Public Health Policy Reviews 36:

The Bowman-Latimer primary race was about the US economy. “Moderate” Democrats are too stupid to realize WHY.

“MAGA” supporters at a rally for former US President Donald Trump in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on June 22nd, 2024.

Former US President Donald Trump has initiated an aggressive campaign strategy of holding large rallies in “blue” states and urban regions traditionally dominated by the Democratic Party.

This past Saturday, Mr. Trump held a rally in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is trying to shift the political landscape in all the areas where President Joe Biden won the 2020 election by “running up” the Democratic Party voting numbers in African American and Latino urban regions.

According to recent polls, preliminary indications are that the Trump campaign is engaging in an electoral strategy that might win him the 2024 electoral college. Biden’s support from Black, Latino, and especially Arab American voters has fallen significantly from his 2020 percentages.

Furthermore, Biden’s allies in the Democratic Party’s “moderate” coalitions are purging progressive politicians of color like Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) and Cori Bush (D-MO) from its ranks. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton helped conservative democrat George Latimer oust Mr. Bowman in last night’s NY-16 Congressional primary.

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George Latimer speaking to supporters after defeating incumbent Democratic Party Congressman Jamaal Bowman in the primary race for New York District 16 on Tuesday, June 25th. Photo image courtesy of the George Latimer campaign.

The Bowman-Latimer race also highlighted intra-party tensions threatening to ensure a Trump victory in November.

The United Democracy Project, a political action committee (PAC) associated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), was a significant partner in a $25 million effort to remove Congressman Bowman because of his pro-Palestinian views and advocacy. AIPAC also helped defeat other minorities and liberals during this primary season, like Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn.

AIPAC assisted Maryland State Senator Sarah Elfreth – another “moderate” Democrat, defeat Mr. Dunn by spending $4.2 million on her congressional campaign in May. Still and all, the primary factor in Biden’s 2024 “fall from grace,” in the opinion of many Black and male voters, is his ineffectual effort to pass policies that improve the lives and economic fortunes of minorities in the US over the past four years.

Many African Americans remember their financial prospects under President Trump before the 2020 coronavirus pandemic.

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Photo by Emmanuel Ikwuegbu on Unsplash.

Over the first three years of Donald Trump’s Presidency, more Black and Hispanic laborers entered the American workforce than at any time previous in US history.

In September 2019, the jobless rate for African Americans reached its lowest rate at 5.4%. Likewise, Hispanic unemployment hit a record low of 3.9%.

According to a Project 21 analysis of Black labor statistical data in November 2019, the jobless rate among African Americans hit record lows six times during the Trump Administration. “Once again, unemployment for Blacks in the US has reached a record low under President Trump,” said Project 21 Co-Chairman Horace Cooper.

“When Americans — Black or White — have a job and are independent and self-sustaining, they are happier, their families are better off, and the economy booms. This is a welcome change that should be applauded as well as maintained into the future,” Cooper continued.

Most political forecasters predicted that former Mr. Trump was on pace to win big as he began gearing up for reelection in February 2020.

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Photo by Anastasiia Chepinska on Unsplash.

So, what happened?

The answer is the COVID-19 pandemic. The coronavirus hit America and the Trump presidency with such intensity that it altered the nation’s economic direction.

With the coronavirus came the government lockdowns and “social distancing” requirements designed to control the spread of coronavirus. COVID-19 destroyed the “Trump economy” and reversed the impressive employment gains made by African Americans during the Trump and Obama Presidential years.

Mr. Trump’s stubbornness regarding implementing federal plans to close portions of the economy, implement the Defense Production Act, nationalize efforts to disseminate personal protection products, and give out clear and concise instructions on public health measures for COVID-19 was devastating.

Donald Trump also began contradicting medical experts, undermining Dr. Anthony Fauci and other members of his coronavirus task force and recommending the opening of public schools and businesses in opposition to state and local public health recommendations for lockdowns.

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“Paper Money.” Image by Paweł Szymczuk from Pixabay.

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed significant disparities in the American economic system between White Americans and minorities concerning family wealth, personal income, and access to health care.

The average African American family possesses one-tenth of the wealth of the average White family, and the average Latino family has only slightly more wealth than the average Black family. COVID-19 devastated the meager economic gains that African Americans accrued during the first three years of the Trump administration.

Donald Trump lost the 2020 election in part because Black voters blamed him for failing to contain the spread of the coronavirus effectively.

All the urban cities in America currently share many demographic and economic attributes. Another critical commonality is that local Democratic Party machine politics dominate the vast majority of the big cities.

Unfortunately, racial segregation and economic stratification are still significant problems in those big cities. Despite political dominance in urban America by the Democratic party for decades, “the more things change, the more they stay the same.”

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Joe Biden, his elitist Democratic Party allies in Washington, and local party operatives in the large metropolitan areas keep forgetting that all politics are local.

When election day finally comes in November, minority and progressive voters will remember how Hillary Clinton and other Biden surrogates helped defeat their preferred candidates during this highly contentious Democratic Party primary season.

Perhaps Mrs. Clinton will sit beside President Biden and repeat her husband’s classic refrain, “I feel your pain,” as the Electoral College results roll in on November 5^th.