By Regi Taylor
Demonstrating the leadership and statesmanship America desperately needs right now to preserve the modicum of citizenship African Americans have experienced for only the last two of sixteen generations since we were absconded from Africa, President Joe Biden’s personal magnanimity prompted him to offer Donald Trump an olive branch when Trump was nearly assassinated last weekend. Trump’s response was to not discourage his surrogates from blaming Biden for encouraging the assassination attempt.
Unfortunately, the botched attempt on Trump’s life has offered a volatile new talking point and powerful fundraising impetus for his campaign. With less than 15 weeks to Election Day, with polls suggesting a dead heat in the presidential race, MAGA continues to gain momentum towards a possible victory in November bolstered by a unified party, unified message, and unified campaign apparatus, including surreptitious judicial rulings by SCOTUS, Federal judges overseeing Trump’s criminal proceedings, and the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025.
America is witnessing in real time what Heritage Foundation President, Kevin Roberts, describes as a “second American Revolution” that will be bloodless “if the left allows it to be;” a not-so-subtle threat consistent with MAGA’s pledge to “take our country back,” which Democratic voters don’t seem to be taking seriously enough.
There seems to be a failure of the most vulnerable in our contemporary political climate to recognize the current liberties enjoyed by the country’s nonwhite population as an outlier within the context of America’s racial history. The decreasing population of people who identify as white in tandem with nonwhite Americans’ increasing population and political clout is seen as an unacceptable peril not only by extremist white elements, but many who publicly identify as progressive but fear losing their privileged cultural status.
When the Civil Rights Act was passed 60 years ago this month, the United States population was essentially Black and white. In 1964, whites were 85% of the population and African Americans were 11%. Less than 4% of the population were Latino and Asian. Foreign-born were less than 6% of the total.
By comparison, the 2020 U.S. Census reveals that among white Americans only 61.6% self-identify as ‘white alone.’ African Americans total 12.8%, the Hispanic population is 19.5%, and Asians number 6.1%. According to the American Immigration Council, “13.8 percent of the nation’s [current] residents are foreign-born, more than half of whom are naturalized citizens.”
These drastic changes in the country’s demographics and the corresponding liberalization in public policy intended to accommodate America’s growing multiculturalism, appearing to many whites to be at their expense, has caused an increasingly violent, extremist backlash, vocalized as the desire to Make America Great Again; when white supremacy was the official – and legal – social construct.
The final straw for fed up, aggrieved whites, was the realization in January 2009 that “n****rs” would be sleeping in the White House. During Barrack Obama’s inauguration celebration on January 20, 2009, fifteen members of the top Republican leadership cried in their beers at the Caucus Room steakhouse in downtown D.C., pledging to defeat Obama and make him a failed one-term president. Their vindictiveness mirrored the mood of the electorate.
In each subsequent presidential election year since 2008, the polarization of the electorate has become clearer. According to a 2011 Gallup Poll “Americans identifying as Democrats or leaning Democratic has fallen from 50% to 43%.” A 2012 Pew Research survey reported that: “Democrats now have a five-point lead in party affiliation… (48% to 43%) …down from a 12-point advantage in 2008 (51% to 39%). A 2021 Yale University report “concludes that people switching their votes from Democrat to Republican better explains the GOP’s success in 2016 than did increased turnout.”
In 2020, Pew Research found “49% of all registered voters either identify as Democrats or lean to the party, while 44% identify as Republicans or lean to the GOP. However, despite the current Republican nominee being twice impeached, an adjudicated rapist, convicted 34 times as a felon, being an insurrectionist, and a serial liar, polls have him in a dead heat for president against Joe Biden.
The momentum to succeed is in Trump’s favor because the grass roots, the Republican establishment, and very wealthy right wing extremist benefactors are solidly unified, while Democrats are in total disarray and ununified, flirting with the idea of abandoning a very successful, highly experienced standard bearer with only weeks left before the election. The ensuing chaos would guarantee a MAGA win.
President Biden has appealed for us to “stand together.” I am making a personal appeal to multicultural “Americans of goodwill,” an ideal I adopted from Barack Obama, to unconditionally unify against the forces who oppose our best interests. Please sign the M.A.G.A. Pledge to encourage an overwhelming outpouring on Unity Day, October 16, 2024 – three weeks before Election Day – to rally the vote for Democracy. The office of my retiring Maryland U.S. Senator, Ben Cardin, has been gracious enough to transmit the M.A.G.A. Pledge on my behalf to President Joe Biden, requesting his support.
