now! where he flaunted his utter subservience to the Democratic Party in a debate with the Green Party’s presumed presidential candidate, Jill Stein. Jealous sneered at the very idea of challenging the Democrats at the presidential level. “We cannot afford to end up with having an Iraq War because we narrowly lose the White House...as we did with Bush,” said Jealous, repeating the old canard that Ralph Nader threw the 2000 election to the Republicans, and ignoring the fact that Hillary Clinton supported Bush’s war in Iraq – and that Clinton and Barack Obama have since set the whole of the Middle East and much of Africa on fire. Jealous said his mission is to keep the “madman” and “neo-fascist” Donald Trump, out of the White House, to which Jill Stein replied: “Hillary Clinton’s finger on the button is as dangerous as Donald Trump. And it’s Barack Obama himself who initiated the new nuclear arms race, spending a trillion dollars.”
Jealous the Parrot
Ben Jealous could muster no substantive response to Stein on issues of war and peace, or on domestic issues, either. The Black Misleadership Class is not concerned with policy, but with their own position in the Democratic Party structure, which is their doorway to Wall Street and the ruling class. Jealous shamelessly parroted the insane line that Hillary Clinton is “a fierce advocate for women and for children” when, as Jill Stein reminded him, Bill and Hillary Clinton destroyed the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program – welfare, as we knew it. Jealous said he was “rooted in a Black community that’s been devastated” by mass incarceration – as if Bill and Hillary were not the architects of the biggest surge in Black imprisonment in history.
Ben Jealous doesn’t know what a fascist is, and could care less; he only knows that his job is to keep Black people inside Hillary Clinton’s big corporate tent. He slanders leftists like Jill Stein as giving aid and comfort to Donald Trump, but makes a career of delivering Black people into the clutches of the worst mass murderers and mass incarcerators the Democratic Party has to offer. What is truly anathema to Ben Jealous and his ilk is a reemergence of a Black independent politics that would likely be more radical and more socialist than Bernie Sanders or Jill Stein – and would put Black Misleaders like him out of business.
For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to BlackAgendaReport.com.
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