Coming February 6, 2024 . . .
MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
Pre-order at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop
Coming February 6, 2024 . . . MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE by Michael Wolraich Pre-order at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop |
Clare MCaskill, as usual is in a tight race for re-election. She has sought out rural voters, but has ignored the black community.
From the Kansas City Star
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At a town hall in downtown St. Louis last weekend, Democratic State Rep. Bruce Franks Jr. got into a protracted back and forth with African-American constituents over their shared sense that Sen. Claire McCaskill is so busy courting rural voters that they’ve forgotten what she looks like.
“The entire exchange was so telling of the challenges that McCaskill faces this fall,” said a story in St. Louis’ African-American newspaper, the St. Louis American, “that we transcribed it.” And it’s so telling that I’m going to quote it at length.
A woman in the crowd started the whole thing by saying she’s worried McCaskill could lose her Senate seat to Republican Josh Hawley this year: “She may not be speaking to folks,” the woman said, but if she goes down, then the Democrats “lose an important seat in the Senate. How can we get folks out to vote for that, understanding that it’s touchy?”
It’s so touchy, in fact, that Franks turned the question back on her: “As a black man in a poor black community, how would you express to me the need to vote for Claire McCaskill?
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Further there was this comment from Bruce Franks, a black Democratic state Senator
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“I’m going to vote for Claire,’’ Franks continued. “But we have folks who don’t come from this particular community and don’t understand the barriers and challenges. They come in and they say, ‘Listen, we could lose a Senate seat.’ And they’re telling us that we can lose a senator that we never knew existed because this person hasn’t shown up in our community. This person hasn’t spoken to our needs.”
He pushed back against another woman who said at least she was better than her Republican counterpart, Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt. “One thing I can tell you about Roy Blunt,’’ Franks said, “is Roy Blunt is the chair of appropriations. He appropriates the federal funding that comes down that funds Youth Build,” a job program for young people from low-income families. “One place Senator Blunt has always fought for and made sure we had funding was Youth Build in St. Louis.”
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https://www.kansascity.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/melinda-henneberger/article201740264.html
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The McCaskill campaign asked black Democratic legislators in the state to rebuff the stement. No black legislator fell into line
Among those who were approached by McCaskill are U.S. Reps. Emanuel Cleaver of Kansas City and Lacy Clay of St. Louis, and state Rep. Gail McCann Beatty, the minority leader in the Missouri House.
Each declined to sign.
“I’m 100 percent certain that nobody signed it,” Cleaver said in an interview Wednesday with The Kansas City Star. “We talked about it very seriously and strongly and every one of us said, ‘We’re going to support her, but signing this letter isn’t going to achieve what she wants. It’s just going to make people angry.’ ”
Cleaver said he’s sympathetic to McCaskill’s plight. She’s a Democrat running for re-election in a state Republican President Donald Trump won by nearly 19 points in 2016. He understands she must win over some right-leaning voters to survive.
But as McCaskill works to burnish her reputation as a centrist, Cleaver and other African American leaders said they worry she’ll leave minority voters on the left with the impression that she’s taking them for granted — and it could cost her turnout in the urban centers that are crucial to her base
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https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article207197629.html
McCaskill wants white voters, but she ignores black voters at her own peril. If she is going to ignore issues in the black community, how is she different from a Republican?
Comments
this number tells me all I need to know about how getting out more liberal voters will not help. The 33% who think unfavorably of her opponent are simply not enough for her to win. She must court voters who think favorably towards him:
from The Hill Republican PAC releases poll showing Hawley with wide lead over McCaskill
by artappraiser on Sat, 10/06/2018 - 12:11pm
She is free to chase white voters.
She does not have to ignore black voters.
The state Senator who spoke the truth will vote for McCaskill, many black voters will not.
These black voters will see their local issues ignored with McCaskill or with a Republican.
by rmrd0000 on Sun, 10/07/2018 - 6:38am
I'm sure both Hawley and McCaskill have web sites that anyone can read to find out where they stand on the issues. I'm sure there are many news articles in the state and local tv interviews of both candidates. People can vote for the candidate that most reflects their views. No one has ever visited the town I live in to ask for my vote. I'm capable of deciding who to vote for without a personal visit.
by ocean-kat on Sat, 10/06/2018 - 1:21pm
I don't know how common my own syndrome is, but while I will always take literature from someone, I immensely dislike being canvassed personally at my door, whether it be a political candidate or a Mormon or a home repair contractor. I find it insulting to my intelligence that I would fall for a personal sales job, so much so that the person doing it gets a negative demerit from me. I've done one-on-one sales and worked managing people who did it very successfully, and I think a lot of the techniques used are near evil.
by artappraiser on Sat, 10/06/2018 - 1:41pm
To be clear, Everett, a main congressional reporter at Politico, is clearly being sarcastic here:
by artappraiser on Sat, 10/06/2018 - 5:40pm