just click here to jump directly to the main part of this piece.
The facts:
1. The only way the Democrats can win is to have non-white voters vote for them.
2. Without non-white voters the Democrats cannot win.
3. "African American voters have picked the eventual Democratic nominee in every presidential primary since 1992" (from here)
4. For decades African-Americans “enjoyed” the quality of life much lower than white Americans. But only when the quality of life of millions of white Americans dropped close to the quality of life of African-Americans Democratic politicians started looking for new economic solutions.
The statement:
Why non-white voters should give away their power to people who in reality have not been delivering on their promises for decades?
Why keep looking for those people?
BE those people!
Foreword.
I want to start from this question: Why there are many African-American athletes, African-American actors, African-American singers and dancers but much less African-American chess grossmeister?
Why?
Well,
because white Americans love sports, songs and performances.
But white Americans do not like chess.
Start from thinking about this.
______________
Why should an African-American – any African-American – listen to me? You shouldn't. And if you are not interested in where I came from: just click here to jump directly to the main part of this piece.
Why should an African-American – any African-American – listen to me? You shouldn't. And if you are not interested in where I came from: just click here to jump directly to the main part of this piece.
So – why?
Well,
for starters I'm smart (just a fact),
educated, and experienced, and I care deeply about the future of this country.
I
want to prevent the transition of this country from another former Empire into
another newly born third-world country.
I’ve
been living in this country since 2002, and for at least the last 10 years
I've been watching how it has been sliding down, moving farther and farther
away from social and economic prosperity (except a tiny sliver of the population).
Manufacturing,
roads and highways, bridges, infrastructure, public transportation, public
education, the quality of services and goods have been in a constant state of a
gradual decay/decline/degradation.
I
hoped that the American elite would see this decline and would do something
about it.
But
I was wrong.
In
2016 it has become absolutely obvious how deeply has the degradation of American
elite become. The way the Democrats have been acting since then only strengthens this view.
That
is why I started my writing.
I
have good education. I seems that I know history and sociology better than some
of the advisers of the last and current democratic Presidential contenders. And
as a foreigner I can see things missing from the eyes of a person born and
grown up in America.
So,
the better question is why shouldn't an African American listen to me?
One
could say: “Because you're white”, and that would make him or her racist.
“Because
you're smart and look down on me”.
Well,
being smart does not automatically make me arrogant. I don't look down on the
people – just ask my
students. Being smart makes me a good teacher. I do like challenging people who are convinced that they know
everything about everything (and do not know the difference between being
nice and being polite). But in general, I don't tell people what to do - I
tell people what I would do, and why I think that would be a smart thing
to do. And I always open for a counter-argument.
One
could say: “I shouldn't listen to you because you don't know my life”.
I
know your life – it’s bad, or it’s not good, or at least it isn't good enough. Poor
jobs, poor education, low wages, long hours, no health insurance – that, I
think, paints the picture. I don’t need to know the details to give my view on
what to do about it.
“You
can’t know my life; your life was simple and easy”.
If
you think I don't know hard times in my life, you are wrong. I went through the
crush of Russian economy having a little child to feed. And when I moved from Russia to Boston I
changed my status from a director of an institute to a janitor. And getting even
that job wasn't easy; I spent two months hunting for any job, having just $300
in my pocket. So, I know what a hard time is and how it feels. And I know how
to get through it – because I did.
If
you want to know more about me, spend some time on more reading:
One
could say: “My ancestors were slaves and yours were not”.
This
statement would be a good testament of a low quality of public education in the
U.S.. My ancestors were slaves; Russia also had slaves; there were slaves in
Russia, and not just there; slavery was and is the global historical/social phenomenon.
“My
ancestors were brought into the slavery against their will”.
And
so were the slaves of Egyptians, or Romans, or Vikings, or Mongolians, or of the
Germans during World War II. In fact, the "reparation psychology" ("they owe us"!) is one of the factors (psychological) that prevents some African-Americans from acting ("I'm not gonna do anything until they give me mine ..." - but time goes and no one gives, and why would they if no one makes them?).
