Letters from Our Readers

Jahan Choudhry BAR Comments Editor

22 Jul 2020

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This week voting in November and the crisis of the Democratic Party was on your mind. We share your letters for “Democrats Will Never Choose Transformative Change – So Give Them No Choice” and “Desperate Times, Desperate Measures: Dump the Democrats.”

“Democrats Will Never Choose Transformative Change – So Give Them No Choice” by Glen Ford calls for activists in the current protests to push for a political crisis rather than channel their energy into voting for the Democrats in November.

Reg Callaway writes:

“Rulers of capital are on the vanguard of watering down meaningful change, always waiting in the wings with their Pinkerton brigade of assassins to trample Black protest. This time is no different.

“Already we see tone-deaf Apple CEO/ Tim Cook telling us we need to look for new opportunities. Of course, inferring our jobs won't come back. I suppose he thinks we should move our talents and money into Apple's trillion-dollar market cap "walled garden" as a way forward.

“The likes of Cook are playing out elsewhere. While Americans were captively watching street protests in real time, many media outlets experienced their biggest viewership ever. But this came at a cost. Ad companies held back spot commercial advertising because they did not want to link their products to the racial moment. At the end of the day, corporate America is not interested in addressing wealth and income inequality nor are they interested in the plight of African Americans in general.

“To ensure the capitalists get what they want, the Congressional Black Congress (CBC) stands guard to co-opt any new threats from radicals demanding change. One such polished praetorian guard is Rep Emmanuel Cleaver, a Methodist pastor. A few weeks ago an interviewer asked him should the police be "defunded." He took exception to the question and recommended community policing, training, etc., as a fix. Translation: The federal government is going to keep the tourniquet on Black communities. Don't think for a minute major change is coming. I don't expect it either.

“Rep Cleaver, like so many other CBC members, holds the blood-soaked Constitution as a gift from God himself. They spend quite a bit of time admonishing colleagues for not adhering to it to the letter. What these cold-hearted members are upholding is the 13th Amendment in the Bill of Rights, which gives the state the power to enslave us once they put their knee on our necks. The language was carefully chosen by its authors so capitalists could re-enslave Blacks for dreamt up offenses, like stealing food to feed themselves. As W.E.B. Du Bois noted, Blacks were not "freed" once slavery officially ended. The 13th Amendment was designed to keep cheap labor going and Blacks enslaved forever. Period.

“The Constitution was never a document written for Black Americans. It needs to go into the dustbin of history, just like Cleaver and the rest of the CBC misfits.

“On the topic of Angela Davis, she sits comfortably in academia and not in the real world of struggle. She aligns herself to the worst political demons to bamboozle us and then to sheepdog us into voting for Dems. Davis deserves a letter grade of F.”

“Desperate Times, Desperate Measures: Dump the Democrats” by Riva Enteen argues against the position that a vote for Joe Biden is the best way to stop the emergence of fascism in the country.

Towela Sichinga writes:

“Excellent, food for thought and although I think a lot would have to have to happen for a substantive fourth party to emerge in the U.S. I really appreciate ‘the pessimism of the intellect and optimism of the will’ that this article imbues.”

Robert Ott writes:

“Trump inherited this system. Biden was its architect. I know who is the lesser of two evils.”

Chandra Kumar writes:

“I like this article. Of course both parties are parties of big business. Both parties represent the capitalist oligarchy. However, still better to vote for Biden because (a) Trump incites white supremacist violence, and (b) Trump is the worst person on the planet for eco-destruction and climate change. But in any case, whoever wins, the real battles will have to go on at the grassroots level. Voting is just one thing.”

Star Hiliker writes:

“Biden is a white nationalist colonizer, just like Obama. He has voted for every war during his time in the senate. He WROTE the 1994 crime bill. He WROTE the 1991 crime bill. He has repeatedly voted to give money to Israel, so that Israel can continue its genocidal occupation of Palestine and the Golan Heights in Syria. He is an imperialist colonialist zionist.”

Struggling against the ideology of “lesser evilism” and co option will be a long term process. We must dig in for ideological struggle.

Jahan Choudhry is Comments Editor for Black Agenda Report. He is an organizer with the Saturday Free School based in Philadelphia, PA.

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