Has DA Alvin Bragg inadvertently created an alliance between African-Americans and Donald Trump? What a question!
Though this would likely be the farthest thing from his mind, and completely contrary to his intentions in his unjust and unethical indictment of a former President and front-runner in an upcoming Presidential election, Alvin Bragg may have just forged an alliance that would have been considered unlikely, if not impossible, before last Tuesday.
Many do not realize that in the election of 2020, then-President Trump picked up significant percentages of voters amongst minorities that historically don’t vote for Republican candidates. His popularity amongst African-Americans, Hispanics, and Asians was rising in all categories. Talk about forgotten men and women. Those are people that the Democrats view as a cinch for them. It never occurred to them that those groups are comprised of individuals—not voting blocks who swim like a school of fish. And, as the smart, common sense people they are, those voters were noticing something.
They noticed that Trump funded, for the long term, the Historically Black Colleges and Universities, eliminating those fine institutions from having to come begging every year for funding. He lowered the unemployment rate amongst African-Americans, Hispanics, and Asian-Americans to the lowest point in history. If my memory serves me, he further raised the wages and incomes in each of these categories significantly, using his economic policies in an attempt to raise everyone into the middle class, and to increase household incomes.
In a multi-pronged approach to the crisis in our inner cities, he brought school choice and school vouchers to the table, making it possible for young boys and girls who might be trapped in inadequate educational systems to have a chance at a good education and better life. And he was putting that into the hands of the parents. Until the election of 2020.
Coupled at the same time were his initiatives to bring business, money, and job opportunities into those same communities, making it possible for the neighborhoods to prosper, and for future generations to have a true place in our country.
Even more importantly as I watched him listen to the issues brought before him about the Justice System, and its unfairness to blacks and minorities, he was creating prison sentencing reform—not by just willy-nilly releasing hardened and violent offenders as is happening in many cities today—but by working to get the prison sentences proportionate to the crime in the first place.
Many did not get the word on any of this, since Big Media didn’t want to cover the possibility that someone could actually be raised up, given that the controlling politicians make money and win elections by keeping a people oppressed. Many did get the word, however, and I believe that contributed to his steady rise in voters from those groups.
But there was one area for sure that African-Americans in particular continually rail against. That is what they refer to as “unequal justice under the law.” Though there are likely many grievances, two stand out to me. One is the perceived prejudice against a person because of his skin color and economic strata. The second is the over-charging of individuals who really can’t defend themselves in the court system, where public defenders may not provide adequate defense. That leads to higher conviction numbers of excessively charged crimes, resulting in excessive sentencing. And, in my opinion, it has opened the door to fears of persecution by our Justice system, and to manipulation by people who benefit from citizen against citizen.
I am not here to debate that, but just to point out a perception that is widely embraced, and which is hindering the prosperity of our great nation. It is also destroying our humanity.
Then along comes Alvin Bragg, who has just now, with bias and malice aforethought persecuted the exact opposite type of citizen: an older white male who is wealthy, and who nonetheless has been hounded relentlessly, treated constantly with a double standard, “pulled over” and “searched” for just being there, and now excessively charged. Misdemeanor elevated to felony with no statement of the related felony. One charge multiplied 34 times it seems to exaggerate the alleged threat of the person charged. And consecutive sentencing—if convicted—of over 100 years.
And in so doing I believe Alvin Bragg will be “hoisted by his own petard”—unintentionally bringing together two formerly unlikely bedfellows. Those being the African-American community that has been long-suffering and the white guy who was enacting policies designed to help in those arenas. No one on either side is perfect. But common sense citizens I believe can still recognize when someone else is being mistreated, and that it is not all about color.
I believe we have an innate sense of fair play as American citizens, and we do struggle and resist when we see unfair, unequal treatment under the law. Donald J. Trump had an intellectual understanding for sure about the problems in the system. He no doubt had empathy. But, until his arrest, it was not visceral or personal. Now he understands at a level that no other President or other-wise interested, albeit a bit sanctimonious, politicians understand.
This is no longer about only black people being mistreated, or the poor. When it crossed into the current charges and legal battles, it transcended the arena the manipulators play in. They wanted it to be about powerful politicians against other powerful wealthy people—with the victory occurring on some elevated plane. And they wanted it to be about impoverished minorities on a lower plane.
But Bragg’s actions have breached the divider between the privileged and the unprivileged. He has torn open a hole, revealing the problem is not really about color or education. It is about corruption, ambition, and complete disregard for the nation as a whole. For the first time white Americans who may have intellectually understood and debated the plight of their fellow citizens, without viscerally understanding it, are now witnessing unequal justice under the law happening to them.
Americans have always come together when there is a common enemy. Remember how we were after 9/11? If there is no common enemy—in either person or ideology—we tend to drift and just wave at each other’s dilemmas without joining forces. Well, Alvin Bragg may have just created a common enemy—unequal justice under the law—which transcends now and hereafter color, ethnicity, education, wealth, and much more. And in so doing, two groups who want to be in harmony but have not attained the higher levels we are capable of, may now be looking not at each other as the source of their burdens, but rather at hate-filled corrupt men and women who would suppress and repress their fellow countrymen–no matter their color.
Now that, to me, is a cause worthy of uniting us. And it may provide to this Presidential candidate the empathy and support of people who know exactly how he feels, and more importantly, who now know he knows exactly how they feel. That alliance, if the individuals who are aware of what I just said unite, will change politics, the nation, and the history of our people forever. Wouldn’t it be deliciously ironic if the malevolent Bragg brought about the uniting of the minority communities, who frankly have been taken for granted by the people they have voted for, and the would-be President who formerly tried to help. Personally, I love irony! And I despise injustice, anywhere, anytime. How about you?