We all know about Charlie Brown, Lucy, and that danggone football. It never mattered how many times Lucy pulled that ball away just as Charlie went in for the kick—Charlie, each next time ‘round, would trust Lucy… and, once again, fall on his ass due to a pulled ball. Even when he had his doubts, she’d smooth talk him and butter him up, leading him to try just one… more… time…
Such trust was and is, indeed, an entertaining gag for Peanuts fans like yours truly… but—and I’m sure I’m not alone in this—I never could help shaking my head at just how much Charlie was a straight-up fool for continuing to think Lucy wouldn’t shaboinkle him again.
Yes, it’s a word.
As Saturday, the day of the Democratic primary in South Carolina, draws nearer, the headlines are vociferous with their proclamations that SC is “nothin’ but ‘Clinton Country’”, in large part because of the major role African-American voters play in South Carolina’s Democratic electoral process. The Black community loves them some Clintons, even though the Clintons have done anything but love us back. The Clintons are Lucy with the football, and we are Charlie Brown foolishly going in for Yet Another kick.
Let’s go over the facts, y’all.
Hot Pizza Equals Cold Time
In 1995, a man by the name of Jerry Dewayne Williams was arrested at the pier in Redondo Beach, California, for snatching a slice of pizza from some kids’ large pepperoni pie.
Such a crime ranks quite low on the severity scale, and should warrant—maybe—10-15 days in jail or a similar analogue, if even that. Probably just some community service or something. In this case, however, the judge, citing his previous felony convictions and the “three strikes” law of California, sentenced him to 25 to life.
That’s right—25 to life. Over a slice of pizza. Thanks to “three strikes” laws.
Similar stories abound, involving such other minor fare as video tapes and VCRs.
Mr. Clinton, rather than stand up to the “tough on crime” loudmouths in favor of more rational ways of addressing the issue, decided to “catch the wave” with them. He is, in large part, responsible for not doing a picogram of an iota to push back against this racist, classist tide of legislation and “reforms”, both at the Federal and state level. He, in fact, put his signature to the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which, to be fair, had some good provisions… amongst some real stinkers that fomented vile results, the most notable of which is the massive spike in incarceration. The United States now sports the highest incarceration rate on Earth, even likely exceeding regimes like China’s.
People who need compassionate, quality mental health treatment are now rotting in jails and prisons in gargantuan numbers. People are sitting behind bars for life for what, in the grand scheme of things, are piddling little crimes that, if they were water, wouldn’t so much as fill a common household mop bucket.
The demographic group most affected by all this? Why, Black Americans, of course! (Along with the poor in general, but that’s a whole ‘nother article entirely.)
Last year, both Bill and Hillary went on the record as regretting their decision to be in favor of this pure garbage back in the ‘90s. They now call for “progressive reforms” to get the American justice system into the 21st century.
Their 2015 “apology” is too little, too late, however; and, frankly, was likely just stage theater to try and make Hillary seem less anti-progressive than she actually is. If they were truly our allies, Bill would’ve taken a different approach back in ‘94—including reaching for that veto pen.
Bernie’s record ain’t perfect here, either. He voted for the bill, as it contained the crucial assault weapons ban, as well as provisions addressing violence against women. But, at least, he went on the record as being against the most onerous provisions of the bill, including the “three strikes” bits.
The Clintons didn’t do so. Bill loved him some three strikes goodness; Hillary is guilty of favoring the same; silence equals approval. Add in the fact that he was, ya know, the President, with figurative tons more political capital than at-the-time House Rep Bernie Sanders, and it becomes blaringly obvious that he could’ve put his foot down. Mr. Clinton, nor Mrs. Clinton, are idiots, stupid, or ignorant. They knew the consequences of this legislation. While that bill did not spark the “tough on crime” movement—it had been running on full steam for over a decade by that point—Mr. Clinton choose to accelerate it.
THE PATH TO THE WHITE HOUSE LEADS THROUGH… MURDERING THE MENTALLY ILL?
To be honest, though, I’m not surprised that Mr. Clinton chose that path in 1994. Bill Clinton, with his eye on the Governorship of Arkansas, realized that he couldn’t win as a progressive Democrat, so he pulled what I’ve cottoned to calling a “George Wallace Lite”—he shuffled on over to the right… and stayed there. This, of course, meant embracing racism.
During his Governorship of Arkansas, he signed a bill that honored the state’s Confederate history. No objections to it whatsoever.
The most egregious example was pulled right out of the modern right-wing racist’s playbook: signing off on the execution of a Black death row inmate who was so severely mentally ill, he left behind his final slice of pie, thinking that he’d be able to return to eat it after he was executed.
No problem for Bill, though: by approving this execution, he dog-whistled to white racists that, at his core, he was one of them. Plus, by using the corpse of this Black man as a step-stool, he’d be able to reach the Presidency. And reach the Presidency he sure as silk did.
DOUBLE SPEAKIN’ LOTSA CUTTIN’
The year 1996 saw a figurative Molotov cocktail taken to what was left of the social safety net in the United States; the year that Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society would stumble and fall to the ground, just like what happens to a Fallout 4 player who lollygags too long in reaching Vault 111 before the nuke strikes Boston.
