The Black Progressive Politician: Transaction Indictment Experts

Please listen to this audio interview between NPR's Michelle Martin and CBC Chairman Barbara Lee.

You will notice from this interview that the "favorable" Black elected official is seen as the "voice of" the Black community, entering into hostile chambers and getting resources for Black people. This differs substantially from how others are viewed. When unfavorable results are received as "unfavorable" people sit in the same seat of power the Black community faults them and immediately proceeds a purge operation.

This purge is based on IDEOLOGY and not results. An unfavorable person who renders results for Black people that are break-even or slight improvement (ex: Black graduation rates in Georgia have increased slightly recently as the state got more red) fails to move those who claim that they are pursuing their "permanent interests" and have no "permanent friends".

In the case of Barbara Lee - in the face of massive grievances over the erosion of so many key measures of the living standard for Black people she is ultimately able to blame Bush's policies and "Tax Cuts for the Rich" for the job loss and economic erosion. She knows that their is enough ideological bigotry within the Black community that her absurd analysis won't be challenged.

Furthermore Ms Lee will never bring forth the unique architecture of the political machine within the Black community. An architecture that extends from every nook and cranny locally, passing through every node in the hierarchy up to the top. One mass of "ideological unity enforcement".

The Attainment Of A High Standard Of Living: Redistributionist Policies Indexed By Competency Development

This present debate on "Tax Cuts For The Rich" where an income of $250,000 is the break point by which we show our care for "the little people" is a totally arbitrary fight done for nothing more than to create a TRANSACTIONAL indictment for the purposes of creating a "teaming effect".

I notice as I listened to Ms Lee's commentary that she felt no obligation to make note of the effect that her leftist policies had upon the other means of obtaining a higher standard of living.
The means by which a standard of living is obtained is:

1. Nationalized Redistribution Of Entitlements From Rich To Poor
2. Employment Based Labor Organization For Increased Compensation
3. Development Of Organic Community Based Entities That Produce Wealth

Ms Lee and other Progressive-fundamentalists have a stronger track record at #1 as they pursue "social justice".  The greater-Oakland area that elected her to congress has a history that is rooted in #2.  The heralded movie "The Killer Of Sheep" was filmed in the Bay Area.  It showed the struggles of a working class Black family.  During that time Oakland's sea port provided jobs and upward mobility for many Black people.    As the labor movement fought to increase the compensation and benefits for the people associated with the docks - a higher living standard was achieved.

Sadly many of the same people who accuse the Tea Parties of living "back in the day" are also guilty of heralding their past struggles as justification for their present retention into power.  On a daily basis they "try harder" to vote and struggle their way to retain this past that has slipped away as their corporate conservative enemies have pulled a fast one on them.   They are oblivious to the fact that today they are "all alone, by themselves" - sitting in the seats of power that they used to protest against as the platform from which their OPPRESSION has emanated.

The truth of the matter is that the elusive #3 point above proves to be their major failing.  The rise of the "Progressive who is Black" into the seats of power has meant that they have a higher platform by which they can make demands of more nationalized redistribution.  

Turning Back The Clock.......To A 70% Income Tax Rate Is Progress

The present debate shows clearly that only the "social oppression" attributes from "back in the day" will render someone as a Troglodyte.  Those who promote the reestablishment of  "economic oppression" at the hands of the government are champions of the "Least of These".  

Think about the notion of  "progressive taxation" as a key source of community development.  

Previously I noted the importance of understanding the flow of VALUE in every transaction.   It is to a people's advantage to insure that every transaction that they engage in has value on both sides.  

In the case of the "income redistributive" policies of the progressives - monetary increase via taxation is the item for transfer from the perspective of the wealthy.  Few people can accurately articulate what the "Least Of These" offer up in the exchange.  To say "nothing" is totally inaccurate.

When redistributive taxation is the case there are two important points to understand from the perspective of the poor (and their emissaries ).

1. The INDICTMENT that is contained in the notion that "You don't care about your fellow man" is up for grabs from the side of the poor.  Those who broker this transaction, despite their own lack of monetary contribution (if this is the case) in the effort are said to be "Doing God's Work".
2. The middle man broker who constructs the deal in the political process receives the vote of confidence from "the least of these".

I noted previously that there are two currencies in America:

1. The monetary currency as represented in your bank account and wallet
2. The vote that an individual has in the context of the American electoral system

The fact is that there is an incestuous interrelationship between these two currencies.  Money is spent to garner votes.   Votes are used to channel money toward the holder of the votes. 

