The Gantt Report
It’s 2012, an election year and a re-election year for President Barack Obama. And, as usual, other Black folk living in the United States will be running too…for their lives!
Statistics say the economy is improving but only the rich man feels it. Many Black people still don’t have jobs, still don’t have the federal and state government services they need and they still don’t have a means to make money in this capitalistic economic system.
Meanwhile, rent has increased, gas prices have soared, property taxes have skyrocketed, tuition rates have escalated and medical costs are higher now than ever before.
But the 2012 election is Barack Obama’s to lose.
It seems like the current Republican Party candidates couldn’t win a rat race in a cheese factory! No candidate is better than Obama. No candidate looks better. No candidate talks better or makes better speeches.
Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich are modern day versions of Larry, Moe and Curly Joe, the Three Stooges!
But, The Gantt Report is somewhat worried.
Why? Because to win, Barack Obama has to have tremendous support from The Democratic Party and from America’s registered voters!
Well, the “base” of Democratic voters is Black voters. I don’t know any Democrat that can win an election anywhere without Black voter support but The Democratic Party has never and perhaps will never recognize that and appreciate that.
Can I prove it? Yes!
When a man loves a woman, he will spend money on her. Politically speaking, Black voters are the least loved of all voters because no candidate wants to spend money on or with African American professionals or businesses that provide political services.
Follow me with this. No disrespect to the President but most of his political advisors are white people. On the surface, there’s no problem with that if they are the most talented political operatives.
However, the white politicos in Washington, D.C. and in Chicago can’t work nationwide so what do they do? They hire their white friends from coast to coast.
In the past to get Black voter support all a white political operative had to say was, “I love Martin Luther King or I love FAMU and Bethune-Cookman.”
Now they feel all they have to do to get Black votes is to say, “I love Barack Obama or I work for The President!”
Now, the devil is tricky. He will want you to base your votes on emotion, on skin color or on so-called history but to get votes from Hispanics, from women or from religious fundamentalists, candidates have to spend money!
No candidate would dare send a Nazi sympathizer or a skinhead to solicit votes from a Jew but the prevailing thought is that you can send anybody to the Black community to generate Black votes. Not only can you send anybody, you can wait until the last week of October to send someone to get Black votes on the first Tuesday in November!
Well, history is a good teacher. Usually, if you want to know what will encourage Blacks to vote look at what motivated them to vote in the past.
However, in 2012, there is a new generation of Black Voters that are not influenced by free chicken and beer. This new generation of Black voters want the same thing other voters want, a better life and a better bank roll.
If a million Black people cast ballots in 2012 and Barack Obama got every vote that was cast, it still wouldn’t be enough to get him reelected.
In 2012, just like in 2008, President Obama will need an extraordinary voter turnout.
In 2008, some Blacks voted that had never voted before. They stopped whatever they were doing and took time to go to the polls.
Today, many Black voters are depressed. Black youth are being shot in broad daylight. Black schools are being decimated and oftentimes closed. Black churches are being foreclosed on.
And, for some, the only peace that can be found is found in the crack pipe!
God willing, Obama can hire a campaign staff that can reach and influence large numbers of Black voters.
Frequent voters vote in every election but I think Obama is going to need the crack vote in 2012! Some of the most victimized, abused and misused Black voters that have turned to crack or some other substance to help them ease the pain of American life have to be encouraged to put that crack pipe down and vote to reelect the President.
Can it and will that be done? Time will tell!
