But wait, we are seeing history unfold before our very eyes.
We are witnessing our unique form of American government as it falls to a despot who is supported by a good part of our mostly white population. These people will do anything to stop the control of government by a combined black and brown population.
In New York state, the Senate and Assembly are now led by people of color. Carl Heastie and Andrea Stewart Cousins lead the Assembly and Senate respectively. Both are credited for doing good work. Cousins has the unenviable job of protecting the newfound Democratic majority in the State Senate. This is so threatening to Trump that he has left New York and moved his home to Florida, illustrating that his racist views are the very thing that will kill this country.
It’s all so clear. When you put physical and legal walls up against admitting more Spanish-speaking people into the country; when you do everything in your power to deprive people of color of every resource, from hot breakfasts to health care, you are showing your hand. The worst part of this is that he is succeeding. A huge proportion of the American people are buying it. The last thing they want is an even break for people of color.
The Republican Party is united behind Trump. Rather than giving up their power to “others,” they seem perfectly willing to let him tear up the Constitution. No matter how bad it gets — no matter how many outrages this president commits, Republicans will continue to support him. His outrages against women and the poor just continue. Among his other sins is his assembling of the so-called pro-life hordes, despite his earlier opposite pronouncements on the issue.
One guy who gets it is Tom Steyer. He desperately wants to be president but is failing miserably, polling at about three percent. He hopes that he can get the Democratic nomination by suggesting that the way out for America is to give reparations to black people in this country. To put it mildly, his ideas have not caught on. Barack Obama chose Joe Biden to be his vice president. Now Biden seems to be failing. The fact that Obama has not endorsed him seems proof to me that he doesn’t think Biden can win.
Now along comes Mike Bloomberg. Everywhere I go, people are talking about him. The wind is at his back because people believe that Bloomberg can win by using his vast fortune to beat Trump. Unlike billionaire Steyer, Bloomberg has proven that he has administrative and governmental chops. There are those who believe that Bloomberg has made some bad decisions when it comes to people of color, including the stop and frisk issue, but in the end, everyone seems to know that the main job is to get Trump out of office. The Bernie people continue to write to me and proclaim him as the real deal when it comes to economic justice and to fairer government. I voted for him against Hillary Clinton and then, unlike some of my friends, I voted for Hillary. To me there is only one imperative: beat Trump. This is a man who is taking us toward a totalitarian model. We all know that.
Bloomberg has assembled the best of the best to push his candidacy. He will do what he has to in order to win. He will make a better health care system; he will stop the scourge of guns in this country. He is old enough to know that it’s now or never. Seems to me that his candidacy will take off and that he will do what he has to do to bring this country together. My guess is that he will get the black support; he will need to do it.