In
our mind we all are special; our history is always special for us. But in
reality, nothing is new in the history of mankind.
But
more importantly, even if Your case is really special – the question is what do you do about it?
“My
ancestors were slaves, they were brought into the slavery against their will,
they lived in brutal conditions, treated badly, lied upon, and more, and that
is why I …”
How
do you finish this sentence?
Do
you at least vote?
Voting
is the bare minimum democracy allows everyone. Yes, the Republicans make voting
as hard as possible. But what do you do about that?
There
are many excuses not to vote.
“I don’t have time to vote, I have family to take care of, a demanding job”.
Of course. And BTW, there are people who want it for you - for ever. So you would not have time or energy to do anything else. So, when you do not do anything else, you do exactly what those people want you to do. Free time does not "grow on trees" either, one has to fight for it.
“I don’t want to vote for people I don’t know”.
Well,
learn about them.
“I
don’t like any of them. And I don't want to learn about those people, I don't
trust any of them, they all are liars”.
Maybe
they are, maybe they aren’t. Making a decision – any decision including, “to trust or not to trust” – always,
ALWAYS(!) takes some risk. Every new
action always has uncertainty – no one,
NO ONE(!) can ever guaranty the outcome. But indecision, no action only means – NO CHANGE. Want change? Act!
People
who do not act because they cannot take a risk – just once in a while, when
that really matters – do not deserve the change they wish to have.
ANY
excuse against voting is no more than just an excuse.
People
have only two states – they either generally like their life, or not. If the
like it – they have to go and vote for the current politicians, to keep them
doing their good job. Otherwise – go and vote against the current politicians – for anyone new! That is the ONLY way to make politicians listen –
because they will fear being replaced by
the masses, by YOU, not by a couple of guys with deep pockets.
For
every right one has, one has the right not
to use that right. However, every right – when unused – eventually gets loosed,
and then lost.
People
who do not use their right to vote have no right to claim any other right.
People
who don't vote have no right to complain on the quality of their life.
Simple
like that.
“I
don’t have it but I want it!” is a wishful thinking. Maybe praying helps. But
mostly – not. Changes only happen via actions.
Politicians
only pay attention to people who have power. In politics, there are only two sources of that
power – money, or voters.
When
everyone says “I will vote! No matter – what!” politicians finally start paying
attention to the voters.
The majority of my political pieces are posted on another blog: www.the3dforce.us, but on a rare occasion I copy a post to this blog as well, if, from my point of view, the post represents a fine example of the application of a logical reasoning (a.k.a. scientific thinking) to politics. This is one of such occasions.
NB: this piece is a smooth and short example of a broader discussion, such as "The Degradation of The White Male American Elite" (and other mentioned there).
The Only Way To Defeat White Nationalism
Is To Embrace
“Black Nationalism”
I need to inform the readers that I am not a
politician, or a journalist, or a political analyst.
"A physics instructor" is more than just a
job title, it is a “diagnosis”.
My profession defines my way of thinking, my way of
processing information and making decisions, even the way I look at the world
in general.
For example, when I watch politics, I see it through a
prism of science and natural laws.
I think about mechanisms which would help a certain
political group achieve certain political goals.
The way I think when I teach physics is just the way I
think.
Most of the time it leads me to the right conclusions,
and allows to make the right decisions, and follow the right steps.
That is why I have no doubts that the same way of
thinking, when applied to politics, will be as useful as when it is applied to
physics, or to teaching physics.
As a person of science, I see my missions as
discovering truth and revealing it in a clear form which allows to make
testable predictions.
And my political prediction is that within four to
seven years the political landscape in America will be very different from the
current one.
Specifically, in addition to the two currently
existing major political parties, there will be two more strong and formally
recognized political movements.