One of the most Orwellianly-named bills I’ve ever come across, the “Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996”, had one goal: burning away most of what was left of the American social safety net. It accomplished this goal with gusto—as anyone with a lick of common sense expects from legislation that packs two right-wing code-phrases for “screw the poor” in its title alone.
Remember Charlie Brown, Lucy, and that football I opened with? For some reason, Black voters thought Bill Clinton was our ally in ‘92, despite him openly being in favor of gutting the safety net a large amount of Black families depended on to keep in some kind of standard of living—let’s keep in mind his words “end welfare as we know it” and “Two years and you’re off.”
Sure, the welfare system as it existed was broken, and it needed reform. This legislation, despite being colloquially called “welfare reform”—introduced by John Kasich, of all people, and a classic example of the “workfare” farce—wasn’t it. This was “welfare gutting”. It slashed the food stamp program, hosed over immigrants, and overall hosed over poor people—especially American Blacks, and doubly especially families with kids. All of this was framed as a bill that’d be about “short-term welfare that led to work”.
To be fair, the PRWORA would have been a positive step… within the framework of a country that has embraced modernity in the form of socialism, with the government being an employer of last resort in a country where, drastically and increasingly since the 1950s, jobs and work have been cut off to people who’ve been sucked into a predatory, classist, racist “justice system” and been heavily sprawlburbanized (along with the cities, suburbs, and geography itself) to the point where most are out of range of the urban and suburban poor who live in hollowed-out cities and who lack cars to get to far-flung “job centers” that racist, classist municipalities have intentionally built out of range of walking, cycling, and transit access.
But, of course, we ain’t got that here in the United States, and the Clinton Administration did jack squat to bring it about. The only thing the bill did was take a huge dump on the less fortunate, and helped make worse and perpetuate a permanent underclass. To want people who are able to work not having to depend on welfare is a great thing, but doing so without also fixing the aforementioned “access to work” problems is disingenuous as best, and sociopathical at worst.
I will reiterate: the Clintons are not stupid. They knew exactly what the consequences of supporting this bill would be, yet Bill refused to reach for that veto pen.
Bernie Sanders, back in the days when Crash Bandicoot was the hot new PlayStation game, beepers were all the rage, and the Backstreet Boys had just gotten big, stood against PRWORA. He had the sense, compassion, and progressive, socialist mindset to not be for screwing the poor.
Bill Clinton, meanwhile, hailed the bill, and gleefully signed it. Hillary was an enthusiastic supporter, as well, even as late as 2008. Further, the metaphorical cow’s milk of racist rhetoric, most of it dog-whistled, revolving around “blacks sitting around all day collecting welfare” filled the Clintons’ bucket to overflowing.
WE’VE GOT (MINORITY) RADIO SILENCE
The bottom line is, what is great for corporations tends to be bad for the less fortunate and minority populations. The 1996 Telecommunications Act is a perfect example of this, and will be a last, short, but still very significant and important example here.
In a nutshell, the Act was a classic result of the right-wing delusion that deregulation will lead to “healthy competition” that “saves consumers money” and “enhances the quality of products and services” and “rises all boats” and all that assorted, discredited, garbage.
In this Act’s case, it deregulated the telecommunications industry, most notably in television and radio. What had been a public trust had moved squarely into the category of corporate profit center. Indeed, much of the present-day corporatized media landscape has its roots in the ‘96 Telecom Act which, like the 1994 crime bill, didn’t necessarily start the trend, but definitely exacerbated it. The result led to a corporate field day of epic proportions. For example, by 2003, Clear Channel owned over 1,200 radio stations alone.
One of the results of that? Minority ownership—especially Black ownership—of radio and television stations plummeted, as many minority owners found themselves under the thumb of newly overindulged corporate giants. Most ended up selling.
WHEW, DOGGIES
In conclusion, it’s time for Black voters all across America to wake up. Realize that the Clintons are NOT allies to African Americans (except maybe the privileged class among us—yes, they exist—you can spot one by seeing who is driving around in those tacky “Hi-Risers” or riding around on souped-up sportbikes). Almost none of the DLC/”Third Way” Dem crowd really are. Bernie, on the other hand, has been consistently anti-racist, as well as ardently for the socialism that best benefits the Black community (as well as, well, everyone else), since the beginning.
As Black voters, let’s not fall for the “Clinton football” again. Their record speaks for itself; let’s not take a gamble on this—after all, with how rarely people genuinely change, the chance the Clintons are prepared to “shaboinkle” us again is fairly high. Instead, let’s embrace Bernie Sanders, our TRUE ally in this Democratic primary "fight”, and be a part of electing the Nordic-style socialist America needs to finally, at long last, enter the 21st century.
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I wear my place on the Political Compass, a -8.88/-3.88, proudly. You can find my Facebook page here; the Page for my Stormy Grove Nation progressive society project here. I’m on Twitter here. Comments, questions, inquiries, incoherent hate mail written in ALL CAPS while growling like a madman, and other such fare can be emailed to me—squallwinds at gmail.com. Stay tuned to my social media and me here on DK, as soon I will be launching my short progressive commentary series, “Squall’s Talkin’ Turkey”, on YouTube!