Currency As A Gateway Toward POWER Over The System

As I drove the length of "Rev Joseph Lowery Blvd" during election season to make note of the abundance of "mission accomplished" signs - as represented by the array of Democratic party incumbents and their Democratic challengers I attempted to correlate this power base with the advantage that they received from their ballot currency.    This area remains destitute despite their "cooperative economic" in how they spend their voting currency.   The truth is that the standard of living that they presently live at is in excess of the organic productivity that exists in the MARKETPLACE that has been erected within.   Relative to other areas it is true that their achieved standard of living is less.  Relative to other places around the world which have a similar level of education and competency they are far higher.

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This is a picture of Stanton Road in Southwest Atlanta. As I was joy riding through the community that I used to live in and made my way to purchase a "Final Call" from the local NOI owned commercial plaza I drove down Sandtown, not having done so in about 2 years.

This stretch of Stanton had been lined with World War II-looking bungalows that had been public housing for "The Least Of These" the last time I saw it. As with every other Atlanta Housing Authority initiated plan to raze public housing and replace it with "mixed income" housing this too experienced massive conflict. Charges that the "elite Blacks in power were attempting to move poor Black people out of Atlanta" were made.

As I drove down Stanton and ran into a ROUNDABOUT. The sight of this was disorienting. I thought that I had rode down the wrong street. I wasn't sure that this would take me to Lakewood Freeway/Langford Parkway as I was used to.

Then I remembered that this had been the site of the public housing and this fabulous new development is what the community.

This new complex is noted as the fruit of the currency of voting. This was not a private commercial development but a new enterprise brought forth by the federal government. The people living within cashed in their voting currency in support of "someone who cared about their living conditions" and they were justly rewarded for doing so.

From the mindset of the progressive the system of government that erected the funding (via taxation), which let a contract that enforced diversity and inclusiveness in the contracting and which produced the fruit in the form of first rate housing for the benefit of "the least of these" - this is government at is best.  In this new eco-system young people who are treated to these new facilities will be in a mindset that will induce high educational outcomes.  The sight of newly paved cement sidewalks will assure the adult woman that the community is safe.  The few construction jobs opened up to the adult males will generate some flow of money into their pockets for a certain amount of time.

It appears on the surface that this was a TRANSACTION that proved to be worthy to those who live within.  This is until we ask the tough questions.

Lets move away from the notions that certain environmental conditions have an inductive impact (good and bad) upon a person.   I agree with this and thus it is incontrovertible.   Instead lets focus on a few attributes by which to measure a suite of transactions:

1. Have the people's financial acumen been enhanced?
2. Have the people's competencies to enhance and maintain their eco-system been augmented?
3. Have any new systems of local governance by which a the "equal human beings" are engaged to maintain a higher order of interactions between the masses?  (culture)

I am not opposed to this development.  The old homes were brick "shot gun shacks".  The new facilities look like a "Post Properties" apartment complex.    

My major concern resides in the arena of my difficulty in understanding the central role that "the Least Of These" played in their present circumstances.   For most the trade of their vote brought them a beautiful new settlement.   If however, the government delivered Home Depot a bill of goods and delivered all of the building materials and earth moving equipment - both now and prior to the development - the people in the settlement had no competencies to build their own facilities even with the lack of materials being taken off of the table.

I am sitting in a house over which the same indictment can be made.  Had I constructed my house it would have collapsed.  What I did do is provide my monetary currency toward my house purchase.  I got my monetary currency by leveraging my previous knowledge acquired from the application of my education.

To summarize my point - the carrot that is dangled to attract one's vote is that a greater order of living will be had in spending the vote in a certain way.  Give the vote to the people who care most about your interests.  It is my contention that the greater proof of care for Black people is the evidence of "COMPETENCY DEVELOPMENT" within.   

The array of thought by which income redistributive policies fail at this point.   

The Black people living on Stanton Road have not been enabled one bit to go and assist their brothers in Haiti to build up homes based on what they have learned from their own experience.  In addition and more impactfully there is no system of FINANCING or "cooperative economics" that could be grafted onto any other land of desperation.   Thus what has been obtained beyond a heightened sense of "care-taker-ship" and some general contractors who profited?

In our nation's present dire straights we need more organic productivity at the periphery, filling the buckets known as our "tax base" up in the process.   There is no doubt that a John Lewis and an array of state legislators will point to the revitalization of Stanton Road as proof of their benevolence.   

For me - I point to the retained state of consciousness from the past - and ask Mr Lewis to take a walk a few blocks away and make note of the conditions that look just as Stanton Road used to look.  If the logic stands these people too must "vote harder" in order to receive housing revitalization.