CASH IN THE APPLE FOR
8-4-16
By Cash Michaels
THREE MORE
MONTHS – Just think, on November 8th, three months from now, all of
this noise from the presidential election will be over. Mind you, there’s no
doubt we’ll be hearing plenty of chatter from other candidates for public
office, and that’s understandable. But few of them will be as dirty and
humiliating as the race for the highest office in the land.
Now usually
its kind of cliché’ to say, “this is the most important election of our time.”
We’ve heard that old saying before, and one can argue that, given the time and
the election, the cliché’ was true. Imagine if Barack Obama had never been elected
president, how would that great economic depression he faced when he came into
office been solved? John F. Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis? Lyndon B.
Johnson and the civil rights movement?
Clearly,
and call it GOD’s hand if you will, it almost seems like divine intervention
that more times than not, the right person is elected to be president. But
there are times, like in the case of Richard Nixon and George W. Bush, where
someone is chosen ho just seems to bring a lot of baggage with them.
That’s why
it can be honestly be said that given the stakes, and the personalities vying
for office this time around, this upcoming presidential election really is the
most important election of time.
Now if
you’re expecting me to sing the praises of one candidate over the other, you’re
mistaken. That would be too easy, quite frankly.
But there
is a more complex issue to be addressed, and you hear a lot about it when
election analysts on television opine about who has most of the
college-educated white vote versus who has most of the non-college educated
white vote, or who has the majority of black/Hispanic voters.
Now voting has
been carved up at every election – there’s nothing new about that. Democrats
pride themselves for going after people of color and working people, while
Republicans specialize in advocating for businesses and the wealthy. But this
election year, in particular, the lines seem to be even more sharply drawn,
because there are groups o people ho firmly believe that with the election of
our nation’s first black president, somehow America didn’t move forward, and
the white-dominated land they once grew up in has now become a wasteland
vulnerable to terrorism, no jobs and higher taxes.
The
particular groups who feel this way are so focused on “taking our country
back,” that they don’t care whether their candidate insults people because of
their religion or ethnic background, or disrespects military veterans who were
once prisoners of war, or calls illegal immigrants “murderers and rapists.”
As far as
these particular groups are concerned, it’s about time someone stood up to the
“politically-correct” crowd and told them off in the blunt manner and language
that means business. They aren’t thinking about the nation as a whole, only
their part of it.
That’s why the recent Republican and
Democratic party national conventions were so interesting. Each gave us a
separate view, not only of the nation now, but what the future will look like
under their respective presidential nominees.
One
convention seemed brimming with hope, the other filled with fear and despair.
They made their cases. The question is, which one will we, the people, elect
come November?
But more
importantly, we will be deciding in November who do we really want to be? A
nation always at war, and doing little to stop it? Or a country looking to
build a better, more equitable future for all of its citizens?
That seems
to be the choice in this November’s election, and GOD help us if we choose
wrong.
FOX NEWS –
One of the things I try to pay attention to is how veracious news outlets are
reporting the same story, or even if they are reporting the same story.
For
instance, I noticed during the Democratic National Convention that Fox News
would simply ignore certain important speakers that CNN and MSNBC were covering
from the podium. Now, to be fair, everybody didn’t cover everything during the
conventions. But Fox News made it a point of having critics of Hillary Clinton
on as much as possible, and when the “Mothers of the Movement” – several black
mothers who lost their children to police and gun violence – appeared onstage
at the DNC to speak, Fox made it a point not to cover it.
As many
know by now, Fox personalities Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity have been on a
constant rant to destroy the Black Lives Matter movement, calling it “racist”
and even going so far as saying that it is a terrorist groups because O’Reilly
and Hannity want so badly to link BLM to the many tragic police shootings.
In effect,
Fox News – which just lost its leader, Roger Ailes because of several destructive
allegations of sexual misconduct against him – has, and continues to give parts
of America the skewed vision of this nation the “doom and gloom” crowd craves
until they “get their country back.”
