Well, to say I have great expectations for 2015 would be an understatement. One year ago, I sat here and imagined a banner year for our well-intentioned President. While I think President Obama pulled a rabbit out of his hat towards the end; I would say the year was largely a failure. The Republican hate machine's coffers were overflowing with Dark Money and its acolytes of propaganda did a tremendous job of using Fox 'News', talk-radio, and the Tea Party to cloud the facts. The GOP swept the mid-terms. Voting rights have been gutted. Tamir Rice (12yrs old), Eric Garner, Michael Brown, & John Crawford III were all killed by the police for no reason other than just being black. The fat cats and the bigots had a good year.
Surprisingly I'm brimming with optimism for 2015. Why? Well, that's simple. All the Dems in Congress that Barack Obama was protecting have lost; and we are about to witness 'Obama Unchained'. There are a littany of issues that need to be remedied, rectified, or and I believe what will be presented during the State of the Union address is just the tip of the iceberg. President Obama has run his last campaign, and he's won his last election; so he can afford to aggressively push his agenda in 2015.
I like to imagine sometimes, that I'm the new David Axelrod of the Obama administration and I have the President's ear. That would really be sweet, by the way; but anyways, here's what I would like to see accomplished in 2015.
Voting Rights.
The Supreme Court set civil rights back 50 years by gutting the voting rights act. Immediately the GOP began voter suppression assaults in key states across the country. We need the voter protections that have been in place since 1965 to be restored. If anything, we should make it easier to vote rather than harder.
Death by Cop.
It sounds hyperbolic at first glance, but sadly the last year has shown the country what many African Americans have known for some time. There are two distinct, separate, and unequal versions of police 'protection' in many communities. There is the average white person's experience, in which the police are a community serving, benevolent protective force that are there to help the average citizen. Then there is the average Black man's experience with the police, in which the police function as an occupying militia that is there to keep them in line; and any small mistake in mannerism or protocol can result in being badly beaten or executed in the street with impunity. I wish I could smartly lay out the statistics of just how many people the police killed last year; but interestingly, POLICE AREN'T REQUIRED TO TRACK IT! What I do know is that the deaths of Tamir Rice, Mike Brown, Eric Garner, and John Crawford could have been avoided if the cops involved had thought for two seconds that their lives matter.
We need new federally enforced policing guidelines. The US needs mandatory body cameras, federal regulations on handling the footage, federal rules on police stops, federal tracking of all officer involved shootings, and a mandatory investigation of all police shootings conducted by an independent prosecutor. I realize there's some out there that say, well we have enough rules on the books; but the difference is that we need federal guidelines with clear penalties. When bad cops start being punished, then we'll see things change.
Income Disparity.
We are out of recession. The economy is doing better by leaps and bounds compared to the tattered mess Obama was handed in 2008. The problem is that the Wall Street fat cats have their thumb on the scales and main street hasn't seen any of the gains. While the country has seen unbelievable gains in the market, the GOP and their corporate sponsors have made sure that the working class doesn't get a taste of the spoils. We need a hike in minimum wage for the working man and to close the loop holes for the top 1% who seem to experts at dodging the tax man.
Term Limits
This conversation is as old as the flat tax debate; but if the influx of dark money has proven anything, it's proven that politicians of late are only interested in laying the foundation for their personal, corporate-funded war chest. Their votes are being sold off to the highest bidding millionaire or billionaire and the country is suffering. If these guys knew that they only got a 2year term and it was over, I believe it would weed out those looking for the cash-grab and attract more of those people that truly want to make a better country.
Also, if it were up to me, the Supreme Court would also be limited in terms they could serve. The current court is stacked with GOP ideologues and nearly every decision splits along political lines. If that's the case, then these justices are just an extension of the President and Party which appointed them and they should be shown the door after a time, to make room for another President and Party to choose.
Infrastructure.
All over this country we have bridges, roads, and rails that are literally falling apart. The last Congress totally ignored the infrastructre package and it's high time we got back to it. Besides getting back to actually running this country, the right infrastructure spending could put plenty of people back to work.
Well, that's it. I'm stepping off the soap box. I'm just the Average Black Man and that's my two cents.
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