LEGACY

The Clintons' New Democrat Party

The Modern Democratic Party was founded on the Principles of liberalism and socialism. Putting aside the racist element, they did not believe in the concept of oligarchy,  fascism or totalitarianism. They subscribed to a democratic freedom which at the core was the belief the duty of a country or nation is to see to the welfare of its citizens. That is the root ideology of the Democratic Party.  They ran on issues like universal healthcare, strong unions, and consumer protection. Democrats believed in reigning in corporations and bankers to ensure they do not prey upon the people with fraudulent transactions in what amounted to nothing more than robbery.  They believed in oversight because they understood the nature of man.  America, through her rich history, served as the perfect laboratory in which to study human behavior. The Founders understood the extent to which humans will go in order to take advantage of one another and over the years regulations and laws were put in place to measure the deficiencies, we are after all a society and without rules we don’t have a society.  Democrats fought to protect citizens from the very same issues we are struggling with today like predatory lending and abuse by corporations, low wages and substandard education. They understood and respected our relationship with nature and knowing we needed air to breath they protected the environment and fought to preserve land and keep forestry so we can have the beauty of green spaces and parks and you know - trees.

Then came Martin Luther King leading the fight for Civil Rights, the struggle for equal opportunity for all citizens particularly the African-Americans who was then and continues today to be blatantly discriminated against. While the national Democratic Party debated Civil Rights, in the south it was clear - no debate. Rank and file southern Democrats were mostly white, mostly males most of them overtly racists.  It was the Democrats who passed the Jim Crow laws and implemented racial segregation.

Raper Blood

I was listening to a Jamaican radio program the other day and they were talking about how rape was formerly part of the Jamaican culture. It was two male hosts and although I had no doubt they were serious there was playfulness about the way they approached the subject, being a Jamaican it made me sit up and listen but I did feel awkward. They laughed as they talked about when girls said no in Jamaica it meant nothing because men took it to mean yes and would basically force themselves onto the woman. Mostly men called in and one mentioned that when he came to America his mother made sure to tell him “no” meant no in America, and not the yes it implied in Jamaica. I gathered from listening that the point of the topic was to say that was then and this is now, back then men forced themselves and now they respect when the woman says no.  However, there was something that just didn’t feel right about the conversation.

Just then a particular party came to mind, was in Jamaica and I attended a local party on Negril beach where they played a song by a local DJ whose lyrics referred to having “raper blood”, you got it “rape-r blood”.  Raper blood was aggression towards women in a sexual way, about forcing oneself on a woman, in essence raping her. When that song came on the crowd went wild screaming and cheering, male and female.