AOC, Sharpton Blame Democratic Failures as Party Hemorrhages Minority Support

As Republican prospects wax, leading liberals like the Reverend Al Sharpton and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are warning Democrats against blaming an unfavorable map or President Biden’s unpopularity for the looming wipe out, but to accept that the party’s leadership has failed to deliver for minority voters.The former mayor of New York City, Republican Fiorello LaGuardia, said, “There is no Democratic or Republican way of cleaning the streets.” Today, those streets are awash in crime, drugs, and people searching for ways to stretch dollars that have lost purchasing power as inflation skyrockets. In these tough times, citizens can’t afford the luxury of blind party loyalty.Reverend Sharpton told MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough on Wednesday, “There is a misreading of wanting criminal justice reform and police reform and in wanting proper policing.” He said that “latte liberals,” a term he used for those pushing to defund the police as far back as September of 2020, “are talking to the guy that gives them the syrup in their latte and not talking to the people that they claim they speak for.”The radical reverend pointed out that in response to crime spiking in New York City, Democrats responded by electing a “black policeman,” Mayor Adams, mayor and then appeared to call it a day. Meanwhile, in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests and police defunding, murders of African-Americans increased 32 percent according to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting.Reverend Sharpton sees it as lost on Democrats that people in minority areas want the same things as their fellow citizens: Safe streets, equal representation before the law, and competent police to answer when they call 911. Democrats must deliver on these issues, as he told the Democratic nominee for president, Secretary Clinton, in 2016.“You must earn our vote,” he told her then, but Mr. Biden bristles at the idea of doing any such hard work, an attitude enshrined in campaign infamy by his 2020 remarks to Charlamagne tha God of “The Breakfast Club,” after Mr. Biden looked at his watch and cut the interview short.When the host said, “[W]e’ve got more questions,” Mr. Biden grew irritated. “You’ve got more questions? If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump then you ain’t black.” A subsequent excuse about being a “wise guy” didn’t change the message that Mr. Biden feels entitled to the group’s support.The “latte liberals” are having the same trouble with Hispanics. A Washington Post-Ipsos poll last month found the Democratic advantage of near 40 points with that group in 2018 is down to 27 points today. The limits of identity politics are on stark display in Nevada, where Democrats tout incumbent Senator Masto as the first Latina to hold that office.In a poll by Univision Noticias, Ms. Masto — who chafes at charges of “hispandering” over the fact that she does not speak Spanish or represent the community — has a 34-point lead among Hispanics. Republican Adam Laxalt’s 27 percent showing is enough to keep the race within the three-point margin of error in a state where almost a third of voters are of Hispanic descent.Speaking on “Pod Save America,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez of New York had criticisms similar to those of Reverend Sharpton. “The Democratic Party has not tried in terms of Latino electorates,” she said. “We really need to step up both in our efforts on campaign, but also in our efforts in governance,” citing immigration reform as a key promise unkept.Politico reports that Democrats are “growing anxious” over black turnout, and cites their Morning Consult poll finding that “just 25 percent of black registered voters described themselves as ‘extremely enthusiastic’ about voting in this election, compared to about 37 percent of white voters and 35 percent of Hispanic voters.”On the day after the 2020 election, BET founder Robert Johnson said, “I think black Americans are getting a little bit tired of delivering huge votes for the Democrats and seeing minimal return…” Four years later, the party finds both of America’s largest minority voting blocs exhausted by empty promises and open to supporting Republicans promising to sweep our streets clean.

AOC, Sharpton Blame Democratic Failures as Party Hemorrhages Minority Support

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