U.S. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) and advocates of slavery reparations are openly — and loudly — urging President Joe Biden to establish a commission that would dangle the prospect of free cash in front of black voters to help defeat GOP presidential opponent Donald Trump.
But the report in the Daily Mail about the latest Democratic scam doesn’t just show that Lee and her ilk have no trouble calling for what amounts to legalized theft.
It also shows that Democrats are terrified that Trump might defeat the physically and mentally declining president. Biden trails Trump in the RealClearPolitics (RCP) average of nationwide polls. But, more importantly, Trump leads Biden by substantial margins in six of the seven key battleground states.
The way to shore up support among blacks: Bribe them with reparations talk. The problem: The plan could backfire if non-black voters who oppose reparations turn out to vote for Trump.
The Plan
Lee and her gang “say Biden should bypass Congress and use his executive powers to create a slavery payouts panel to put him over the line against rival Donald Trump,” the Mail reported. Though Lee has been pushing reparations in Congress for years, the idea went nowhere, the Mail rightly noted, even after the George Floyd Hoax of 2020.
But a pro-reparations outfit called the Earn the Black Vote Collaborative claims that a poll of uncertain black voters in Michigan showed that some 58 percent might vote for Biden if he created a commission. Total votes for Biden: 150,000. And, the group’s news release said, Biden beat Trump in Michigan in 2020 by a slim 154,000 votes. He needs every vote he can get.
The group worries that “voter apathy among Black communities poses a significant challenge, with an estimated 271,000 registered Black voters abstaining from the polls.” Yet polling shows that a reparations panel would get them to the voting booth, the group explained:
Similar trends were observed in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, where President Biden secured narrow victories in 2020. In Pennsylvania, where Biden’s margin of victory was 80,000 votes, the report estimated that a Reparations Commission could garner an additional 55,000 Black votes in 2024. Likewise, in Wisconsin, where Biden won by 20,000 votes, the commission could add 100,000 additional Black votes.
A reparations commission is a “unique opportunity to not only address historical injustices but also to mobilize black voters in key battleground states,” spokesman Kamm Howard said. “President Biden stands to benefit significantly from prioritizing reparative justice, as evidenced by the overwhelming support among infrequent black voters surveyed.”
The group’s news release also quoted Lee:
Simply put, reparations can drive black voter turnout to transformative levels.
“The sums are eye-watering — black lawmakers in Washington seek at least $14 trillion for a federal scheme to ‘eliminate the racial wealth gap’ between black and white Americans,” the Mail explained:
Critics say payouts to selected black people will inevitably stoke divisions between winners and losers, and raise questions about why American Indians and others don’t get their own handouts.
Beyond that, critics such as the late columnist Walter Williams argued that reparations would be unfair for myriad reasons. For one thing, of course, no American alive today was a slave, and no American alive today was a slave owner.
Then again, “a large percentage, if not most, of today’s Americans — be they of European, Asian, African or Latin ancestry — don’t even go back three or four generations as American citizens,” he continued:
Their ancestors arrived on our shores long after slavery. What standard of justice justifies their being taxed to compensate blacks for slavery?
Two other issues arise that reparations advocates avoid: free blacks who owned slaves, and the African nations that sold the slaves to white slave traders.
Williams called reparations “another hustle.”
Battleground States
How much the radical idea might help Biden is unclear. The black-voters collective simply assumes only a positive effect from Biden’s creating such a commission. But Biden’s doing so might also energize apathetic white, Asian, and Hispanic voters who see the scheme as manifestly unfair and openly racialist politicking.
That’s not something Biden can afford if the RCP average of polls show anything.
In the general election average, Trump leads Biden 44.8 to 44.5, a slim 0.3 percent margin.
That’s not much, but Biden is behind in all seven battleground states except Pennsylvania, where he leads by a slim 0.4 points, 46.7 to 46.3.
But the RCP averages don’t look good for Biden across the six other key states that could send Trump back to the White House:
Arizona: Trump leads by 5 — 49.3-44.3
Georgia: Trump leads by 4 — 49.7-45.7
Michigan: Trump leads by 3 — 47.4-44.4
Nevada: Trump leads by 4.8 — 48.8-44
North Carolina: Trump leads by 4.8 — 48.8-44
Wisconsin: Trump leads by 2 (49-47).
