John Davis Consulting

Baltimore’s Unintended Paradox: Black Voters are in Play for Conservative Alternatives in 2016; Democratic and Republican

This is the fourth in a series of reports on the race for U.S. President. The series will unfold by process of elimination, interlocked with trends analyses, and conclude with my forecast for the next president.

 May 12, 2015       Vol. VIII, No. 8         9:13 am

Baltimore Exposed the Uncomfortable Truth about Liberal Programs

I have struggled with Baltimore. Not with the rioting. I get the anger. If you don’t care about me, why should I care about you? My struggle is with how leaders take advantage of the new opportunity Baltimore gives to pitch conservative solutions to inner-city problems.

What makes Baltimore unique is that for the first time in the history of racially charged rioting in America, most local authorities are African-American Democrats. And, three of the six cops facing charges in the death of Freddie Gray, the incident that sparked the riots, are black.

The unintended paradox laid bare by the Baltimore riots in April is that African-American liberal Democrats find themselves in the unavoidable position of having to share responsibility for the circumstances and actions of inner-city black kids.

Baltimore has exposed the uncomfortable truth that liberal programs run by African-American Democrats have left too many inner-city kids behind, unheard, drowning in a sea of desperation.

I get the anger. If you don’t care about me, why should I care about you?

Would African-American Democrats Embrace Conservative Ideals?

Baltimore has had a Democratic mayor for 48 years. Current Baltimore Democratic leaders include an African-American Mayor, an African-American Police Commissioner, an African-American majority on the City Council, African-American representatives in the state legislature and U.S. Congress. African-Americans manage the federal, state and local government programs. African-Americans run the school system with a majority cohort of African-American teachers.

So, are all those black Democratic leaders responsible for the riots? No. They genuinely wanted those liberal programs to work, and believed they would work. And many did work, as evidenced by tens of thousands of African Americans in leadership roles throughout society, including U.S. President. Baltimore is about programs that didn’t work.

Thanks to Baltimore, Black voters all over America have come to realize that liberal programs alone, including those run by African-American Democrats, are not enough. That alternative solutions, including conservative ideals and programs, must be evaluated in the 2016 elections.

That’s right. Conservative ideals and programs. Black voters all over America are now in play for conservative policy and program alternatives in 2016, both Democratic and Republican.

Here are several of my conservative ideals that I believe black voters would consider:

I believe in the free market, competition, and entrepreneurship, and think no small number of government programs don’t work as advertised.

I believe that much of what ails the inner city involves a breakdown in culture that will not be cured by money alone, and that our values and spiritual life matter at least as much as our GDP.

I believe that we can shape our individual and collective destinies, so long as we rediscover the traditional virtues of hard work, patriotism, personal responsibility, optimism, and faith.

But, those ideals sound way too Republican for African-American Democrats. Right?

Right? Well, all three of those “I believe” statements above were written by Barack Obama in the Prologue to his 2006 book, The Audacity of Hope.

Preacher/Teacher Values of Greensboro’s Loretta Lynch, U.S. Atty. General

I would bet that Greensboro’s own Loretta Lynch, recently sworn in as the first African-American female U.S. Attorney General, respects conservative ideals. Her father, Lorenzo Lynch, is a Baptist preacher. Her mother, Lorine Lynch, a school librarian. She comes from a long line of preachers and educators; no-nonsense disciplinarians who demanded academic rigor.

Lorenzo Lynch, in Washington D.C. on April 21, 2015, for the U.S. Senate confirmation vote on his daughter’s nomination, told a Politico reporter about how tough his mother was on him and his siblings when they were school children. “She would line us up every night and make us recite the lessons of the day,” said Lynch, “and if we didn’t know them, we got a whipping….”

Loretta Lynch, a Harvard Law graduate, has a storied career as a federal prosecutor in New York. She is a former member of the Federal Reserve Bank of NY. Does she have conservative thoughts when she sees the devastation left behind by well-meaning liberal Democrats?

Lynch knows that despite generations of countless well-intentioned government programs in places like Freddie Gray’s neighborhood, unemployment is still 24.2%, a staggering 61% of the population over 25 do not have a high school degree, 35.4% of the households live in poverty, most led by single parent mothers with no male role models in the home.

Scott Brandon, an African-American Democratic Baltimore City Councilman, has long argued that the absence of family structure is why so many kids get in trouble. Here is what Brandon had to say to a CNN reporter the day after the riots. “If we spend $8 million on a new school for Jonathan,” Brandon told CNN, “but he goes home to a broken family, it’s worth $0.”

Sounds pretty conservative to me. Brandon is considering a run for Mayor of Baltimore.

Do You Know Who Thomas Stith, III Is?

What about black Republicans? Is there any chance that a black Republican would be trusted with a pitch for conservative solutions to problems that plague inner city blacks?

Could someone like Durham’s own Thomas Stith, III be trusted?

Thomas Stith, III is a life-long African-American Republican. He was the Minority Outreach Coordinator for Republican Governor Jim Martin’s campaign in 1984. He served on the Durham City Council, elected at-large three times, 1999-2007.

So, what is he up to these days? Thomas Stith, III is Chief of Staff to North Carolina GOP Governor Pat McCrory. The first African-American Chief of Staff to a governor in state history.

I am convinced that Baltimore offers conservative Republicans like Thomas Stith, III a real opportunity to be heard; a fair chance to pitch conservative solutions to problems that plague poor and inner city blacks. But what is the compelling Republican message?

What alternative programs do Republicans have for minorities struggling to find jobs? For those who have jobs that pay so little that they have to use food stamps to feed their family?

What is the positive, visionary Republican policy alternative to the liberal social safety net?

Republicans must answer those questions. Why? Because Americans will not elect anyone to the White House who does not have a visionary plan for those in dire need. Unchecked, the GOP’s brand of callous indifference to the plight of the poor will be their undoing in 2016.

However, because Baltimore exposed the uncomfortable truth that liberal programs run by African-American Democrats have left millions of inner-city kids behind, the Democratic brand is tarnished too. Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., speaking at Grosse Pointe HS in Detroit on March 14, 1968, said, “A riot is the language of the unheard.” Now we know that liberal black Democrats have not been listening to inner-city kids either.

What is the positive, visionary Democratic policy alternative to the liberal social safety net?

After Baltimore, black voters are in play for center-right alternatives. That means Baltimore offers Democrats an opportunity for the party to broaden its base and regain much-needed ideological balance by identifying marketable center-right alternatives to intractable inner-city problems of the unheard poor.

What makes Baltimore unique is that for the first time in the history of racially charged rioting, black kids are saying to black Democratic liberal leaders, along with black cops and black law enforcement officials, If you don’t care about me, why should I care about you?

Inner-city black kids are saying to black Democratic liberal leaders, Black lives matter.

– End –

Thank You for Reading the John Davis Political Report

John Davis