One will represent mostly white voters who do not
affiliate themselves with neither the Democrats nor the Republicans, and I will
tentatively call it "Independent Party".
The second one will represent minorities, mostly
African-Americans, and I will tentatively call it "Minority Party" (the perfect role of this party is described here).
//
I added this small paragraph on October 31st, 2020.
The upcoming election clearly proves - at least for people who can step out of their traditional views - that for a long time ahead (decades) American politics will not be defined by the fight between a "Red wave" and a "Blue wave", but if will be completely defined by the fight for power between a "White wave" and a "Black wave".
//
The rest of this piece is a brief presentation of the
reasoning which has led me to my prediction.
For the last three decades, the population of
non-white Americans has been growing at a steady pace, and at the same time,
the economic well-being of many white Americans has been gradually declining.
These two trends are not related
(although, the Republicans want to make it look like they are).
However, these two trends have resulted in:
(a) the decline in the political
power of the Republicans in the regions with a large non-white population;
(b) the rise of the White Nationalism in
various forms, including the gains in the political power of the Republicans in
2016.
These two trends are not the only one which are
influencing the politics in America.
Multiple polls have been showing a wide spread and
growing dissatisfaction of many white voters with the both major political
parties. However, expecting that the partisan divide will suddenly disappear any
soon is a naive illusion. The Republicans say that they exercise conservatism.
However, the cornerstone of their new conservative ideology is not “a small
government” or “fiscal discipline” anymore. The new conservatives are not “pro”
anything anymore. Contemporary conservative ideology, which has become a
dogmatic religious belief, is simply “anti-socialism” (whatever they mean by
that). And the progressive ideology is becoming closer and closer to
“pro-socialism” (whatever they mean by that). The room for the common political
ground shrinks and will continue to shrink.
This is a fertile political situation for the rise of
a movement of the people who want to be politically active but do not want to
align with the Republicans and the Democrats. It could eventually become a
third strong political party, if the leaders of the movement would accept the
true mission of a third political party in a two-party system. All currently
existing third-party groups have no chance to play any significant role in the
American politics because they do not understand what the third party needs to
do. They want to “become kings”. However, the true role of the third party is
being a “king maker”, i.e. helping the best candidates (in the foreseeable
future that means the Democrats) to win. At the beginning of each election
cycle the third-party leaders would announce their run, but also would prepare
the followers to give their votes in a way preventing the worst candidate from
a victory. If, closer to the election day, the third-party candidates would see
that they would have no statistically significant chance to win, they would
drop the races and would call on the followers to give the votes to, say, a
democrat. This strategy looks like a political sacrifice. But that is the only
strategy which can help any third party, starting from the “Independent Party”,
to attract attention, then and only then gain respect, and then, maybe, become
strong enough to compete with the other major parties. This movement will begin
its formation as soon as there will appear a charismatic and financially
independent leader (think of Tom Steyer, but less egocentric, maybe Jeb Bush?). The “Independent
Party” should be the movement of the pragmatics. It should not base its actions
on an ideology of any type, but focus on offering practical solutions to the
issues concerning the local communities. The power of this
independent-third-party movement will grow very slowly. It will take several
years before the “Independent Party” will be able to elect a small number of
its candidates to the United State Senate – which is its ultimate goal. But
when it happens, that party may become one of the most important political
forces in the Country because the “Independent Party” Senators will be
responsible for delivering in the U.S. Senate the key votes, and the other
Senators will have to bargain for those votes. With a strong leader, a strong
party discipline, and “the eyes on the prize” the “Independent Party” can
become a crucial player in the American politics. Currently, the opportunity to
born the first truly third American political party is wide open, and I am
confident that soon we will see the first attempts to do just that.
However, there is another, and potentially much more
powerful than the prospective “Independent Party”, social force, which is
non-white American population.
The political power of the non-white American
population is right in front of our eyes.
Right after the Democrats talk about “a blue wave”,
they announce numbers of African-American voters who came to the polling
stations.
