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He Will Never Be The Second Black President! [1]
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Date: 2023-03-10
Senator Tim Scott
Senator Barack Obama’s historical, inexorable, and rapid ascent to the presidency in 2008, a seismic event that activated formerly closeted racists, also brought about a countervailing effect: black people, long denied positions in the highest echelons of the political arena, saw opportunities to seize power.
Today, more black people than ever are running for positions in state and federal legislatures. Not all of them are prevailing, but those who do forcibly assert themselves as representatives for their constituents, creating venerable history and laying the groundwork for enterprising and ambitious black people to rise in the future.
Recently, Wes Moore, a former captain in the United States Army, became the first black governor of Maryland. Jennifer McClellan, a long-serving state senator, became the first black woman to represent Virginia in the United States House of Representatives. And Joanna McClinton, a long-serving state representative, became the first black woman to serve as speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. Currently, fifty-four black members are serving in the United States House of Representatives, accounting for thirteen percent of the members occupying the august body, a percentage equitable to the proportion of Americans who identify as black. There are currently three black men serving in the United States Senate, precisely three more than the number of black senators serving in 1965. So, we are making progress, slowly moving toward a more inclusive society despite all of the haters.
Buoyed by Obama’s success, four other prominent black leaders have opted to engage in serious — they have appeared on the national debate stage — campaigns for the presidency. Two are conservative Republicans and two are Democrats.
Herman Cain, former head of the Kansas City Fed and conservative proponent of a fallacious 9–9–9 tax plan, ran as a Republican in 2012. He actually led the Republican field for a minute before ultimately submitting to the eventual nominee, Mitt Romney. Ben Carson, one of the few black neurosurgeons in the United States of America, ran briefly in 2016 before losing to Donald Trump. As I am a skeptic of black conservatives, I did not shed a tear for Ben Carson and Herman Cain.
Corey Booker, a Democrat, Stanford graduate, and former mayor of Newark, New Jersey, further distinguished himself by campaigning for president as a bachelor. Kamala Harris, a progressive democratic senator from California, also decided to chase history by running for president the same year. Harris is a woman of mixed descent, a combination of Indian and Jamaican heritage. She was my first choice for president before a lack of funds forced her to withdraw from the contest in December 2019. Joe Biden, the eventual Democratic nominee, picked Harris to be his running mate. Joe Biden, also formerly Obama’s Vice President, defeated Donald Trump for the presidency, prompting Harris’s ascension to the office of Vice President.
In the two years since Biden’s election, Kamala Harris has proven to be an invaluable Vice President, often tasked with overseeing the proceedings of the Senate, the voting body responsible for approving President Biden’s choices for federal judgeships. Occasionally, Vice President Harris provides the deciding vote.
If not for the presence of this graceful woman, many of President Biden’s priorities would have been jettisoned by Republicans, diminishing Biden. Instead, the Biden/Harris team has become one of the most consequential partnerships in presidential history, as they have been integral in injecting three hundred sixty-two policy proposals into public circulation.
Losers of three out of the last four presidential elections, Republicans covet the presidency like a dog does a piece of steak. As of today, three conservative Republicans — Donald Trump, Nikki Haley, and Vivek Ramaswamy — have officially declared their candidacies. Hordes of other Republicans are likely to announce their intentions to seek the highest office in the coming months, one of them being Tim Scott, a Republican senator from South Carolina.
Tim Scott, pictured above, is one of the three black men occupying the role of United States Senator. He was appointed to the post in 2013 by Governor Nikki Haley, and has subsequently prevailed in three contests for his seat in congress. After serving quietly for ten years, Mr. Scott began to explore his viability as a presidential candidate.
As an obsessed devourer of politics, I had heard of Tim Scott before he set tongues wagging about his presidential prospects. He is a distinguished member of the Senate body, ostensibly respected and generally liked by his contemporaries.
Tim Scott has also made history, as he is the first African-American federal legislator from the state of South Carolina. Moreover, he is the second black man in history to hold a senate seat for a state situated below the Dixieline. Scott grew up poor, and was the product of a broken home. Despite encountering these and other formidable challenges during his formative years, Mr. Scott graduated from college, started a business, and serves in the United States Senate. Mr. Scott’s story is striking and laudable, an example of what is possible for an enterprising black man in America. If only Mr. Tim Scott were a Democrat. I would have certainly voted for him if he supported the policies I believe in.
Unfortunately, Tim Scott is a Republican, one of the most conservative members of the United States Congress. He unabashedly placed his support behind the most corrupt man to ever occupy the office of President (Donald Trump) because he identified as a Republican, wholeheartedly approving a Trump tax bill responsible for funneling more money to the rich, voting for all of Trump’s corrupt judges, and voting to end the Affordable Care Act, the signature achievement of the first black president.
Scott has made multiple attempts to construct a bipartisan police reform bill with Corey Booker. A viable police reform bill, legislation that ensures public safety and protects black people from rogue police, could perhaps redeem Tim Scott’s staid Senate career. The current congressional makeup makes the passage of comprehensive police reform an unfulfilled dream, as there are too many Republicans intent on maintaining the status quo.
So, what does President Tim Scott have to offer America? How can he truly separate himself from the rest of the field? He will have multiple chances to set himself apart from Donald Trump, who is once again the front-runner for the Republican nomination. However, during a recent interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News, when Scott was asked to assert how he would govern differently from Donald Trump, he immediately kowtowed. Scott sounded like Stephen from Django Unchained, a cowed and traitorous house slave with one stated purpose: please his overseer. He is barely registering at 1%, routinely residing at the nadir of every respectable polling survey. There are some polls where his name does not even register. He is a minor-league prospect for the presidency, considered an afterthought for Trump, the putative head of the Republican Party.
It is still early in the 2024 election cycle, though, as twenty months remain before the next presidential election is set to take place. A lot can happen in twenty months, especially in the political arena, where major shifts in a candidate’s prospects can change in a matter of seconds. A candidate may put forward an unintentional verbal gaffe, the economy could suddenly crater, and a journalist can publish an unflattering story about a candidate. You can never know. There is still a chance, albeit an extremely minuscule one, that Tim Scott could catch fire in an Iowa or New Hampshire voting primary, launching pads for many past presidents.
No one thought Obama could win before he beat Hillary Clinton in Iowa.
Unfortunately, Tim Scott is nothing like Obama. He lacks the charisma, personality, rhetorical acuity, and momentum that propelled Obama forward in 2008. Obama was a paragon for the ideal American future, one filled with promise and hope for everyone. Young people adored Obama, and they voted for him in droves. Scott belongs to a political party that is actively trying to occlude truthful lessons on black history, roll back protections for LGBTQ people, foster hate, and cut Social Security and Medicare. Young Americans, especially young black Americans, will not vote for this type of black candidate, an individual who identifies with a political party espousing a restrictive and authoritarian governing philosophy. Moreover, the Republican Party belongs to Donald Trump’s acolytes, an energetic rabble who are disdainful and distrusting of people who look like Mr. Scott. There is no room for an individual like Scott, an affable but deluded black man, to maneuver in the upcoming presidential election, or any other presidential election going forward.
Tim Scott will never be the second black president.
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