Let Your Vote Be The Most Important Endorsement
By Kuumba Y Salaam
The establishment is getting desperate. They’re reading the tea leaves and are going to great lengths to create a last minute surge for their hand-picked candidate for 34th District State Representative. So okay Black folks.Let’s Wake up!! It’s far beyond the time that we allow others—the media, political cronies, and the establishment—to manipulate us into electing a candidate that sings out of the same hymn book they all sing from.
There are those who publicly endorse candidates only because they owe a political debt or because they occupy a seat next to them at meetings. Those are bogus reasons to elect someone who is going to play such a vitally important role in our lives for the next six years. Remember, these establishment politicians are not cage rattlers. They will do nothing to upset the status quo. It should not be surprising they endorsed another status quo politician.
So people beware of those who try to manipulate your vote in the race for 34thDistrict State Representative. As a matter of fact, why not conduct an analysis of your own to determine whom you should personally endorse. Just examine each candidate’s body of work against two sets of criteria, “leadership” and “the ability to develop public policy,” after all, isn’t that what a state legislator does?
In terms of leadership, who has been a stand-up, consistent and articulate voice for our people? Who among them has spoken truth to power at every opportunity? I don’t mean who has spoken the loudest and the longest, but who has addressed the issues on our behalf based on research and knowledge? Who has dared to take risk by creating pub lic policy and legislation that may be unpopular to certain groups, but nevertheless necessary to protect the safety and well-being of the community as a whole? Who has prepared himself to advocate for our community against redlining by insurance companies and lending institutions? Who can we trust to fight against voter suppression and gerrymandering?
Be an educated voter! Don’t vote for a candidate simply because someone pushes you in that direction. We have too much at stake, and we simply cannot afford to lose any more ground. So establish your own endorsement, determine your own destiny, and cast your vote accordingly.