Right after the Democrats talk about lost elections,
they complain on the voter suppression tactics of the Republicans; the tactics
which were designed specifically against African-American voters.
The economy of the Country is in disarray. Stock
market is high, but only a tiny fraction of the population benefits from that;
unemployed is low, but the wages are stagnant. Macroscopic parameters such as
the national debt, the budget deficit, the social security funds demonstrate dangerous
tendencies, and there are no commonly accepted solutions in sight. That means
that the Country is entering the era of economic quakes, social disruptions,
and political turmoil.
That will lead to an inevitable strengthening of the
White Nationalism.
The strengthening of the White Nationalism will lead
to an increasing pressure on the social and economic well-being of non-white
Americans.
Non-white American population will be facing a
decision on how to defend the best its own social and economic interests.
For any social group, there are only two pathways for
defending its own social and economic interests: (a) joining an existing
political force; (b) creating its own political force.
It is obvious that the majority of the non-white
American will never join the Republican party. Conservatism is simply not the
ideology which may attract the most of the non-white Americans. For example,
when conservatives say “I am for a small government” they simply mean “leave me
alone, don’t tell me what to do” as an expression of the extreme individualism.
This type of culture is not a good fit for African-American communities. And
BTW, when things get tough, those conservative “independent” individuals turn
for help to the government, or rather to the “savior” who will make the
government to provide for them good living.
The economic platform of conservatism is also not very
attractive for non-white Americans. It completely ignores the difference in the
initial conditions of the white and non-white population. It sounds like “We
have great highways! Everyone can use them and get anywhere one likes”. Yes, if
you already have a car. But it does not work for people who have no cars and
have no option to get one.
The social justice, civil rights, and equality
movement has a long and rich history. During the last thirty years, the
politicians representing African-American voters have been absorbed in the
Democratic party. However, many African-Americans
simply do not trust the Democrats, the same way they do not trust the
Republicans.
The fact that after 2012 the participation of
African-Americans in elections has decreased demonstrates that the Democrats do
not offer for them the attractive political agenda.
The Democrats fight for the well-being of all people (at
least that what they say).
However, African-Americans rightly think that they
deserve economic, social, and hence, political actions focused specifically on
them.
African-Americans played a special role in the social
and economic development of America.
They were an engine and a productive force for a large
part of the economy.
African-Americans were one of the most valuable
commodities.
Today the value of that commodity, plus the interest,
would reach trillions of dollars.
African-Americans have the right to demand at least
the partial ownership of that value.
There are only two technical questions which
African-Americans need to decide on.
1. What should be the form of
that ownership?
And,
2. What should be the
political force propelling the establishment of that form of the ownership?
The natural answer to the first question is (the name is tentative) "The Federal African-American
Restoration Trust".
Every U.S. individual and a corporation,
for-profit or non-profit - no exceptions - would have to pay (the number is
tentative) 0.5 % of an annual income in that Trust.
The Trust would be run by prominent
African-American leaders appointed by the NAACP (or by a special convention).
Of course, the establishment of the Trust would not be the only agenda of the
Africa-American movement, but it would be the one which would galvanize
African-American voters. What African-American wouldn't support this idea by
voting for people who would promise to realize it?
The natural answer to the second question is the
“Minority Party”. Technically, it does not have to be a political party; being
a movement will be equally sufficient.
It is obvious to me that the majority of the Democrats
would not be brave enough to support the creation of the said Trust, because
they would be afraid that this action would alienate white voters.
However, African-Americans do not need the Democrats
anymore to defend their own social, economic, and political interests.
For African-American population the contemporary
situation is very different from the situation of the time of Martin Luther
King Jr.
Today African-American population has what Martin
Luther King Jr. didn't, namely, a large cohort of famous and rich
African-Americans: entrepreneurs, actors, singers, athletes. Those people are
wealthy enough and independent enough to form and propel a political force of
their own.
