By James Craig, the former police chief of Detroit, recently penned an op-ed explaining why Joe Biden should no longer receive the benefit of the doubt from Black voters.
The former police chief of America’s largest, predominantly Black city, laid into Biden for his failures and the way he exploits traditional ties between the African American community and the Democratic Party to ignore urban voters in favor of illegal immigrants, who are often poor already, and wealthy elites, who do not worry about the rising costs of goods.
The truth is, we are being left behind by Biden’s economic policies. “Bidenomics,” Biden’s label for his $11 trillion in new federal spending for green jobs and infrastructure, has led to lower real wages. Michigan has dropped five places since 2019 in terms of median household income, a Bridge Michigan analysis found, and according to 2022 U.S. Census data, we’re below the national median household income average. In the Black community, we are feeling that pain at the grocery store and at the gas pump. In fact, a poll from October 2023 found that 80% of Black voters have a negative view of Biden’s economy. Hardworking American families everywhere are feeling it, too. But what you may not know is that the Biden Administration’s inflation is hurting Black households more than white households, with 53.7% of Black respondents to a Dallas Federal Reserve Bank survey reporting inflation stress, compared to 43.6% of whites.
This is only the start. In 2022, five of the 50 most violent cities in the nation were in Michigan, with violent crime increasing higher than the national average, even as the homicide rate dropped faster than the nation. This rise in crime has disproportionately affected Black Americans. And despite the rise in crime, Democrat politicians have been hindering efforts to keep criminals off our streets with anti-police rhetoric, repeated calls to defund the police, and efforts to slash funds from police budgets. With Joe Biden’s border crisis, fentanyl has been pouring into our communities, and Black men are at a higher risk than any other demographic to die from a drug overdose, along with American Indian and Alaska Native men.
In Chicago, New York, and in Michigan, the allocation of federal funds for temporary public housing for immigrants has been this administration’s clear priority over Black communities. Biden’s reckless agenda is costing money and depleting resources that our community and our country cannot afford to spare.
For too long, the Democrat party has taken advantage of the historic ties it has had with our community. A January Fox News poll found that Joe Biden’s approval rating in the Black community has dropped almost 25% since 2021, and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs found in a December poll that only 50% of Black adults approve of the job that Joe Biden is doing. Years of inaction and broken promises have led to little more than the same old, same old.
Craig’s argument could not have been more timely. On Sunday, The Wall Street Journal confirmed what everyone already knows, but liberal commentators can’t come to grips with: the economy has not been good for normal people when you account for inflation.
When it doesn’t matter how much the drinks cost, it’s always Happy Hour.
This explains why liberal elites cannot comprehend why Biden is losing on the economy, especially with minorities.
Chart: WSJ pic.twitter.com/9TsciFuDWE
— John LeFevre (@JohnLeFevre) May 19, 2024
“Though inflation is falling now, it has been higher on average under Biden than Trump. Adjusted for inflation, net worth was up just 0.7% through Biden’s first three years, compared with 16% through Trump’s first three years,” the newspaper wrote.
Biden has been desperate to regain the support of African Americans, particularly men. On Sunday, the president gave a speech at Morehouse College that sounded more like an old white man lecturing Black Americans about how bad they have it than laying out any vision for the future.
Joe Biden inspires Black graduates at Morehouse College by telling them that they’re victims and America hates them.pic.twitter.com/ofxa90Zo5F
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) May 19, 2024
One of the problems Biden faces is that while he believes that Black can only succeed with special treatment, Black economic fortunes radically increased during the Trump administration.
In 2022, the Manhattan Institute discussed in WSJ how Trump’s economy lifted everyone up, but especially Black and Hispanic citizens. “The mainstream media presented Mr. Trump daily as a bigot whose policies would harm the interests of racial and ethnic minorities. Meantime, black economic advancement occurred to an extent unseen not only under Barack Obama but going back several generations—until the pandemic shutdowns brought progress to a halt.
Over the first three years of Mr. Trump’s presidency, blacks (and Hispanics) experienced record-low rates of unemployment and poverty, while wages for workers at the bottom of the income scale rose faster than they did for management. Whether that was the goal of the Trump administration or an unintended consequence is a debate I’ll leave to others. But there is no doubting that the financial situation of millions of working-class black Americans improved significantly under Mr. Trump’s policies.”
Fox News reported that “Trump’s surge in the polls among Black voters is a “troubling sign” for the Biden campaign, a data reporter warned Friday.
Recent polling shows the former president could get a “historic” boost from Black voters in November if they continue to sour on President Biden, CNN data analyst Harry Enten reported.
‘My goodness gracious,’ he said as he reacted to the polling average, which showed Trump’s support among Black voters more than doubled to 22% compared to 2020. Biden, meanwhile, saw a 12% drop, though he still holds a 47-point lead.”
If the polls remain accurate, Trump will win the largest share of the Black vote by a Republican since 1960.
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