Several 2020 Democrat Candidates Endorse Racial Reparations
A racial reparations platform may sell well in the primaries, but it would be general election death.
The 2020 election campaign season is kicking into high gear, and a number of Democratic party hopefuls are jumping onto the reparations train. But it’s one they may find could derail their aspirations for higher office.
The New York Times reports:
Last week, on the popular radio show “The Breakfast Club,” Senator Kamala Harris of California agreed with a host’s suggestion that government reparations for black Americans were necessary to address the legacies of slavery and discrimination. Ms. Harris later affirmed that support in a statement to The New York Times.
[…]
[Elizabeth] Warren also said she supported reparations for black Americans impacted by slavery — a policy that experts say could cost several trillion dollars, and one that Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and many top Democrats have not supported.
[…]
Julián Castro, the former cabinet secretary who is also running for president, has also indicated that he would support reparations.
[…]
Only one 2020 candidate has laid out a reparations plan with specifics: Marianne Williamson, the best-selling author and self-described “spiritual teacher.” Since the start of her long-shot campaign, Ms. Williamson has called for $100 billion in reparations for black Americans — far more than any other Democrat, but substantially less than what scholars have said would be necessary.
The article went on to note that while other Democratic candidates were not yet on record as endorsing reparations, they had still “laid out robust policies aimed at closing the gap in wealth between black and white families.”
Harris, Warren, Castro and other candidates who are floating this idea have been emboldened to do so by their party’s hard left lurch over the last couple of years. But in spite of the support they might get from voters in Democratic primaries on the issue, making such grand promises during the general election season would prove problematic:
Progressives will have to prioritize their trillion dollar proposals: save the planet or offer racial reparations.
As far as the politics go, proposals with 16 percent approval (and 68 percent disapproval) usually don’t go very far. pic.twitter.com/YTgo5ngQzv
— Josh Kraushaar (@HotlineJosh) February 21, 2019
They are unpopular for a reason, as Professor Jacobson explained in his 2014 response to Ta-Nehisi Coates’s 15,000+ word article on the topic:
If you can’t answer the question of why a Vietnamese boat person has to pay reparations for the conduct of white plantation owners more than a century earlier, then you can’t make the argument.
If you can’t answer the question of why two successful black doctors living in a fashionable suburb should get reparations paid for by the white children of Appalachia, then you can’t make the argument.
If you can’t answer the question of why the adult black recent immigrant from Paris should be pay or be paid reparations based on the color of his skin for crimes committed in a land he did not grow up in, then you can’t make the argument.
[…]
And as if we have not thrown trillions at the problem, and sullied ourselves with engaging in more racism to remedy past racism.
Consider this as well: While you’d think reparations in theory would be a winning issue for Democrats during the primaries, results from a January poll suggest primary voters are looking for someone “electable” who could beat Trump.
With the thought in mind that reparations do not sit well with nearly 70% of the American people, would a Democrat contender who thinks making the case for reparations a focal point of both their primary and general election campaigns be considered “electable” to their base voters?
This almost makes me eager to watch their debates when they start. Watching the candidates fumble through requests for specifics on how they’re going to (make us) pay for their reparations plan are going to be popcorn-worthy.
Stay tuned.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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Comments
Fake Cherokee liz warren wants the Us government to pay reparations? The same fake Cherokee who stole minority advantage for professional and personal gain? When she donates the vast majority of her wealth to the less fortunate and disadvantaged, maybe I’d listen. Something is really really wrong with her.
I think it’s a brilliant plan, not just for Lie-a-watha but for all the Dim presidential candidates (Kamala-the-Jamaican-weed-smoker has also signed on).
What could be more appealing to American voters than having the government force Americans who have never owned slaves to pay money to other Americans who have never been slaves, in the name of “racial justice”? LOL. It’s genius!
Make reparations the centerpiece of your 2020 platform, Dims. Please, please, please do it!
Speaking of Kamala, her ancestors were large-scale slave owners in Jamaica. She owes reparations more than the rest of us who have no connections with slavery.
Not that the MSM will ever report her family’s history.
I am only 3 or 4 generations removed from a northern tribe, does this mean I can expect a big windfall, get some else’s money without doing a lick of work? This is a really bad idea. Democrats just cannot pass up every deficit building bad idea which comes their way.
