Florida congressman Rep. Allen West, the only Republican in the Congressional Black Caucus, had some choice words for Democrats after a CBC town hall held in Detroit on Tuesday. On Wednesday, West went on Fox News program “The O’Reilly Factor” and compared blacks in the Democratic party to slaves on a plantation. He went on to liken the black Democratic leadership to a bunch of overseers, and himself to a modern day Harriet Tubman seeking to lead African-Americans to political freedom. Citing the idea that Democrats take black voters for granted, West slammed the party with the underlying suggestion that Republicans have the answer. FoxNews.com reports:
“You have this 21st-century plantation that has been out there. Where the Democrat Party has forever taken the black vote for granted and you have established certain black leaders who are nothing more than the overseers of that plantation. And now the people on that plantation are upset because they’ve been disregarded, disrespected and their concerns are not cared about,” West said.
“So I’m here as the modern-day Harriet Tubman to kind of lead people on the underground railroad away from that plantation into a sense of sensibility.”
West said Democrats’ “social welfare policies” have failed.
These statements were made after much griping by those who attended the CBC town hall, where voters gathered to complain about the poor service President Obama has rendered to the black community. Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters responded by suggesting that the CBC agrees, and is only waiting for explicit permission from African-Americans to take the president to task over his failure to address our issues.
Waters told attendants of the Detroit town hall: “We’re getting tired, y’all…We want to give him every opportunity. But our people are hurting. The unemployment is unconscionable. … When you let us know it is time to let go, we’ll let go.” She referred to the fact that black unemployment stands at over 17% compared to the national average of about 9% — statistics often mentioned as proof that Obama has failed to help blacks.
While Rep. Waters does have a point about holding President Obama accountable for his actions (or lack thereof) regarding the black community, the CBC has never been the president’s friend. In fact, the Congressional Black Caucus famously supported Hillary Clinton during the 2008 presidential campaign before Obama secured the nomination. Theirs has been a love-hate relationship ever since, and they have never acted as true allies. The CBC has unleashed a string of criticisms on the president since that time.
Thus, it’s hard to take one more CBC bad-mouthing of Obama seriously. It reeks of political posturing. While that’s the name of the game in DC, until all the political interests in Washington work together to create positive change for blacks (including the CBC), it amounts to empty posturing.
