Yesterday I asked if you are better off than you were four years ago and 98% said no or "hell no." The current issue of Bloomberg made the question more specific to black Americans on the cover if its current issue. But knowing this voting block is going 99% for President Obama maybe the question should be are there any sacred values anymore? Or does party and race trump beliefs even those based on religion?
Photo shoot fresh, looking like wealth
I'm 'bout to call the paparazzi on myself
Uh, live from the Mercer
Run up on Yeezy the wrong way, I might murk ya
Flee in the G450 I might surface
Political refugee, asylum can be purchased
Uh, everything's for sale, I got 5 passports
I'm never going to jail
Jay Z (Otis)
These days it feels like there are a lot of political refugees living in America. The notion of voting with your mind rather than your heart is why contests are so difficult to call. Not only are people willing to forget their own values but they're also willing to forget or forgive their own conditions. It's one thing to get caught up in a mania which is what Obama was four years ago. But this time around we have a track record and it's not impressive. Still, there are niches of the population that will vote for Obama in droves, even if the democratic platform has moved further away from their own personal beliefs. When I was growing up in Harlem there were three things that everyone felt must be addressed for the black community.
This many years later none of these critical things have been addressed and nobody is speaking out about them either.
Drugs pouring into the black community. Rahm Emanuel says on Meet the Press the murder crisis in Chicago is just "gang on gang" as if to suggest no big deal. Either he's saying these people have worthless lives or the general public is in no harm or both. One thing is for sure if it's mostly gangs than its 100 percent about drugs. I don't hear black leaders, disc jockeys, comedians, or other celebrities complain about the federal government allowing drugs to flood the community. Many used to say George Bush personally made money from the drug trade. Nobody is saying that about Barack Obama. In fact nobody is saying anything.
40 acres and a mule is a promise blacks have been waiting for since William Tecumseh Sherman offered Special Field orders no. 15. Thus far it still hasn't happened although there are rumors a second term will make this promise a reality. Although it was never official government policy so engrained is the idea this or some other modern day reparations are due to blacks that Spike Lee named his film company after the order. Wealth redistribution could come close to chipping away at the promise although the only blacks that would benefit would have to belong to a union. The federal government is the largest landowner by far so the promise could be kept by President Obama.
Statehood for Washington DC has long been an injustice explained only because the District of Columbia would have been overwhelmingly black. That would have meant two black senators and a couple of congressmen. Growing up this was a major slap in the face. This week democrats decided not to even include DC statehood on its platform. Of course it's a moot point since the explosion of federal government jobs have tilted the population where it's no longer more than 50% black.
By the way "God" was removed from the democratic platform and that would never fly in the black America I grew up in and that existed before we had a black president.
Back to the USSR
Jerusalem as the capital of Israel was also dropped by democrats but a small uproar could sway this constituency. Not willing to take a chance everyone will vote blindly, Jerusalem as the capital of Israel was slipped back into the platform. Talk about pandering. Wow!
I care mostly about the economic policies and harsh language aimed at people that have done the right things and have made it in the land of milk and honey. This is a giant leap toward socialism. If this works next time around the platform will be about limiting or taking away all profits and most earnings over a certain amount, because this stuff they are pitching now will make America poorer beginning with the very people they calm to want to help. But the goal is to make America a de-facto union via the tax code.
Its been tried and failed in the USSR and tons of African nations that went that route after independence and of course soviet bloc nations that are now grabbing at capitalism to change their fortunes.
Looking Like Wealth
Jay-Z is a huge supporter of President Obama although the same can't be said for all the hot rappers today. One thing is for sure their music doesn't match the utopia envisioned by the White House. Luxury rap echoes the platform of Mitt Romney of a nation where anyone can become wealthy and should never abandon the dream of having it all...by earning it all. There isn't a single hot rapper around that doesn't espouse becoming rich through skills and hard work. They all want to fly around in the world in the best business jet on the market.
The stuff that used to really matter is completely ignored today.
I never bought into the notion of drugs being sold by a US president or 40 acres was promised and happening but felt the DC issue had to be address because we had a revolution based on taxation without representation. Yet, people that told me for years it was republicans stopping these important issues from being resolved never mention them anymore. I get the notion of pride but this is a dangerous line where everything that was important no longer matters. Of course a President Romney would be blamed for all not resolving these issues as well as mass murders in major cities and mind bogglingly entrenched unemployment.
Things our grandmothers taught us should remain important. I must say I never thought I see people dump their religious beliefs or core feelings simply because the president is black.
Rewarding Lack of Effort
A lot of people at the DNC convention are rich and all brag they're self-made but they hate they had to pay back student loans.
In the meantime I find it ironic that all the speakers at the DNC praised their parents and grandparents for sacrifice but make excuses for people that aren't willing to make those sacrifices. Instead focusing on successful people with envy and hatred. Somehow in their world if Juan and Jose grow up in the same neighborhood and Juan goes to college through a mix of work, loans and parental help while Jose drops out, Juan is somehow a greedy bastard that should be shaken down to pay Jose's bills.
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