Maybe we offer them say $25,000, coupled with loss of citizenship and their returning to Africa? We already paid for their being able to do so, but they might have to fight to take it back from current squatters 🙂 Floating that idea would cause lots of indignation, free entertainment.
My God, they never stop. Blacks have gotten trillions off of being Black
I’m so tired of it
Slavery ended 135 years ago
No one alive was an American slave
Maybe they should start looking to Africa, and the Black Africans, that sold them to the slavers, and still practice slavery today, as does the Middle East Muslim community
Good luck with that
“Maybe they should start looking to Africa, and the Black Africans, that sold them to the slavers, and still practice slavery today, as does the Middle East Muslim community”
This x1000!
They should really look at the areas their ancestors came from and see if they’d be better off being born and raised there and not here. They forget that blacks judge other blacks by how dark they are (Rwanda massacre)
They also need to lose the fantasy that the Portuguese and Spaniards went into the bush to capture slaves. Their slow-footed ancestors were captured and sold by OTHER AFRICANS, not Europeans.
They will not stop demanding unearned benefits until taxpayers force the issue. Isn’t this true for most people?
I will gladly pay reparations to each and every slave I ever held.
Write a law like that, with a poison pill.
if this nonsense ever came to pass, would never pay a dollar of federal income tax again–ever
Hmmm. We’ve been wondering how the D’rats are going to get that mystical “black vote” back. It seems to have let them down in 2016, and they really need it.
Now we know. They’re going to buy it.
We can mock and jest but all they have to do is make some crap up like taking back the White House and using “Trump’s wall money” to pay the reparations. This is, of course, impossible but the MSM will let it slide and hold the fact-checks.
It will work on the TDS white liberals, just watch.
For all Americans who sacrificed blood and treasure and took a stand to oppose slavery, redistributive change, retributive change, and diversity.
This is a nation of People and out Posterity, not colorful clumps of cells.
#HateLovesAbortion
As the grandson of Portuguese imigrants who didn’t arrive in the US until 1908, do I have to pay reparations to Barrack Obama, son of an African who came to the US to go to college in the 1960’s?
Another blatant attempt to purchase minority votes with other people’s money. These Dems/Progs have no shame, even less morality.
Likely, to create the illusion that they will pay, and get the votes, and the stiff them.
I fail to see how this proposal is any less ridiculous than the Green New Deal which apparently has high approval ratings. It would be one thing if these progressives would implement these policies on themselves (which they never do). Nothing is stopping them from giving money for reparations or the GND or whatever else the progressive du jour policy is for the month. They can do it at any time but they prefer to force you like any run of the mill fascist.
My people were enslaved by the Romans a couple millennia ago. Where do I sign up to get a check?
I am willing to bet that Justice has a ‘sell by’ date in this regard…
Ms. Williamson has called for $100 billion in reparations for black Americans — far more than any other Democrat, but substantially less than what scholars have said would be necessary.
Necessary to do what?
I’ve made this comment elsewhere, but it is worth repeating.
What are the recipients of this largess going to do with the money? Are they going to work harder in school and on the job? Are they going to get married before having kids and stay married? Are they going to avoid gangs and drugs and booze. Are they going to not dress like slobs and treat others with respect?
Funny. Everything you need to lead a reasonably successful and happy life require that you do things that money can’t buy. If one was not inclined to do these things before getting money dumped in their laps, it is a cinch that they won’t after getting the dough. “Free” money is only going to make things worse.
But I am being so silly. Actually improving black people’s lives isn’t on Democrat’s agenda. Keeping them on the plantation most assuredly is.
The money will be spent on expensive cars, flashy clothes, vulgar jewelry, loud audio systems, tremendous TV sets, four-figure smartphones, and other such things. Oh, and, throwing money around like confettti down at “dah kluhhb”.
$1,000,000 will take not all that long to go through, and then they are right back where they were. Along with it will be more demands from Democrats to fund them even more.
Reparations to black Americans would probably just galvanize any other minority group (Hispanics, Asians etc.) against the Democrats who want THEM to pay for it with their taxes. A tiny minority of white people are descended from those around during the time of slavery and an even tinier minority are descended from slave owners. Those people can pay for their own guilt if they feel so. Other white people can too if they so desire.
