Flim Flam Election Scam

When President Obama was elected in 2008 the black unemployment rate stood at 11.5% according to the US Labor Department. By 2011 the black unemployment rate stood at 16.7% according to the US Labor Department.

More than half of black youth of ages 16 – 19 do not have jobs according of the US Bureau of Labor. Academics believe fewer than 14 in 100 young black men actually have jobs. Washington, D.C., has the worst teen employment rate in the country, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Despite these atrocious statistics the administration can comfortably count on 90+% black votes. This blind allegiance surely would cause the consummate flim flam man W.C Fields (Never Give a Sucker an Even Break) to do a double-take.

In the decade leading up to the Great Recession, Wanda Nolan of Charlotte, North Carolina grew accustomed to steady progress.

From an entry-level job as a fill-in bank teller, she forged a career as a commercial banking assistant, earning enough to become a homeowner. She finished college and then got an MBA. Even after the recession unfolded in late 2007, her degrees and her familiarity with the business world lent her a sense of immunity to the forces ravaging much of the American economy. Nolan was an exemplar of the African American middle class and the increasingly professional ranks of the so-called New South.

But in September 2008, everything changed.

A bank human resources officer called her into a private conference room. “All I heard was, ‘Your position has been eliminated,’” says Nolan, 37, who, despite being one of the more than 13 million officially unemployed Americans, still spends most days in her self-styled banker’s uniform of pearls and pants and practical flats. “My mind started racing.”

More than two years later, Nolan is still looking for a job and feeling increasingly anxious about a future that once felt assured.

At the request of The Huffington Post, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) analyzed several surveys conducted by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics to measure black unemployment both before and after the recession. The result: a veritable epidemic of joblessness that has undone decades of economic progress for millions of blacks.

In Birmingham, Ala., the unemployment rate among African Americans was 5.3 percent in 2006, the year before the recession began. Last year it was 14.5 percent, according to the EPI analysis. In Miami, the rate went from 6.7 percent in 2006 to 17.2 percent in 2011. In the Los Angeles area, the black unemployment rate climbed from 8.6 percent in 2006 to 19.3 percent in 2011.

When Obama was elected as the president of the United States, black liberals dreamily believed that the numerous maladies in the black community would cease to exist. They believed that his election was indicative of a vigorous wind of political and social change that was blowing across the country.

Obama himself vowed that his election would demarcate the conclusion of grisly "politics as usual" from the commencement of political and democratic freshness.  However, as this administration continues on, it is abundantly clear that Obama has not only failed to deliver in a general sense, but he has also completely betrayed his most loyal constituency -- the black community.

More egregious than the high rate of black unemployment is the fact that Obama has been completely disconnected with the black community.  He has failed to articulate any policy that would deal with the crisis that is evident in urban America.  Rather, Obama is much more focused on articulating and enacting policies about issues that are close to his heart, such as allowing gays to serve openly in the military.

If the Republican Party cannot effectively communicate to blacks the obvious fact that Obama has been working diligently on all the trivial issues close to his heart, yet has completely neglected to address the glaring emergency occurring in his "own" community, then the Republicans are destined to -- and deserve to -- lose the black vote in 2012.

The black community is looking for political change. Yes, Obama is black, but he has proven that his liberalism takes preeminence over his blackness.  Liberalism cannot save black America.  If Republicans cannot capitalize on this crisis in leadership that Obama has provided and offer a concrete alternative message to the black community as to why conservatism is the answer, it's safe to say Republicans will never capture the black vote.

President elect Mitt Romney has a plan. He will rebuild the foundations of the American economy on the principles of free enterprise, hard work, and innovation. His economic plan will be implemented along with his energy independence plan which was outlined in the CityWatch article “Oil Galore”.   His economic plan will:

-    Reduce taxes.
-    Reduce spending.
-    Reduce regulations.
-    Reduce government programs.
-    Increase trade.
-    Relinquish power to the states instead of claiming to have the solution to every problem.

The 90+% will benefit as will the entire country.

His party has championed such outstanding citizens as:

-    Condoleezza Rice:  US Secretary of State
-    General Colin Powell:  US Secretary of State, US Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff
-    Dr. Thomas Sowell: Economist, social theorist, political philosopher, US Marine, and author of over 36 books
-    Allen West: US Army soldier in Iraq and ranking politician.
-    Abe Lincoln: I think everyone remembers him.

In summary the blind allegiance of the 90+% leaves the flim flam scam man W C Fields scratching his head and doing another double take. He doesn’t even have to say or do anything.

(Kay Martin is a writer and a contributor to CityWatch. His years of travel and work included tours in Russia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australia, Hawaii, Latin America, and the Pacific.  His new book “Along for the Ride” will be out and available shortly. He can be contacted at [email protected].) –cw



CityWatch
Vol 10 Issue 70
Pub: Aug 31, 2012