Blacks, War and the Phony “Resistance”

Glen Ford, BAR executive editor

07 Dec 2017

“The Democrats are ‘all in’ for the Pentagon, including a majority of the Congressional Black Caucus.”

Democratic Party “resistance” to Donald Trump is a sham that has succeeded only in increasing the likelihood of nuclear war and the certainty of massive impoverishment. The two corporate political parties have, in reality, forged an even deeper alliance since the 2016 election, guaranteeing an epochal transfer of wealth to the rich. Although Democrats rail against the colossal thievery of impending Republican tax cuts -- a multi-trillion dollar boondoggle for corporations and the rich that rivals Ronald Reagan’s overhaul of taxes, almost two generations ago -- they have already ensured the destruction of what remains of the social side of government spending through their support for the biggest war budget in human history: $700 billion.

There is a price tag attached to every mindless anti-Russia rant. In their crazed zeal to scapegoat Vladimir Putin for Hillary Clinton’s defeat, the Democrats became the most maniacal faction of the imperial War Party. If the Kremlin is really “at war” with “American democracy,” as the demented chorus goes, then no expense can be spared in “defense” of the “homeland” and its sacred institutions. Democrats were logically compelled to back up their anti-Russia “woof tickets” with mega-bucks for ”defense.”

“There will inevitably be vast cutbacks on the social side of the ledger to make up for the trillion dollar deficits incurred by the Republican tax giveaways.”

This year, the Democrats are “all in” for the Pentagon, including a majority of the Congressional Black Caucus -- despite the absence from the White House of the war-mongering Barack Obama. Led by Democratic House honcho Nancy Pelosi, the “opposition” party showed its flaming imperial colors in a July 14 vote on the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018. Of the 41 voting Black members, 23 supported the nearly $700 billion bill -- $57.4 billion more than the Pentagon had asked for. Sixty percent of House Democrats as a whole voted in favor. A companion bill later passed the U.S. Senate with only five Democrats voting against it.

There will be no rollback of this gargantuan commitment to U.S. imperial wars, but there will inevitably be vast cutbacks on the social side of the ledger to make up for the trillion dollar deficits incurred by the Republican tax giveaways. The shortfalls will suck up the remaining vestiges of the social legislative legacy that is the last rationale for supporting the Democratic Party.

Below is the breakdown of the Black Caucus vote on the war budget.

Aye Votes: 23

Joyce Beatty, (OH)
Sanford Bishop (GA)
Lisa Blunt Rochester (DE)*
Anthony Brown (MD)*
William Lacy Clay (MO)
James Clyburn (SC)
Davis, Danny (IL)
Val Butler Demings (FL)
Dwight Evans (PA)*
Al Green (TX)
Alcee Hastings (FL)
Sheila Jackson Lee (TX)
Eddie Bernice Johnson (TX)
Al Lawson (FL)*
A. Donald McEachin (VA)*
Bobby Rush (IL)
Bobby Scott (VA)
David Scott (GA)
Terri Sewell (AL)
Bennie Thompson (MS)
Marc Veasey (TX)
Waters, Maxine (CA)
Frederica Wilson (FL)

Nay Votes: 18
Alma Adams (NC)
Karen Bass (CA)
G.K. Butterfield (NC)
Andre Carson (IN)
Yvette Clarke (NY)
John Conyers (MI)
Keith Ellison (MN)
Marcia Fudge (OH)
Hakeem Jeffries (NY)
Hank Johnson (GA)
Robin Kelly (IL)
Brenda Lawrence (MI)
Barbara Lee (CA)
John Lewis (GA)
Gwen Moore (WI)
Donald Payne (NJ)
Cedric Richmond (LA)
Watson Coleman (NJ)

Not Voting: 3
Emanuel Cleaver (MO)
Elijah Cummings (MD)
Gregory Meeks (NY)

Asterisks (*) denote the new members of the Black Caucus that entered Congress in 2016 and 2017: Lisa Blunt Rochester (DE), Anthony Brown (MD), Al Lawson (FL) and Donald McEachin (VA). All of them voted for the war budget, in line with their leader, Nancy Pelosi. They are the operative “new Negro leaders” of the Democratic Party.

Maxine “Auntie” Waters, the Los Angeles congresswoman who was once a fixture in the (relatively) “progressive” faction of the Black Caucus, has talked her way into the Pentagon’s camp. Bobby Scott, a once dependable “progressive” from Virginia, now votes with David Scott, the Atlanta troglodyte who is among the bankers' and generals' best Black friends on The Hill.

Back in July of 2011, Bobby Scott and Maxine Waters were among the only six members of the Black Caucus that voted to cut off funds to President Obama’s war against Libya. We at Black Agenda Report called these members “The Good.” Sadly, Waters and Scott have now thrown in their lot with the imperial war-makers (“The Hopeless”). Insanely, these erstwhile progressives do so, not in some misguided solidarity with the First Black President, but as part of the anti-Trump/anti-Russia crusade.

“The Democratic Party is incapable of reform from within.”

There is no stopping the rot in the Democratic Party. When the elected representatives of Black America, historically the most pro-peace and social justice-oriented constituency in the country, enlist en mass in the War Party, it is obvious that they are answerable to outside forces. The Democratic Party is the managing agent for their treachery, and is incapable of reform from within. Rather, it produces eager imperialists in blackface, such as the Caucus’ newest members: Rochester, Brown, Lawson and McEachin.

Russiagate may be the bane of Donald Trump’s existence, but it has been a remarkably useful tool in the hands of the military industrial complex and the national security state.

BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford(at)BlackAgendaReport.com

Congressional Black Caucus

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles. Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.