We the People

By Ebony Emerson –

Some of our state representatives are leading people to hate rather than to think.

According to Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, “We need to separate by red states and blue states and shrink the federal government. Everyone I talk to says this. From the sick and disgusting woke culture issues shoved down our throats to the Democrat’s [sic] traitorous America Last policies, we are done.”

Greene’s statement is a form of propaganda, meant to illustrate that whites are victims, under assault by marginalized people seeking equity. When Greene says that she’s enraged by “sick and disgusting” Democratic policies, she’s talking about policies that many of the Black people in Georgia support.

Since the Civil War, white politicians have said they want to “secede” and rule themselves without interference. But what they mean is that they want the power to rule over Black people, and over other marginalized people. They gain this control through deflection and deception, and by legislating violent policies.

Confronting this kind of authoritarianism pushed by our current Republican-led state legislatures looking out for their billionaire donors is one of the reasons our democracy exists. The promises of our democracy have not yet been realized.

During a rally in South Carolina led by Senator Bernie Sanders, Bishop William J. Barber II said, “In every age, moral people have had to rise up and decide to make the moral case that things have to change and injustice has to move.”

 
The forces at work denying freedom and dignity to marginalized people are also the same forces attacking democracy and economic equality. Barber told the diverse South Carolina audience that their unity and solidarity in the face of economic inequality and social injustice is their greatest asset.

Invoking Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Barber explained how in 1965, Dr. King stood on the steps of the Alabama state house “and said that the greatest fear of the Southern aristocracy and the oligarchy was for the masses of poor Negroes and poor white folk to get together and form a powerful new voting bloc that would shift the economic architecture of the nation.”

“The same people who are attacking gay people, are attacking our voting rights,” Barber said. “The same people who are attacking trans people, are attacking our healthcare. The same people trying to take away a woman’s right are also against living wages. If they are cynical enough to be together, we oughta be smart enough to come together around the moral agenda.”

When Democrats hold the state legislature they can really make an impact. We must demand progressive legislation, including campaign finance reform and gun safety. Our government must pass policies that raise wages, expand healthcare, provide housing, secure water and utilities, cancel debt, and otherwise ensure that everybody in this country can thrive. We have the power to elect leaders who center the needs of the people.

We Demand Justice… Our Lives Depend on It! The Florida Poor People’s Campaign Mass Meeting took place May 25, 2023.

Millions of people in the United States today are poor because the wealth and resources of our country have been flowing to a small number of people and federal programs are not meeting the growing needs of the poor. The government is failing poor, low-wealth people, creating a burden of death that so many families should not have to experience.

The narrative that poor and low-income people are apathetic about politics or don’t care enough to vote is a myth. In reality, there is great, untapped power among tens of millions of people. When we vote, we change the political calculus of this nation.

NOTE: The views and opinions expressed here, as well as assertions of facts, are those of the author. They do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of The Urban News.