“Ms. Williamson has called for $100 billion in reparations for black Americans”. Would she please tell us what African country is better than the USA?
Do it….Contingent on leaving the country or staying and no more affirmative action or protected minority status.
Wakanda
That was a Marvel-ous response!
What about the descendants of Black slave owners?
Do they get paid too?
A whopping 35 percent of all African-American men descend from a white male ancestor who fathered a mulatto child sometime in the slavery era, most probably from rape or coerced sexuality.
If you are interested: https://www.theroot.com/exactly-how-black-is-black-america-1790895185
So no reparations for slave owner descendants? This whole plan will become so convoluted.
As far as I am concerned reparations is just code for free sht.
It is a very good thing I am not the Emperor of America. I’d pay any who want reparations upon two conditions:
1. they renounce US citizenship
2. they repatriate immediately to whichever AFRICAN country will have them
Of course they are forbidden to ever return under any circumstance and the wall must be completed. If caught on US soil anywhere (including embassies) they receive a mandatory 5-year stay at Leavenworth before being deported to wherever “they wuz kangs” of.
Everyone else: siddown and shaddup!
Start in Chicago, Detroit, and Baltimore and work your way out.
Phase II: Socialists/communists
Be sure to include Flint, Mi, a city which operates much like Gypsies or Travelers. http://johncooke.com/wp/archives/1598
Flint has supplemented its meager income with one scam after another for the past 50 years. Flint’s water system lead was such a scam, just last week they jumped onto the oxycodone addiction scam bandwagon.
Many of our cities are infested with incurable parasitic critters.
I’m of W European ancestry. I had around 1 million ancestors at the time of Roman invasion. If even 1% were taken as slave that’s 10,000. I think the Vatican is the only remnant of the Romans, so they owe me a big check!
Every human on Earth today could make a similar argument. Reparations are insane, everyone owes someone money.
DNA tests for EVERYONE! Reparations paid by percentage.
Always look for deep pockets, you have a winner. You better move fast, it looks like those assets are going to take a big hit.
Sorry, the Vatican isn’t a remnant of the Roman Empire. It, and everything it owns, is post-Roman. So there’s nothing to pay reparations from.
This would be a nightmare if they tried to really push this.
Race relations would really fall apart.
And what happens if these reparations are paid? Do the people pushing for this think things will be the same afterwards? Or is it more likely that others will tell black America, “you got reparations so shut the *blank* up”
Having race relations fall apart is what the trouble-makers are seeking. They seem to want a race war.
It seems like that would be a disaster for blacks, and Hispanics gaining much more influence, it is likely that they will have little sympathy for slackers with their hands out.
I suspect they envision a war of the united minorities against the whites. What they may actually see is latinos vs blacks, with the whites, heavily invested in popcorn futures, sitting on the sidelines.
A long and consistent history has shown us that you can give almost anyone (including blacks) enormous sums of money only to have them become bankrupt a short time later. How will giving black Americans large sums of money that will be wasted and not remove them from poverty or otherwise affect their long term financial situation going to help this country in any way? How will it help those receiving the money? Should this program be created, enacted, and fail, then what new program to justify the payment of large sums of money to the black community will then be claimed as justified. Lastly, what about the descendants of those who died in the Civil War fighting to free the slave. Given the logic for reparations, doesn’t the black community owe these descendants for the ultimate sacrifice made on their behalf?
“laid out robust policies aimed at closing the gap in wealth between black and white families.”
“Gap”, huh? A message straight from Planet Bananas.
Consider that Smollett guy, who apparently counts as black. How many white people do you know who’re paid $100K for a couple of day’s work?
More than 600,000 white men died liberating them in the Civil War. Most of them didn’t even own nor trade in slaves. There has been more than enough suffering and anguish over this. How does anyone place a dollar value on all of this. It’s about attaining one’s freedom. We are all free now.
It’s long past time to move on. Let’s move on already.
They want the freedom but not the responsibility. Those who want reparations still have the slave/peasant mentality.
offset that cost by the cost of creating liberia and all expenses paid for by the ACS and costs for every family (on both sides, lincoln was an a**hole) who was affected by the civil war.
It isn’t blacks demanding reparations this time. It’s the self-loathing white liberals who are getting kicked out of their party.