If someone told us that Law Enforcement Today and Black Lives Matter would agree on something, we definitely wouldn’t have had that on our 2024 bingo card. Yet in a year when the incumbent president announced he was not going to run a mere 100 days out from the election and his opponent would be the target of an assassin’s bullet, anything can happen and that is exactly what occurred.
On Tuesday, Black Lives Matter (BLM) issued a press statement slamming the Democratic Party for “anointing” Harris as the Democratic nominee despite voters having no say in the matter, National Review reported. Calling the current turn of events “unprecedented,” BLM demanded the Democratic National Committee (DNC) “immediately host an informal, virtual snap primary across the country” prior to their August convention.
“We call for the Rules Committee to create a process that allows for public participation in the nomination process, not just a nomination by party delegates,” they wrote. “This moment calls for decisive action to protect the integrity of our democracy and the voices of Black voters.”
BLM is correct. For a party that claims Donald Trump and the Republicans are a “threat to democracy,” the Democratic Party is circumventing the will of, and disenfranchising over a million Democrats who participated in the primary process
BLM then outlined a series of three concerns which they called “troubling”:
- The DNC refused to host debates during the primary, even though a vast majority of Democratic voters wanted them. This would have likely allowed America to see the decline of Joe Biden in 2023.
- The DNC changed the primary schedule and created rules that made it almost impossible for non-Biden candidates to appear on the ballot, effectively clearing the field of any challengers to the incumbent president.
- Following the primary where millions of Black voters weighed in, after one poor debate performance, the DNC Party elites and billionaire donors bullied Joe Biden out of the race.
Last Sunday, Biden withdrew from the presidential race and endorsed Harris to replace him. Only days later, Harris received over 260 endorsements from Hollywood elite and Democratic Party insiders and raised over $100 million dollars since Biden’s announcement.
BLM accuses “Democratic Party elites and billionaire donors” of “attempting to manipulate Black voters by anointing Kamala Harris and an unknown vice president as the new Democratic ticket without a primary vote by the public.”
Given the media’s sudden obsession with Harris and pushing her as the “first black female presidential candidate,” BLM’s stance may come as a surprise to some, as it did to LET. However credit where it is due, BLM can see through the Democratic Party charade and recognizes that, as some from the right have suggested, liberals believe they can get the minority vote by merely pandering to blacks without producing any results.
“While the potential outcome of a Harris presidency may be historic, the process to achieve it must align with true democratic values. We have no idea where Kamala Harris stands on the issues, now that she has assumed Joe Biden’s place, and we have no idea of the record of her potential vice president because we don’t even know who it is yet.”
BLM called the Democratic Party’s “blatant disregard for democratic principles…unacceptable.”
A number of names have been floated as possible running mates for Harris, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Sen. Mark Kelley (D-AZ), and the intersectional gay candidate, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
Newsom would seem to be an automatic non-starter, because he is too much of a narcissist to play second fiddle to Harris, plus they are both from California, a solid blue state which provides no electoral advantage to the Democrats.
Buttigieg has made a disaster out of the Department of Transportation, having ignored the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio and at a time when the aviation industry is literally falling apart.
Whitmer is as unlikable as Harris and is famous for the draconian COVID restrictions she imposed on the once-free voters of her state. Shapiro is Jewish, which will turn off the Hamas wing of the Democratic Party. Kelley seems by all accounts to be a frontrunner as he has less baggage than the others.
None of those candidates would seem to address the concerns of BLM, which calls the “election process…a disservice to our communities and democracy.”
“Historically, Black people have been loyal Democratic voters, but time and again, the party has taken our votes for granted and politicized political theatrics over our real needs.”
The organization said they would “celebrate and honor the joy many in our community are feeling about Kamala’s historic candidacy and path to the nomination–while calling out the undemocratic process and engaging in a vigorous discussion on the issues our community cares about.”
“We do not live in a dictatorship. Delegates are not oligarchs. Any attempt to evade or override the will of voters in our primary system–no matter how historic the candidate–must be condemned.”
Perhaps the most poignant comment in the statement is when BLM called out the Democratic Party for saying that “democracy is on the ballot,” a not-so-subtle attempt to “persuade Black voters to participate in the upcoming general election,” noting they are presenting “this as the most serious election for democracy in our lifetimes.”
The organization stated succinctly that “democracy isn’t just an ideal to be protected against Republicans; it must also be safeguarded from erosions within the Democratic Party. Calls for ‘unity’ cannot come at the expense of democracy.” BLM then accused the Democratic Party of being “poised to commit some of the most undemocratic maneuvering to avoid listening to the will of the voters.”
D’Zhane Parker, a BLM leader said that since the organization is independent from any political party, this allows them “to hold all political entities accountable and stay true to our mission without party influence.”
Parker said installing Harris “without any public voting process would make the modern Democratic Party a party of hypocrites.” Of course, most on the right already knew that to be a fact. One need only look at the selective outrage over the January 6 Capitol siege vs. their reaction to the 2020 summer of violent riots to see that in action.
Meanwhile, Shalomyah Bowers, another BLM leader, emphasized that the group’s opposition to the process “is not an attack on Kamala Harris or Black women,” but rather an attack on “the nominating process.”
“Those of us who care about the principles of democracy cannot be serious about installing Kamala Harris and an unknown vice president as the Democratic nominee without any semblance of a people-powered process. Not delegates and party elites, but actually asking communities across the country if they believe this should be the democratic ticket. Anything less is underious in the quest for democracy.”
Bowers said the group is demanding “a transparent and fair virtual snap primary to allow for a democratic selection of the nominee. The DNC must address systemic issues, increase transparency, and promote genuine grassroots engagement. Our democracy is strongest when it is inclusive, transparent, and fair.”
Credit to Black Lives Matter. While we disagree with them on probably 99 percent of what they stand for, on this topic they are 100 percent correct. The hypocrisy of Democrats when they claim that Donald Trump and the Republicans are a threat to democracy when Trump in his four year term never did anything approaching being a threat is laughable. That is especially true when they have gone out of their way to disenfranchise those Democrats who voted in the primaries.
One thing we have learned about Democrats is when they accuse you of doing something, it is likely that it is they themselves who are doing that. Perhaps Black Lives Matter is finding that out and that the real threat to them comes not from the political right but from the political left.
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