Politics - News Analysis

Americans Slam Mitch McConnell for Suggesting Black Americans are Not Actually Americans

If there is one thing that the younger generation must wrap their minds around it is that this is not new, nor is it confined to the south, it is just more refined in the south because they had more time to practice. Disenfranchising Black Americans is a winning move for conservatives. (Parties change, ideologies don’t. Lincoln was GOP and went to war over Senate refusal to act).

Democrats were once the problem, at least in the south. The south had unions back then. The hardworking, white, family man was a union man and he was not voting for the same party as management. He was voting for the union and that meant Democrats.

But then JFK sent the FBI down to protect and investigate crimes against locals against people trying to register black voters and LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act. The “managers” (Wall Street) saw an opportunity. Hide the “lower taxes, less regulation, no union thing, under the guise of ‘Busing,” and other racial issues. “The Southern Strategy” was devised by Republicans in the 70s and it was no accident that Reagan picked Philadelphia, MS to announce his candidacy, the site where three civil rights activists were killed in 1964, with a “state’s rights” message.

Thus, disenfranchising the people that defeated Trump, black voters in Atlanta, Detroit, Phoenix (with Latinos), Milwaukee, and Philadelphia PA was the first thing on the agenda for those states this time around. As if that were not enough, MAGA candidates started running for Secretary of State, saying they would have thrown out the results, results that everyone knows were valid, thus necessitating the changes to the laws.

Mitch McConnell gave the entire game away last night with a “slip of the tongue,” the old adage for “too much truth slipping out.”

The Senate minority leader was speaking alongside members of Republican leadership at a press conference on Wednesday evening when he was asked by Latino Rebels correspondent Pablo Manriquez about his message to voters afraid that without voting access protections that would be in place if the Democrats’ voting rights legislation were to pass, they will be unable to vote.

His response elicited a wave of criticism on Twitter for a choice of words that appeared to establish a difference between “African-Americans” and “Americans”, referring to white people.

“Well, the concern is misplaced, because if you look at the statistics, African-American voters are voting in just as high a percentage as Americans,” the Republican leader remarked to reporters.

To be sure, all that would’ve been needed is to insert “any other group of Americans” and it’d be fine. But he didn’t and it’s likely indicative of how he sees the world.

Two other small points. First, can we see that data? Because that does not sound right to us.

Second: Even if Black Americans voted with the same percentage as any other color or ethnicity, that doesn’t mean that the law is not meant to suppress the black vote. Black Americans have a movement going where – it’s entirely possible – they realize more than white Americans that their vote matters in a fair government. The black population tends to be deeply religious Christians and programs like “souls to the polls” programs made a massive difference. That requires Sunday voting, Sunday voting is now gone.

Finally, it is not “just” about Black Americans, it is about Democrats, the very poor, the ones without a car or DL or bank account, tend to not have IDs, doesn’t matter their color and they tend to vote Democratic. Same with college students. So, while the vast majority of the impact is felt by Black Americans, the Republicans won’t limit themselves to other opportunities.

As a senator said yesterday, when an average black voter has to wait in line at least twice as long as the average white person (According to Senator Booker. It may be worse in Georgia, where there are fewer precincts in largely minority areas), there is already a problem. Mail-in voting is more attractive to people who don’t have the time to wait as long in line. Most have to get right back to work if they were allowed out at all.

Twitter had some thoughts:

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[email protected] and on Twitter @JasonMiciak

meet the author

Jason Miciak is a political writer, features writer, author, and attorney. He is originally from Canada but grew up in the Pacific Northwest. He now enjoys life as a single dad raising a ridiculously-loved young girl on the beaches of the Gulf Coast. He is very much the dreamy mystic, a day without learning is a day not lived. He is passionate about his flower pots and studies philosophical science, religion, and non-mathematical principles of theoretical physics. Dogs, pizza, and love are proof that God exists. "Above all else, love one another."

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