By Samuel Short October 25, 2024 at 7:38am
Former President Barack Obama’s scolding of black men continues to hurt Vice President Kamala Harris’ election prospects.
Obama took to the campaign trail for Harris — as the Democratic nominee needs all the help she can get in key battleground states like Pennsylvania. To that end, the former president made a stop at a Pittsburgh campaign office earlier this month to speak to a group of black men as he felt that a lack of support for her candidacy was “more pronounced with the brothers.”
Unsurprisingly, Obama’s chastising drew anger from voters who are tired of being seen as a collective that Democrats are entitled to support from. MSNBC’s Alex Wagner discovered that for herself at a Philadelphia barbershop, where voters gave a very blunt and honest reaction to the 44th president’s remarks.
Philadelphia voters are not happy with Barack Hussein Obama talking down to them:
“I was deeply offended — The general tone of it was disgusting. It was abhorrent. I didn’t respect it. I like nothing about it.” pic.twitter.com/qpUHuooH33
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) October 23, 2024
Wagner asked for a response to Obama‘s words, which she promptly received from one man – Chad Fain: “I was deeply offended.”
Fain gave the justification in his words, saying, “It felt like a moment where it’s like, ‘You n-words better get in line and do what we say.’”
He told Wagner and the other men in the room that Obama was being put forward as, “the Czar of the Democratic Party” to put things in order with a demographic that party has long drew support from.
“The general tone of it was disgusting,” he said. “I don’t respect it.”
Do you think Democrats care about America?
If Obama’s remarks were intended to shore up support for a candidate who’s lacking enthusiasm, they failed.
A New York Times poll from earlier this month found Harris’ support among black voters at 78 percent with 70 percent of black men supporting her. Her predecessor for the Democratic ticket — President Joe Biden — enjoyed 90 percent support among black voters.
Wagner’s coverage of this swing state voter’s reaction indicates the zeal for identity politics is dissipating.
People are growing weary of being spoken to in the terms of their race.
Obama’s remarks don’t present any substance in reference to policy, nor does he speak to the principles that most voters are concerned about the next executive possessing.
He speaks on collective terms to a group — black men — that is so broad he might as well be speaking to no one at all.
It’s hard to speak to voters on exclusively racial grounds when problems like soaring inflation, a border crisis, and an increasingly dire international conflict loom.
Democrats making use of identity politics tells us how bad things are going for Harris.
She cannot speak in real, digestible terms about a plan to better the country.
The race card is a desperate one, and it isn’t working.
Sam Short is an Instructor of History with Motlow State Community College in Smyrna, Tennessee. He holds a BA in History from Middle Tennessee State University and an MA in History from University College London.
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