By Lucius Gantt | Believe it or not, some people hate The Gantt Report, but an equal number of people have loved the column for decades.
I always try to write about facts. Feelings and emotions are always respected but the truth is the truth.
When it comes to economics and politics, I’m not the columnist who fell off the back of a turnip truck.
I know who David Axelrod is, I know who James Carville is, I know who Sergio Bendixen is, I know who Steve Hull is, I know who Duane Franceschi was, and I know who Steve Fraser was. I’ve worked as a professional with more than one of these political consultants.
Many Black Americans believe a political campaign manager and a political consultant are the same. A manager has a job with a paycheck. A consultant has a contract or professional services agreement. A manager manages the campaign office, coordinates campaign events, supervises volunteers, handles logistics, and things like that.
A campaign consultant tells candidates how to plan campaign strategies, how to maximize winning campaign messages, how to target frequent voters, how to campaign in “enemy” districts, how to identify and recruit other political pros, and most importantly how to win!
Politics, in some ways, is a lot like rap music once was. Remember when there was West Coast, East Coast beef? Remember when rappers in the South were considered inferior rap artists?
Let me explain how consultants are selected for major political campaigns.
A needy candidate or political party discovers a need to generate, or suppress, Black votes. Black candidates sometimes hire family members, hire friends, and they may hire their sidepieces and designated hitters.
The white candidates don’t know Black political professionals, so they ask Black politicians whom to hire to generate Black votes.
Well, most candidates, Black or white, don’t hire Black professionals. So be careful who you ask who are Black community vote motivators and influencers.
Black political professionals usually get hired late in campaigns when candidates discover the “any Negro will do” political strategy won’t work.
Now, back to the rap and politics analogy.
The President-Elect won every State in the South from Savannah, Georgia to Arizona. The political beatdown stopped in New Mexico and California.
Black voters know Ronald McDonald when they see him. They know Clarabelle and Bozo. Black voters recognize political clowns and charlatans!
Your Black votes are valuable. When Democratic candidates get 90% of Black votes cast, they win. When white nationalists get 15% of Black votes, Democrats lose.
We decide who goes to the White House and Black voters decide who goes home to their house!
When you’re fighting a political battle, you need soldiers you can rely on. You don’t want to go to war alongside the butler in the big house, you don’t want the fiddler or the banjo player in your foxhole.
Mandingoes were hated by their slavers. However, when the plantation was attacked by other slavers, the Mandingo was who was wanted at the master’s side.
Some ignored me when I said campaigns of today are far more scientific and technological than campaigns of old.
Everybody on the internet with a thousand followers or subscribers calls themselves “influencers”.
Black progress is not a laughing matter. Issues like police brutality, poverty, food deserts, infant mortality, no access to capital, unaffordable housing, and diversity, are not topics to laugh about on the modern-day Amos and Andy shows!
It’s not a surprise when some readers like and dislike the same Gantt Report columns. For one thing, TGR is fair. I opine about everything and anybody. When you’re righteous you’re right and when you are wicked and, evil, you’re wrong.
I believe we all have a role to play in Black progress. The activists, the organizers, and the community soldiers are as important as the teachers and preachers!
When Black voters consider unknown politicians who only interact with us at election time, we need unknown soldiers to protect us from political lies and misdirection.
Believe in each other, politically, economically, and in every other way.
Who will protect us, comfort us, advance us, and love us if we don’t love and help each other?
We have talent and skills. Don’t let our oppressors and exploiters tell you anything different!
Unknown political soldiers are not unqualified!
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