The Gantt Report
Risks, Sacrifices and Rewards
By Lucius Gantt
For African Americans, 2018 will be a year of risk, sacrifice and reward, politically speaking anyway!
A risk is a chance. You can take the risk of spending your last two dollars on a Powerball, Mega Millions or a Cash for Life lottery ticket, but if you don’t, you won’t have a chance, in the drawing of numbers, to have a chance to be wealthy beyond your current means.
I remember when I was a little boy, people would try to generate votes or influence votes by feeding you. Political parties, political interests, political or business associations, candidates or individuals would throw a party, a picnic or some other event and serve you fish, bar-be-que or even free chic-ken and beer to get you to go to the polls.
In my late teens, I remember going to a political primary concert at the Atlanta Civic Center and every person that had an “I voted” sticker would be admitted free of charge to hear a great entertainer like Otis Redding. If you were not a registered voter, there were people at the concert that could register you to vote right at the concert to get entrance into the concert and to be able to cast a ballot in the General.
As an adult, the get out the vote flavor of the times was putting fliers on cars at churches and that is what a lot of money is spent on for Black voter generation today.
Well, if Democrats and others seek to get rid of elected officials that rode into office on hate for President Barack Obama and supremacist and separatist love for President Donald Trump, a political tsunami must take place!
With so many African American votes being denied, being subdued and being taken for granted, any kind of miraculous wave of Black, Hispanic, female and conscious white voters the wave must utilize companies and individuals that can turn out the Black and progressive base of voters at a very, very high rate!
Democrats are suggesting that they will contest every seat in Congress, every seat in state legislatures and every council and commission seat, every school board seat and every other seat up for grabs in 2018.
That is good but that is also a problem!
It is a problem because history has shown that when large numbers of candidates run for important public positions there will be a significant number of clowns and fools running for office.
Most of the new candidates seeking office in your state, in your city, in your district or in your community didn’t come from your block, your street, your church, your school, your work place or even your neighborhood.
Where in the hell did she come from or I don’t know him are a couple of things you might hear around candidate qualifying time.
Most of the candidates being pushed to voters were never vetted by anybody. We don’t know what they stand for, what they support or what issues that Black peopled like they would vote for if they get elected.
The political devils are tricky! They’ll make you think certain candidates love you when the only love they really have is for their campaign contributors. Not only that, the people African Americans are told to vote for are candidates that will bow down to and love their political parties far more than they will ever love you!
Yes, it’s a risk to think politics will change in 2018 but we have to take the chance and vote for a better day and a better life!
Blacks will also have to sacrifice in 2018. African Americans can’t depend on any political party to fund the Black political professionals, the Black owned media companies and the Black community groups that can influence the masses of Black registered voters.
America’s Black political sheep must listen to the Black political shepherds that have been standing up for and speaking out for Black people for years and years.
The idea that any Negro will do, won’t do! The practice of giving or spending most of the Black outreach campaign money with Black elected officials has not and will turn out the wave of Black voters that have historically been ignored and unappreciated!
Candidates and political parties need to spend political money with people that can access and influence the grass roots!
You know the Black organizations in your town, you’ve heard of Black Lives Matter, you’ve heard of The Black Panther Party, you’ve heard of the National Baptist Convention, you’ve heard of the Fruits of Islam and you know Black political professionals that can deliver!
People in politics don’t need to do anything to get an ordinary “wave” but if you want a political tsunami you have to hire Black political consultants that can get votes out of the Trap. You need a GOTV team that can knock on the door of the heroin house and the Ho house! You need someone that can tell Black voters to pick up the Black political slate and put down the white crack pipe!
Increasing your involvement in politics by registering to vote or working to assist desirable candidates comes with risks and sacrifices but meaningful and organized Black political involvement in 2018 comes with a reward.
Getting rid of politicians that don’t liked you, don’t support you, hate your issues and hate your political heroes like Obama is a great start to better political prowess.
The greatest reward, however, is to move toward controlling the politics in Black communities by controlling who gets the votes in your neighborhoods!
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