Shortly after the liberal mainstream media coronated Joe Biden as the undisputed winner of the 2020 election, Black Lives Matter (BLM) co-founder Patrice Cullors penned a letter to the potential 46th president, demanding that “We want something for our vote.”
Cullors, a self-described “trained Marxist,” was not coy with her demands, should Biden and Harris occupy the Oval Office on January 20, 2021.
According to Cullors, “We want to be heard and our agenda to be prioritized.”
The BLM agenda that Cullors references includes a litany of socialist policies that most Americans do not support and that our nation cannot afford.
For instance, according to BLM’s website, the organization’s policy platform includes “a reallocation of funds at the federal, state and local level from policing,” “universal health care,” “a free education for all,” “reparations,” “sustainable redistribution of wealth,” “free day care,” etc.
As Cullors claims in her letter, “We issue these expectations not just because Black people are the most consistent and reliable voters for Democrats, but also because Black people are truly living in crisis in a nation that was built on our subjugation.”
She also states, “Up until this point, the United States has refused to directly reckon with the way that it devalues Black people and devastates our lives. This cannot continue.”
Cullors offers zero evidence to support these accusations. However, one can surmise she is referring to the days of slavery, which ended more than 150 years ago.
Interestingly, Cullors fails to mention the plethora of programs at the federal and state levels that have been put in place over many decades to right the wrong of slavery. From affirmative action to record-funding at historically black colleges and universities, many programs have been enacted to “level the playing field” over the years.
In fact, during President Trump’s administration, which Cullors has condemned, black people were more prosperous than ever before. Under Trump’s tenure, black unemployment reached an all-time low, before the pandemic devastated the U.S. economy.
Black Americans also experienced their highest labor participation rate under Trump, as well as huge gains for real median income growth, before the pandemic.
The reasons for the economic successes experienced by black Americans in particular, and Americans as whole, over the past four years can be attributed to free-market policies. Lower taxes, fewer regulations, and a more business-friendly environment overall, has led to widespread wealth gains, especially among those at the lower rungs of the economic ladder.
By contrast, the policies being pushed by BLM would reverse the gains made in the past few years.
History shows that higher taxes, more regulations, a huge increase in government spending, and more central control over the economy, which is the crux of BLM’s agenda, would result in anemic economic growth, less jobs, reduced wages, and stagnation.
That agenda, if implemented, would be anathema to the black community’s substantial economic successes that have been achieved over that past four years. Moreover, BLM’s grievance-ridden agenda and wealth redistribution policies would handicap the entrepreneurial spirit that has become more active in minority communities since 2016.
Cullors closed her letter with this call to action. “President-Elect Biden and Vice-President-Elect Harris: both of you discussed addressing systemic racism as central to your election campaigns. Both of you also expressed regrets regarding your record on issues impacting Black people. The best way to ensure that you remedy past missteps and work towards a more just future for Black people—and by extension all people—is to take your direction from Black grassroots organizers.”
It is sad that Cullors and her BLM colleagues refuse to address the substantial progresses the nation has made in recent years regarding racial relations, including the economic gains since 2016 in the black community.
Doubling-down on Marxist rhetoric and racial grievance policies, as espoused by BLM, would set the nation back while reversing the many improvements made in the recent past. Whoever resides in the White House for the next fours should recognize this, and reject BLM’s Marxist, un-American rhetoric.
Chris Talgo (ctalgo@heartland.org) is an editor at The Heartland Institute.
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