Democrats will go broke betting on black

Many political analysts may have assumed that the sun was setting fast on Joe Biden’s presidential aspirations following a series of well-publicized gaffes and doddering speeches. But with large victories on Super Tuesday, subsequent endorsements from a raft of his former adversaries and more wins last week, including in Michigan, suddenly Biden appears poised to soon become the anointed Democratic candidate to challenge President Trump.

It is interesting to note that House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) campaigned hard for Biden and mustered the support that seemingly has set him up to clinch the nomination. Clyburn may have helped turn out the black vote in the Palmetto State, but if Democrats bank on their usual reliance on black voters to carry them across the finish line in the 2020 general election, the strategy very well could end in embarrassment. 

It is, of course, ironic that the black vote is potentially a key deciding factor. The Democrats love to boast about the diversity within their ranks, but the two candidates left standing are two old white men. The question to be determined in the coming days is whether the nomination could go to the self-professed democratic socialist senator, Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), or Biden, a former senator and vice president from Delaware. Biden leads in delegates but Sanders has yet to drop out of the race.

Once that has been decided, attention will shift to who will be the running mate on the Democratic ticket.

When it comes to black voters, many of them know exactly where they stand with President Trump and Vice President Pence. Despite laughable attempts by left-wing media to agitate black voters against the GOP, the truth is that black Americans have never fared so well as they have during the years of the Trump administration. 

Over the past three years, the unemployment and poverty rates for African Americans hit all-time lows. During the same period, Republican supporters of Trump’s agenda passed the revolutionary Fist Step Act, which has reunited many black families after Clinton-era policies unfairly targeted and punished them with lengthy prison sentences for non-violent crimes.

And President Trump’s championing of Opportunity Zones has sought to pour unprecedented wealth into many historically black neighborhoods.

What have black voters gotten from Democrats during that same time? More of the tired pandering and insulting appeals to identity politics, which does little more than pay lip service to minority voters every four years. Voters of color are beginning to awaken to the scam, and Democrats are noticing.

It is for this reason that we should not be surprised if the Democratic nominee makes a desperate attempt to court black voters by choosing a black running mate. There has been talk of Biden considering Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), who ended her own presidential campaign in December. Stacey Abrams of Georgia, who lost a 2018 bid to become governor, also has been thrown into the discussion. But the announcement of a black female candidate is not as universally compelling to the black community as many Democrats might think.

A recent poll from the Wall Street Journal found that almost 25 percent of black men approve of President Trump, while only 6 percent of black women say the same. Those numbers should be higher, but it shows us that black men are slowly but surely breaking free from the flawed notion that they must reflexively align themselves with the Democratic Party. The gambit of placating black voters has grown stale during a time when a Republican president is delivering real results that positively impact their lives.

With Sanders on the ropes and Biden poised to prevail as the Democratic nominee, expect to see lots of jockeying in the days ahead by ambitious black women looking to propel themselves onto a national ticket.

Democrats should think twice about this. After all, the main determinant of who is chosen as the Democratic vice presidential candidate should be his or her qualifications, not the fact that this person is female or a person of color. 

The Democrats would do well to heed the words of Martin Luther King Jr. in his iconic speech describing his dream that his children would “live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

Armstrong Williams (@ARightSide) is the owner and manager of Howard Stirk Holdings I & II Broadcast Television Stations and the 2016 Multicultural Media Broadcast Owner of the Year. He is the author of “Reawakening Virtues.”