Oprah Winfrey doesn't want to become the President of
the United States, but she could easily become the leader of the new independent national African-American political movement.
The overarching theme of the movement
would be “promoting fairness for all Americans”. America is the country of the
fairness for all. The political history of America is the history of a gradual
inclusion of different social groups into the circle of fairness.
Now is simply the time for another step.
When created, the movement/party will essentially play
the same role as the “Independent Party”, i.e. a “king maker”, however with the
much stronger political influence.
Without the strong political power of their own,
African-Americans may be at risk of losing many gains delivered in the past by
the civil rights movement. However, we do not see informal African-American leaders becoming formal leaders. They follow the steps of many liberal wealthy people - go into philanthropy, thinking that politics is a "dirty business". In reality, that only leaves the play-field of politics at the mercy of right-wing riches like Koch brothers. In a revealing report Hasan Minhaj shows how for decades Koch industries have been "killing" various public transportation projects - projects that would benefit the most African-American community.
Koch's did it using the central instrument of democracy - people; they spend their money to hire people to walk door-to-door and to spread mis-information (a.k.a. lies). But no democratic or liberal political force was doing the same to counter the Koch's. It looks like politicians on the right know better how to use democracy to their benefits, and people on the left just keep talking about democracy and pointing fingers at those "bad right-wing puppet masters".
“Black Nationalism” may be not the most attractive term to call the actions of the “Minority Party”, but it clearly represents the essence of the African-American politics. Currently, minority political groups are not looking at joining forces into one political movement (e.g. there are conservative think tanks, there are liberal think tanks, but there are no think tanks focused specifically on the issues of the American minorities).
Koch's did it using the central instrument of democracy - people; they spend their money to hire people to walk door-to-door and to spread mis-information (a.k.a. lies). But no democratic or liberal political force was doing the same to counter the Koch's. It looks like politicians on the right know better how to use democracy to their benefits, and people on the left just keep talking about democracy and pointing fingers at those "bad right-wing puppet masters".
“Black Nationalism” may be not the most attractive term to call the actions of the “Minority Party”, but it clearly represents the essence of the African-American politics. Currently, minority political groups are not looking at joining forces into one political movement (e.g. there are conservative think tanks, there are liberal think tanks, but there are no think tanks focused specifically on the issues of the American minorities).
"Ambition must be made to counteract
ambition".
The only way to defeat, or at least to curb the rise
of, the White Nationalism, is to embrace the “Black Nationalism”.
This article is the latest piece on various political
issues. My blog http://www.the3dforce.us/
provides many more examples of my political writing.
Thank you for visiting,
Dr. Valentin Voroshilov
P.S.
In her book “Ghost in the schoolyard” Eve L. Ewing talks about racism in education (I call it “intellectual segregation”); watch the interview at https://youtu.be/RCuZFD4CX2M. Racism has been there for hundreds of years. It is still here. And almost nothing is being really done about it. Click here to the link to the book.
P.S.
In her book “Ghost in the schoolyard” Eve L. Ewing talks about racism in education (I call it “intellectual segregation”); watch the interview at https://youtu.be/RCuZFD4CX2M. Racism has been there for hundreds of years. It is still here. And almost nothing is being really done about it. Click here to the link to the book.
Two newer posts that also shine some light on the matter:
"A free advice to a university President"
"Trump is right about foreign online students"
Appendix
Below the line is an excerpt from my recent piece called "Greed - American cancer". This excerpt is directly related to the discussion about the race and politics.
___________
"And now we have to turn our attention to one of the most threatening sources of American decline – a low-quality work-force. This conversation is intimately connected to the discussion of the race policies in America. Because a large part of a low-quality work-force comes from minorities.
"A free advice to a university President"
"Trump is right about foreign online students"
Appendix
Below the line is an excerpt from my recent piece called "Greed - American cancer". This excerpt is directly related to the discussion about the race and politics.
