SPLINTERS ON 2020 ELECTION ISSUES

• In addition to the presidential campaign, Democrats and the Biden campaign need to focus on picking up U.S. Senate seats in Montana, Colorado, Maine, Arizona, North Carolina, and Georgia where they have strong candidates if they expect to govern and confirm judges.

• If Democratic operatives can harness the coalition that elected Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear in 2019, they will be able to defeat the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell. It would be the first time that a Senate majority leader has been overthrown since Tom Daschle (D-SD) was removed in 2005 during the George W. Bush administration.

• The 2018 Georgia gubernatorial candidate, Stacey Abrams, is one of the primary reasons that the state is now purple.

• Suburbs are being increasingly populated by people of color who heighten Democrats’ chances of defeating Trump and electing down ballot candidates.

Joe Biden, former Vice President and the titular Democratic candidate for president in the 2020 election has stumbled on race again. Having served as President Obama’s number two for eight years and being viewed as a long-time ally of African Americans, he feels that he can take liberties that are beyond his purview as a white American and that he can be black at will.

I watched Biden’s interview with Charlemagne tha God, host of the nationally syndicated radio show, The Breakfast Club, on YouTube. The show reaches a vast audience of millennial blacks and progressives. In response to Charlemagne’s tough questioning, Biden said that, "Well I tell you what, if you have a problem figuring out whether you're for me or Trump, then you ain't black."

In defense of his position, Biden went on to say that he had voted for a 25 year extension of the Voting Rights Act when he was a U.S. Senator (although the Senate vote was unanimous) and that he had been endorsed by the NAACP. The very next day the NAACP released a disclaimer, “… to clarify that the NAACP is a non-partisan organization and does not endorse candidates for political office at any level.”

Again, Biden had taken license with African American rights as if he were their go-to white man. After viewing this exchange, I was reminded of Robert William Fogel, noted historian and lead author of the infamous 1974 book, Time On The Cross, in which he and his coauthor concluded, in summary, that the institution of slavery had gradations from good to terrible in terms of beatings, nutrition, work, etc.—basically overlooking the evilness of forced bondage.

I distinctly remember attending an American history conference in Texas after the book’s publication which sparked much controversy. My most searing and insulting memory of that occasion was watching Fogel smugly parading his African American wife around during the meeting as if to say, “You see I love black people.” After listening to Biden’s response to Charlemagne, I had a similarly uncomfortable feeling.

Essentially, Biden retreated to playing the dozens with Charlemagne, a back and forth wordplay “… common in black communities of the United States, where participants insult each other until one gives up.” However, it is not a practice that is accorded to the whims of white men.

Black and white pundits on network and cable TV political and news shows said it was unfortunate, but that Biden was joking, had a much better overall record on race than Trump, and that he quickly apologized. But first, Biden sent out his senior black advisor, Symone Sanders, to do a “rhetorical dance” in an attempt to erase his misstatement. Her efforts did not work. The twitter universe blew up in anger.

Biden then called in to a previously scheduled meeting of the U.S. National Black Chamber of Commerce (that had been previously assigned to an aide). It was only then that he apologized for being too cavalier in his response. At the same time, he was trotting out an array of high profile black defenders: former Congresswoman Donna Edwards, Eugene Robinson and Jonathan Capehart, MSNBC contributors and Washington Post columnists; Congresswoman Brenda Lawrence; and a host of others.

Rev. Al Sharpton, Tiffany Cross, TV political pundits, and other younger African American activists were critical of Biden’s statement. They all called more forcefully for him to add a black female to his presidential ticket in the aftermath of this political debacle. It is now much more likely that he will do so as he tries to hold on to black support.

As expected, the Trump campaign has been all over this Biden’s misstep, endeavoring to recruit a larger sliver of black voters to back him. But his larger objective is to encourage them to not vote at all because even if they do not vote for him, Biden does not deserve their ballot.

As Tiffany Cross has observed, the Biden campaign must accept and respond to the facts that it is being enveloped in an unholy trinity of election interference by Russia, comprehensive Republican voter suppression at the federal and state levels, and COVID-19. Biden can ill afford to have voter enthusiasm decline further within the African American community.

He, like other white politicians, believes that his middle class, professional black surrogates can deliver him a significant black turnout irrespective of his gaffes and perhaps unwitting disrespect without his having to respond to the desires of the mass black community. This has been articulated by Charlemagne and other black leaders who have robust connections to a broad cross-section of the African American community.

Biden is mistaken. Even former President Barack and First Lady Michelle Obama, who stumped vigorously for Hillary Clinton in 2016, could not recreate the 2008 and 2012 black turnouts. Although the two will do the same for Biden, he must reach out in a meaningful way on his own. As noted by Charlemagne tha God, he has not done so to date

If he is to become president, Joe Biden must do something spectacular if he is to excite the black community to turn out in sufficient numbers to deliver the key swing states—Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and North Carolina--along with Asian, Latinx, and Native Americans. Time is getting short, and he needs to make a move before it is too late.

Despite the fact that Biden is ahead of Trump in several national and battleground state polls, he is generally not leading outside the margin of error. He should remember that Hillary was at the same stage at this point in her campaign, and she lost!

Black turnout over the last four presidential election cycles was 60 percent in 2004, 64 percent in 2008, 68 percent in 2012, and 59 percent in 2016. If Hillary had attained either of the Obama percentages of the African American vote, she would be president.