Tavis Smiley 6:41 a.m. EST March 2, 2016
Hillary might look like a shoo-in with African-American voters, but don’t be too sure.
With Hillary Clinton racking up more overwhelming victories in Super Tuesday primaries thanks to the overwhelming support of African-American voters, the conventional wisdom is that she has the black vote on lock down. She might be wrong.
Clinton has already been endorsed by most members of the Congressional Black Caucus, many big city black mayors and other notable black elected officials from California to the Carolinas.
Additionally, she’s also getting not so subtle signs of support from Obama White House insiders and a few shout-outs from President Obama himself. Initially, the president promised to remain neutral until the primary season was over, but herecently appeared to ever so gently open the door to an endorsement of his former secretary of State sooner than expected.
Personally, I never thought Obama would wait that long, not after what Bill Clinton did for him at the Democratic National Convention in 2012 to help energize his re-election campaign. I suspect Obama would love nothing more than to even the score by repaying the debt he owes the Clintons. Politics is funny. First, they run against each other in a nasty campaign with racial overtones, then they feign friendship and work together, then Bill gallops in to help Barack win a second term, and now Hillary needs the president’s support to win the presidency. Talk about triangulation.
Nonetheless, the conventional wisdom is that black voters have forgiven the Clintons for their attempt to diminish Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, and this time around, they’ve got Hillary’s back. Except everyone knows that in this presidential election cycle, conventional wisdom left the building long before the train ever left the station. Something tells me that if Donald Trump is indeed the Republican nominee, it might be a miscalculation for Democrats to assume that black voters are a lock for their nominee, even with the first black president and Barack Obama both campaigning for her.
Yes, he might get some black votes, but by and large, blacks are mostly non-participants when it comes to voting. Yes, they turned out in record numbers for Obama, but do I need to explain that?
It’s plausible… most of the pundits and experts (haha) continue to miss the point… the candidacy of Donald Trump is the equivalent of the electorate finally having the opportunity to give the middle finger to the entrenched political establishment that has hosed the country… that crosses racial lines…. look at the primary voter turnout this year…the Pat Buchanan quote of “the peasants with the pitchforks are at the gate” is apparently ringing true 24 years later… it’s not a vote for as Trump as much as a vote against big money influence peddling and an entrenched ruling class….