___________
"And now we have to turn our attention to one of the most threatening sources of American decline – a low-quality work-force. This conversation is intimately connected to the discussion of the race policies in America. Because a large part of a low-quality work-force comes from minorities.
A nursing home. An
elderly patient in a wheelchair is calling for help – “Help! Help! Help!” Later
it was found that he was slowly sliding down the chair and was afraid to fall
on a floor. In fact, if that would have happened, the institution could have
been in serious troubles. But in a meantime, two black CNAs are sitting nearby
staring at the screens of their phones and do nothing.
Just one
illustration of many cases.
The two CNAs have
two superiors, one is white, another one is black.
The white one
says: “I cannot be hard on them, they will call me a racist”.
The black one
says: “I cannot be hard on them, we are friends”.
I am a good
observer. I see that in the last ten or so years, many work places that used to
be predominantly white now have much more non-white personal.
There is nothing wrong with that!
But I also observe
that often the quality of providing services declines with the increasing
number of non-white workers.
“Why didn’t you change
Mr. X?”
“I didn’t have
time.”
“But why other
(meaning – white) CNAs have time to go to all the patients and you don’t?”
“I don’t know, I
need to go to a restroom.”
I must stress that
all I want to do now is to provide an illustration to the statement I made
before, namely, quote “a large part of a low-quality work-force comes from
minorities.”
I do not have any specific data, I do not have
statistics, I do not know how many cases of a low-quality work is related to
white and non-white personal. All I know is that this issue exists, and that
according to my non-scientific observations, this issue is growing in volume (for example, for
a simple reason called – demographics).
Now I want to make
another important statement – when
people (of any race) demonstrate a low-quality work – it’s not
their fault, it’s the fault of the
management (e.g. I’ve collected
a small library of
samples of poor
management; one of the problems is that first managers are looking for “a pal” who will not disturb “the vibe”, and then, hopefully, also can do things.
I would assume
that many black CNAs and white CNAs are graduated from different programs with
different graduation criteria – set by the management.
We enter here a
touchy topic – affirmative action.
There is no doubt
in my mind that African-American community has been discriminated and is being
discriminated and requires a very special treatment in order to help tis
members to achieve professional success. But that special treatment must not
lead to the lowering criteria of quality of work.
If we randomly
choose a white 17en-year old guy and a black 17en-year old guy and compare
their average level of school preparation, I would expect that the white guy
would have a higher level of that. So, we want them both to enter the same
program and to achieve the same final
level of skills, but the black one has to start from a lower level of preparation. How can that be done? There is only one
reasonable answer – first, we need to help the black guy to close the gap in
his/her preparation level. But that requires extra resources! And now we run
into greed.
“No extra resources for African-Americans! It’s
not fair for whites!”
Naturally, this is
one of many signs of racism in America.
There are three
groups of white Americans.
1. “White
Ostriches”, i.e. people who simply ignore any race-related issues, do not read
about it, do not talk about it, like it doesn’t exist.
2. White
supremacists, a.k.a. racists, i.e. people who would like to keep all minorities
in an eternal submission. Those people are scared of the growing population of
non-whites, including immigrants (hence – the wall). They would even converted
America to fascism if that would help them to keep their “white power”.
3. The other
whites. Those people call themselves “Democrats”, “Progressives”, etc., but in reality,
they use minorities for their own political gain – because without minority
voters they would have no chance to be elected.
The only people
who could really represent the true interests of minorities are the minorities,
but so far, they do not recognize this situation and let white “progressives”
represent their interests. In my view, that does not work very well
for them.
African-American
community has been culturally handicapped, and that was done on purpose by
white Americans. To remedy this historic fact, some people talk about
reparations. But that is exactly what white supremacists would do, if they
would have been forced in doing anything. “Give those n----rs money, let them
buy some stuff, drink more, smoke more, it’s gonna be fine, as long as they do
not mess with our power”. What African-American community needs is vast and
targeted investments into the culture of African-American community. And #1 must be education."
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