Reap What You Sow
I take pride in my uniqueness, especially when it comes to politics.
I do not stereotypically always vote for Democrats but I do not always vote Republican either. I see good and bad in both political parties.
However, the bad that came from the Republican party throughout President Barack Obama’s eight years in office has led to the popularity of Donald Trump’s campaign and the GOP establishment has no one to blame but themselves.
From the moment President Obama claimed the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008 our racial divide widened.
Many people viewed it as post-racial America, but America might have been more post-racial before his historic election.
I can remember diehard Democrats voting Republican because they couldn’t see themselves supporting a potential Black president.
I can remember haters on the news saying they would never refer to him as Mr. President.
I can remember Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) ignoring decorum and common decency by yelling out “you lie” at the State of the Union address.
I can remember Trump himself spearheading the birther controversy because many people thought Obama was not born in America, forgetting that Hawai’i is a state.
I can remember GOP politicians voting no for practically everything Obama supported and vowing to make him a one-term president.
So with all of that it is no surprise that many GOP voters would vote for someone spewing the same vitriol as GOP politicians have done over the last eight years.
What has occurred is the chickens have come home to roost.
What is occurring is the Republican Party reaping what they sowed.
According to the Associated Press, Trump has 736 delegates, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has 463 delegates and Ohio Governor John Kasich has 143 delegates.
The eventual Republican presidential nominee needs 1,237 delegates. There are currently 943 delegates up for grab.
What some in the GOP establishment have ignored over the years is that there are a decent enough percentage of African-American voters who agree with them on some key issues.
Like many GOP voters, I am conservative on social issues and as a business owner I appreciate the mentality of some fiscally conservative Republican politicians.
However, the racist and sexist rhetoric that some in the Republican Party, especially Trump, let fall from their lips makes it impossible to support for many African-Americans and me.
Furthermore, I believe that guaranteeing that we vote for one party, regardless of the candidate or the issue, leads our vote to be taken for granted by both the Democrats and Republicans.
In Jackie Robinson’s autobiography “I Never Had it Made,” he criticized the Republican Party for not doing enough for the African-American community.
However, the baseball pioneer who was a Republican also criticized the African-American community for thinking that a party would do anything for them if they seldom voted for their candidates.
While Robinson was right in his assessment that the African-American community is too loyal to the Democratic Party, it is better to be too loyal than to make bad decisions at the voting booth, and we are too intelligent to do that.
The African-American vote will once again go heavily to Democrats and the Republican establishment is at fault for allowing things to get as out of hand as it has.
