I’m Not Quite with Her and America Is Already Great

Here we have it:  In one corner, Hillary Clinton and the people who are with her. In the other corner stands Donald Trump who is trying to make America great again.

Who loses? Almost everybody, especially black people.

We're all screwed come November 8.

We’ve taken more Ls than any other group in the history of wins and losses yet we bounce back stronger every single time.  Having the Obama family occupy 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue since January 2009 has been what is considered peak blackness – and for my daughter, Barack Obama is the only President of the United States she has lived through. If you’re thinking of ages and realizing how old I am, consider that Jimmy Carter was our POTUS when I was born and by the grace of God we survived the Reagan years without completely reverting back to the evil days of segregation.

It’s also been said and proven that after a period of peak blackness comes a really nasty period of conservative backlash. Get your personal affairs in order and debts paid off and under control ASAP before January 2017!

It sounds like I am all-in for the Democratic Party candidate, right? Wrong. I’m not quite with Hillary, and someone needs to tell Donald that America is already great with its best days ahead instead of the rear view.

Case in point:  As most of you do not realize or are too cowardly to acknowledge, black voters in most election cycles are the most educated voters. I’m not saying that just because we needed someone who looked like us (President Obama in 2008 and 2012, or Jesse Jackson in the 1988 primaries although it helps), but after getting screwed more than a Duggar or Gingrich wife after a Heritage Foundation convention, we have an idea of moving forward and still harbor a bit of hope in a truly great nation albeit one that capitulates many of our advances in science, technology, entertainment, politics, sports, and culture only to spit out the originators. You may want to keep in mind the people who have taken off their all-white robes and hoods recently via social media were the same ones quoting every other line from Friday – and doubly so if they went to Conway High with me in the 1990s. [Sidebar:  I genuinely love all 400+ of my Class of 1997 classmates with everything in me and will proudly support most of their endeavors. Understand that I am just keeping it real about the undercurrents of racism and softened bigotry that we grew up with and some willfully endorse even if they are complicit in their silence.] Every day gets better because we potentially learn from our past and wisely apply those lessons to the present. That improved future is what we work so hard and pray so heavily at night:  my daughter will be left with a better world than I inherited back in 1978, hopefully one that isn’t damaged beyond repair.

Why am I not quite with Hillary? Keep reading and I’ll defend that position from the rabid liberals on my left including the ones who felt the Bern and now only huddle around a dying spark.

Remember kids, a picture is worth a thousand words. #dreambig pic.twitter.com/tGTxNhTKBX

— A. Cedric Armstrong (@cedteaches) July 30, 2016

Maybe because I recall how attack dog – and onetime Arkansas governor – former President Bill Clinton savaged President Obama in the early stages of the 2008 campaign, particularly in South Carolina and her tepid response in reining him in. Never a natural politician, Hillary comes across as disingenuous to us:  before Beyoncé, how many of us knew that the presumptive candidate for POTUS 45 carried hot sauce in her purse? Better be Louisiana hot sauce – you know we put that shit on everything! Even so, where would she have gone to stunt? Uncle Ray’s fish fry? I would surely have hoped she used it as Arkansas’ First Lady at the Chick-a-Dilly in El Dorado or the AQ up in Fayetteville or Nick’s over in Carlisle.

If I catch Mrs. Clinton playing dominoes at Stylemasters or King of Fades in Southwest…let’s just say, it’s pandering at the highest level disrespecting our game. I love Pimpin’ Bill, but she needs to stay in her lane and make those calculated decisions that benefit all of us. Don’t forget I know who called us super predators despite all of the goodwill from FMLA and not popping trunk on Bill after snitching-ass former Baylor University president Ken Starr dug up all the scallywags he was knocking off.

I may hold my nose to vote for her November 8, but I may write-in President Obama instead for a third term. Is that possible?

Obviously we cannot hop in a time machine to go back to a simpler (whiter) period, as if anyone born black before 1989 would like to travel in it.

