I’m a Democratic shill.
Like most Black people, I have frequently criticized the Republican Party’s anti-Black, Christian nationalist pseudo-patriotic policies. I have voted for Democratic candidates in 99.9% of elections. But in the nuance-free universe of social media, anyone who is not a Republican is considered to be a blindly loyal prisoner of the “Democratic plantation” (To be clear, I’m perfectly fine with sharing the politics of 85-90% of Black voters, the overwhelming majority of Hispanic and Asian-Americans, the most educated voters and 90 years of my pea-brained ancestors who weren’t as smart as Briahna Joy Gray, Stephen A. Smith and Byron Donalds).
I’m also a Republican opp.
Like most Black people, I have frequently criticized the Democratic Party for listening to white consulting firms, ignoring police brutality and throwing Black people under the bus to appeal to white moderates. But in a world where the word “nuance” only exists to describe women whose sister recently gave birth, criticizing the party I vote for makes me one of “those Black men”—an anti-Democrat contrarian who is secretly MAGA. Even though the data disproves these baseless media narratives about Black male voters, as far as social media is concerned, I’m just as bad as Briahna Joy Gray, Stephen A. Smith or Byron Donalds.
I’m also a Black man in America.
As a longtime resident of the Democratic plantation who experiences America’s anti-Black algorithm, I don’t expect anyone to appreciate my politics. Since the day my ancestors started building this country, our desire for equality, self-determination and the freedom to exist has been considered “divisive.” This is why I have always been beholden to one political party:
Black people.
With the upcoming midterm elections less than a month away, lifelong Democrats, people who are not Republicans and even the most loyal members of my party are wringing their collective hands while wondering the same thing:
How will Democrats screw this up?
Not me.
I know the Democrats will be just fine. Even if the mythical “blue wave” I keep hearing about doesn’t happen, I won't blame the Democratic Party. I also won’t give the GOP credit if they maintain control of the House and Senate.
Then again, I am a Democratic shill. And an “opp.” And a Black man in America.
If my time on the American plantation has taught me anything about voting, democracy and two-party politics, it’s this:
America always gets what it wants.
What does America want?
For some, the fact that Democratic candidates are in neck-and-neck races to wrest back control of the House and Senate is indicative of a party in disarray.
Depending on your political leanings, the party is either too “woke” to attract moderates or too passive to energize the base. Some blame the party’s lackluster polling performance on infighting between left-wing progressives and establishment Dems who are still whining about the DSA’s intraparty coup. Others say the Democrats need a “story.” For others, the lack of enthusiasm for Democrats is a reflection of milquetoast leaders like Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries who are more loyal to AIPAC than Black voters, “kitchen table issues” or the genocide in Gaza.
In all fairness, the Democratic Party’s track record of finding ways to lose is objectively remarkable. When it comes to presidential politics, they have fumbled the bag in every imaginable way, including the Electoral College (2016), the popular vote (2024), the Supreme Court (2000) and even a random assortment of white dudes (1876). As my Uncle Rob once said, “A Democrat can go to an orgy and walk out a virgin.”
Despite the party’s plentiful faults, there is another way Democrats could lose the midterms to the official party of white nationalism and remain blameless.
What if this is what America wants?
Even the staunchest Republicans don’t want Americans to empty their 401Ks to pay for a gallon of gas while their sons fight an unwinnable war for a president who is only concerned about his billionaire buddies. Archconservatives don’t want the “jack-booted thugs” of their small-government fantasies circling their cul-de-sacs searching for their immigrant sons-in-law. White farmers didn’t want their workers being rounded up and sent to concentration camps.
But most Americans voted for a president who promised to do just that.
No slogan, story or campaign strategy can convey the Democrats’ message better than the reality of Donald Trump’s six-year dumpster fire.
By every metric, Donald Trump is the worst president in the history of presidents. More than 400,000 Americans died from his bungling of COVID during his first term in office—a death toll nearly equal to the number of U.S. soldiers who died fighting Hitler during World War II. He oversaw the worst economic downturn in American history. In his second term, his administration has destroyed the economy, undermined due process, defaced the nation’s landmarks, decimated the federal infrastructure, depleted one of the greatest militaries in the world and literally shot people in the face.