Not sure
when that will be, but one thing’s for certain, Fox continue to go to the bank
pushing this stuff. I’m pretty sure we’re all not the better for it.
Cash in the Apple - honored as the Best Column Writing of 2006 by the
National Newspaper Publishers Association. Columnist Cash Michaels was also
honored by the NNPA for Best Feature Story Journalist of 2009, and was the
recipient of the Raleigh-Apex NAACP’s President’s Award for Media Excellence in
Sept. 2011.
Until
next week, keep a smile on your face, GOD in your heart, and The Carolinian in
your life. Bye, bye.
-30-
CBC CHAIR BUTTERFIELD
BLASTS TRUMP AS
“UNFIT”
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
Last
Tuesday, President Obama raised eyebrows when, during a press conference at the
White House, he bluntly told reporters that “the Republican nominee is unfit to
serve as president.”
But Obama
wasn’t the first black-elected official to make that declaration about
controversial businessman Donald Trump.
North
Carolina Congressman G. K. Butterfield (D-NC-1), who also serves as chairman of
the Congressional Black Caucus, took the stage at the 2016 Democratic National
Convention in Philadelphia last week to tell conventioneers, a national
television audience, and Trump himself (if he was watching), “You are not
qualified to serve as president of the United States.”
“In my
community you judge a man’s heart by his words and deeds.” Butterfield
continued. “Donald J. Trump, your words have been hostile, been bigoted, and
insulting. You’ve used every opportunity to talk about your wealth, to
denigrate people who don’t hold your views, even in your own party.”
Trump has
ignited numerous controversies since he announced his candidacy in July 2016,
calling illegal Mexican immigrants “rapists and murderers,” demanding that
Muslims from countries that have had terrorist activity be temporarily banned,
and recently, he criticized the Gold Star family of a deceased Muslim US
soldier who was killed in action in 2004, just because the father criticized
Trump publicly at the DNC.
While
Republicans in Congress and elsewhere have severely criticized the
controversial businessman, few, if any GOP leaders have revoked their
endorsement of the Republican nominee. North Carolina Republican Gov. Pat
McCrory has endorsed Trump, and appeared with him as recently as last week in
Winston – Salem, along with other state GOP leaders.
Rep.
Butterfield further charged that Trump would “… use your status to alienate African-Americans and other
groups, and you would use the office of president to take our great nation in
the wrong direction.”
“We know, we know that you have no
plan to address issues directly affecting the African-American community, such
as gun violence and voting rights, historically black colleges and universities,
raising the minimum wage and addressing persistent poverty,” Congressman
Butterfield continued.
Rep. Butterfield’s public rebuke of
the Republican nominee carries weight because the black Democratic congressman
is committed to doing everything he can to ensure that Trump does not win North
Carolina in November.
The Tar Heel
State is considered a prime battleground state that could go either for Trump
or his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. In 2008, Barack Obama won the state on his way
to the presidency but four years later, Republican nominee Mitt Romney won
North Carolina in his failed attempt to unseat President Obama. According to many political analysts, if Trump
is to have any real chance of tallying the needed 270 electoral college votes
to win, he needs North Carolina’s 15 electoral votes in his win column.
Both Trump
and Clinton have made numerous campaign stops to the state, and many more are
expected. Their vice presidential running mates – Republican Indiana Gov. Mike
Pence and Democrat US Senator from Virginia Tim Kaine –are also scheduling
appearances across the state.
So there
was very little surprise when Rep. Butterfield, after stating that he felt Donald
Trump was “unfit to be president,” began to spell out the reasons why at the
DNC.
“Instead of putting forth
details to address income equality and opportunity for everyday Americans, you
use your celebrity status to paint a picture of gloom and doom,” Butterfield
charged.
“You want to know why your polling
numbers are so dismal among African-Americans?” Rep. Butterfield continued,
referencing recent NBC/Wall Street Journal polls that show Trump getting zero
support from blacks in Ohio and Pennsylvania. “We know you have gotten rich
through your business, but we also know your wealth has come at the expense of
other people.”
-30-
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