Like the Republican Party since the Nixon administration (Reagan and GWB have special categories for their own sins), Donald Trump only caters to working-class white males who have been fed a steady diet of animus thanks to Limbaugh, Hannity, O’Reilly, Beck, Breitbart, Alex Jones, Fox News, Stormfront, and other right-leaning media sources on the surface. For him, that demonizing of a changing nation has been a winning ticket that I personally do not see him overcoming for the general election. In addition, his divisive rhetoric is causing unification unseen since the Civil Rights Movement received television air play. The irony of this is that the standard bearers no longer claim to be the party of Lincoln as much as the one of “life, liberty, and lower taxes” as the Saline County GOP headquarters proudly uses as a banner! I guess affluence and low taxes mean more than making short-term sacrifices to become greater.

America has become greater in the four hundred years we’ve been here regardless of our origin. While many of us were voluntarily coming over for freedoms unavailable in the Old Country, my ancestors were loaded onto crowded ships, bound, and enslaved for the better part of 240 years only to be legally discriminated against for another 98 years. It has only been sixty-three years since black people have been free – on paper; in practice, we still have to kick down doors daily as professional ass-kickers.

These are the people who preach hard work as a virtue yet my ancestors built a nation on their backs for free .99; the men and women who yearn for self-preservation in a past that never really happened and kidnap our movements if not damn them as “terroristic” or “un-American” such as the aforementioned Civil Rights Movement and #BlackLivesMatter. They stand firmly against abortion until their pastor’s blonde haired, blue-eyed daughter is pregnant with a black baby; avow a version of universal health care until the Patient Protection Affordable Care Act of 2010 known as Obamacare; raise a huge stink about bathrooms in Target when the loudest voices are sometimes the ones molesting children in the privacy of their own homes; and so forth. 

Ask some of them if they have separate restrooms at home for males and females.

What makes America great? Simple:  Diversity, the rights to disagree and protest, the right to protect ourselves responsibly, and the opportunity to make a dollar out of fifteen cents.

For starters, why would Mr. Trump borrow known segregationist and former Alabama Gov. George Wallace’s “make America great again!” slogan if he didn’t know how to harness the power of words? To birthers such as himself and a large number of people I used to work with at Wal-Mart, “Make America Great Again” is a clarion call for disaffected white people to take back what is inherently theirs as if the USA were their literal Israel to be retaken from the Egyptians, Babylonians, Carthaginians, Romans, and the like. If you don’t believe me, then explain the Tea Party takeover of Congress in 2010 and the largely ineffective leadership since then.

Until he lays out specifics with any of his programs, particularly those domestic policies that benefit the majority of us, it is hard to see how America being transformed back to the 1920s or post-World War II is going to benefit anyone except straight married white men, who were the recipients of the GI Bill, the Homestead Act, and a number of school and real estate laws geared toward their station as the privileged class.

A silent voice is one that complies with whatever evil occurs because it chose not to rock the boat. If you’re not fighting against systemic oppression, then you’re the problem.

More, having a (__________) friend or neighbor does not excuse the avarice shown to our fellow man:  I cringed when Mr. Trump gave a shout-out to a man labeling him “my African-American” because deep down, his actions likely meant my N-word:  saying the slur would have cratered what potentially a billion-dollar campaign of empty promises, evasive policies, and shown how out-of-step he really is relative to those of us who have to budget biweekly to pay for our houses, fuel, daycare, and the like.

Furthermore, America is already great. Are all of our days perfect? Of course not. What I expect from either candidate is an optimistic presentation of how to improve our situations without having to resort to juvenile insults or scratching our heads from information overload.

Sister Simone just showed you America is already great. Remember that year-round, not just during the Olympics. 

In truth, I am not quite with Hillary but I damn sure don’t want to go back to a time when many of you think America was great. That means no Google, no Apple, no Facebook, dial-up internet if we’re lucky, exorbitant high interest rates from the bank, separate water fountains, and shady employment practices. In the meantime, I might as well reflect on the past eight years of peak blackness and choose a POTUS 45 that will continue to carry a legacy of freedom and all of the other things that make Americans unique.