His party is even worse. Despite controlling all three branches of government, the Donald Trump-led GOP has stood behind his failures at war, peace, lowering prices, raising prices, hiring people, firing people, building, destroying, draining the swamp, cleaning a pool, respecting the media and inspecting meat. Texas Senate candidate Ken Paxton might be the most corrupt politician in American government, including Trump. Michigan’s Republican candidate for Senate has surrounded himself with certified pedophiles. A Florida grand jury ruled that Republican Senate nominee Ashley Moody helped Republicans steal millions of dollars in health care funds meant for sick children. Georgia’s GOP candidate has been tied to people in white nationalist group chats, staffers in KKK uniforms, and a white nationalist in his own family.
To be fair, the Democratic Party is imperfect. The organization is controlled by power-hungry moderates clamoring to be white saviors. They betray Black voters, take their most loyal constituents for granted and spend too much time chasing suburban Karens who never ever show up at the polls. The establishment doesn’t respect Black candidates. They say dumb shit. They do dumb shit.
Because it is a political party made of politicians.
Still, a failure in the upcoming midterms should not be pinned on Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries or Democratic messaging. Given the actual reality that every American has witnessed, anyone who still supports the GOP doesn’t care about the cost of gas or family values or what Jesus would do or the Founding Fathers or the Constitution or freedom or democracy or the country as a whole. Whether they are motivated by racism, economic anxiety, anti-immigrant sentiment or Zohran Mamdani, Hasan Piker and Angie Nixon’s army of anti-white, commies forcing little white girls and boys to play in the Sharia law transgender tee-ball league after they finish their CRT homework, when it comes to MAGA Republican rule, every voter has had six years of proof of concept.
As critical or lenient on the Democratic Party as I may or may not be, A GOP victory in the midterms will not be Democrats’ fault.
We know what America wants.
It is easy to speculate about the campaign strategies, what motivates voters or what will happen in the midterms. However, we can be certain about what this nation would be if the country’s direction were left to the devices of the white majority.
We know what happened to the first European settlement in what would become the United States—the white people fled, but the enslaved “Africans remained to build their society with Native Americans.” We know that the Jamestown settlers resorted to cannibalism because they were not skilled farmers and hunters. Historians know who made tobacco America’s “first cash crop.” Scientists know “who supplied the labor and the agricultural skills” that made rice America’s first edible cash crop.
At America’s inception, voting was limited to white, male Christian landowners—a decidedly undemocratic 6% of the nation’s population. By the time all white men got the right to vote in 1856, every single one of the Founding Fathers was dead and gone. At the beginning of the Civil War, less than 1% of white Americans were involved in the abolition movement. At least three times as many white people fought to preserve race-based slavery.
Because of Black people’s fight for equality, the 14th Amendment extended birthright citizenship to Native Americans. Still, the “Five Civilized Tribes” were the last people in America to emancipate the people they enslaved. During Reconstruction, Black legislators in South Carolina and Georgia unsuccessfully tried to expand the right to vote to women. The white women’s suffrage movement excluded Black women and Black men. The Democratic Party was anti-Black. White Republicans wanted their party to be lily-white.
The Founding Fathers did not want the principles of democracy to interfere with their pro-white constitutional republic. Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the most radical white women in history weren't particularly interested in democracy either. Democrats-Republicans, Democrats, Republicans, Federalists, Whigs and the vast majority of white people who ever lived in this country have never attempted to create, maintain or expand a multiracial democracy with liberty and justice for all.
Black people did it.
My party.
Whatever happens on Nov. 3, the outcome will not be determined by Democrats, Republicans or white people. No politician, party or magical message will ever convince the people who are so heavily invested in these undemocratic values that they are wrong.
But they are wrong.
When all the votes are counted, we will know who won this political fight. But after the midterms, the people who share these undemocratic values will still be here, fighting us tooth and nail. And we will have to defeat them again.
And we will
Black people are the architects of this nation’s democracy. But not because we are Democrats…
Because we are.
*applause*
Thanks for your writing. I always come away more determined than I was a few minutes ago to keep pushing forward.
✊🏿💪🏿