“A black mouth moving” that “justifies and legitimates” white Supremacy” is how MSNBC’s Joy Reid tried to explain why Republicans elected a black woman as lieutenant governor in Virginia.
It’s not that Winsom Sears is smart, capable, talented, and, above all, conservative. It’s that Republicans voted for her in order to look like they aren’t racists.
Yes, really.
Reid has a problem with Republicans who voted for Sears. She said during an interview with race-hustler Michael Eric Dyson, “What Republicans are now doing is they basically demand credit any time any of them ever voted for anybody Black or if there’s a Black guy on the Supreme Court that’s conservative.”
Dyson agreed and took the argument to ridiculous extremes.
They want credit for having hair in the morning or getting up and brushing their teeth. ‘Look, I’ve made an achievement that should be noteworthy.’ No. You are doing what all political figures what must do: make choices. The problem is here they want — they want White supremacy by ventriloquist effect. There is a Black mouth moving but a White idea through the — running on the runway of the tongue of a figure who justifies and legitimates the White supremacist practices. We know that we can internalize in our own minds, in our own subconscious, in our own bodies the very principles that are undoing us. So to have a Black face speaking in behalf of a White supremacist legacy is nothing new. And it is to the chagrin of those of us who study race that the White folk on the other side and the right wingers the other side don’t understand.
Quite simply, the Democrats are clueless about what just hit them. It’s beyond the ken of their understanding that any minority for any reason would prefer any Republican.
But as Media Research Center Latino’s Jorge Bonilla points out, there’s more to the nightmare scenario for Democrats than Winsome Sears.
This clip from Virginia will become the subject of nightmares. (via @TelemundoNews) pic.twitter.com/BAYnWLvEa2
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) November 3, 2021
“I believe that Biden turned me into a Republican. Biden is destroying the economy, inflation is through the roof. Everything is terrible.”
In another telling video shared by Bonilla, voter Astrid Gamaz told Telemundo she’s “sick of people stigmatizing” her for being a minority woman who votes Republican. Bonilla said he was “shocked” the outlet even aired it.
“I believe that Republicans now, especially we minorities, have stood up- because I’m sick of people stigmatizing me (for being) a Republican and me being expected not to speak up,” Gamaz said in the clip.
Another clip from Virginia that will trigger nightmares: "I believe that Republicans now, especially we minorities, have stood up- because I'm sick of people stigmatizing me (for being) a Republican and me being expected not to speak up." Shocked that @UniNoticias aired it TBH pic.twitter.com/IjhvBACWJK
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) November 4, 2021
The loyalties and voting habits of the entire electorate are in flux. It isn’t just minorities who are becoming unmoored from Democrats. It’s suburban women who had been deserting the Republican Party in droves. It’s white working-class voters switching to the Republican Party. Young, urban professional blacks don’t feel the same pull as their parents to vote for Democrats and there are signs they could become “persuadable.”
The old verities simply aren’t cutting it for most Americans. The world is changing too rapidly and voters are looking for a “safe harbor” to shelter in place until the storms pass. For some, it’s the Republicans they feel more comfortable with. Others prefer Democrats.
What all this churning of the electorate has done is allow minorities — specifically Hispanic minorities — the freedom to find their own political conscience. It’s not exactly a “leaving the plantation” moment as much as it is a “Declaration of Independence.”
“What we’re seeing right now is a cultural identity crisis that we are undergoing as a community that is completely splitting and dividing Latinos,” MSNBC contributor Paola Ramos said.
“It’s not so much an identity crisis as it is the rejection of an artificial identity that is built upon politics,” Bonilla responded at the time.
Republicans shouldn’t be celebrating quite yet. Nor should they gloat. Those white suburban women who deserted the GOP in 2016 and 2020 aren’t the old reliable voting bloc they were previously. They returned to vote for Youngkin after the radicals scared the bejeebers out of parents by making it clear that they don’t think parents know what is best for their kids.
But give the Democrats a few election cycles and they’ll have refined their arguments to make them palatable to the masses.
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