When I ran for student council in the fifth grade, my opponent said if she won, she would take the entire class to Disneyland. Was that actually something some fifth grader was capable of when our real job was to vote on party themes and fundraiser ideas for school supplies?
No, but she said it because who could really stop her? The teachers could jump in and say that wasn’t going to happen, but in everyone’s mind, she was fighting for them, so what was there to lose? I certainly wasn’t promising Disneyland.
A decade later and there are still folks who are making promises – from dog catchers running for re-election to first-time candidates for president of the United States – racial reparations are as practical and possible as Trump’s wall or that fifth grade trip to Disneyland.
Pitching an idea that even Bernie Sanders thinks is way too out there is saying something, but Democrat candidates such as Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, and Julian Castro are trying to outdo each other with the promise of monetary reparations for descendants of African slaves.
This isn’t a new idea, but the fact that not one but several presidential candidates are advocating for this is disturbing. It’s pandering for votes. America has paid for the sins of its past in blood to abolish slavery, and brave free men and women fought in the courts of law and public opinion during the Jim Crow era to ensure equality before the law.
Many generations removed from slavery, the goal of those alive now should be to encourage the growth of freedom and access to opportunities so the next generation can live the lives we would want them to.
While the concept of monetary restitution for descendants of African slaves is a grand, utopian concept with no real plan of action nor chance of actually happening, there are actions that can be accomplished right now that can benefit those craving a better life for themselves and their posterity right here, right now.
Eliminating Affirmative Action would end the legalized racism that is currently part of the college admissions process, meaning people can earn the education their desire at the institution of their choice based off the merit of their work ethic and widen the opportunity of acceptance for those who Affirmative Action tilts against.
Also allowing for the expansion of school vouchers will force schools to compete for students by raising the standards they hold themselves to so our children receive the best education and care possible since teachers and staff would be incentivized to perform better than they currently are.
Lowering barriers to entry would provide free people self-determined to provide a livelihood for themselves the opportunity to find work by eliminating the rigged system that is occupational licensing. Everyone has the right to work, and the best-guaranteed income is a job, plain and simple.
Finally, equality before the law must be upheld and protected. The racist war on drugs was created to effectively target the black community, and the justice system systematically imprisons blacks over whites for the exact same crime. By allowing people to live free instead of in cages should be a cross-partisan issue.
The Democrats are promising the grand plan for the reason President Lyndon Johnson created the Great Society initiative in the first place – to guarantee the black vote for generations by making them choose between the dangers of liberty or the mental slavery of dependency.
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