Month: October 2018

If one puts this question into a historical perspective, the African American attraction to the Democratic Party makes no sense to me.

Slavery history: Hunter-gatherers and primitive farmers had no use for a slave. They collected or grew just enough food for themselves.

But, once people gathered in towns and cities, a surplus of food created in the countryside made possible a wide range of crafts in the town. On a large farm or in a workshop there was real benefit in a reliable source of cheap labor, costing no more than the minimum of food and lodging. These are the conditions for slavery.

Man’s inhumanity in the form of slavery has been one of the great travesties in the history of mankind.

Slavery has existed in almost every civilization, dating back as far as 3500 BC.
Although slavery is no longer legal anywhere in the world, human trafficking remains an international problem and an estimated 25-40 million people are enslaved today, the majority in Asia.

The slavery issue led us to the Civil War, 1861-1865. Author Ron Chernow’s book, Grant is arguably the best history ever written about America during the 30-year period from 1845-1875. It deals with the run-up to the Civil War, the war itself and the post-war period. General, and later President, Ulysses S. Grant is the central figure.

Grant believed in abolishing slavery; he was a champion of African Americans and throughout the Civil War he used his influence and leadership to assist slaves escaping from the Confederate states. President Lincoln, a Republican, agreed with General Grant and advocated for abolition of slavery and signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1st, 1863.

During the siege of Richmond Virginia, the final months of the Civil War, General Grant and President Lincoln met frequently to discuss and plan for what freedom and equality should mean for the freed slaves. Their plan included the right to own property, to vote and hold office. The freed slaves would have access to all educational opportunities, public transportation and commercial activities; everything white citizens had.

The Civil War ended when General Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House on April the 9th, 1865. Five days later President Lincoln was assassinated. The vision President Lincoln and General Grant had for the freed slaves died with the President.

Lincoln’s Vice President, Andrew Johnson, a Republican, was sworn in as President. Johnson was a weak, indecisive President and sided with the powerful Democrat leaders in the Confederate states to restrict the freedoms for the freed slaves. The grand Lincoln/Grant plan for post-war reconstruction never came to fruition.

Not only were African Americans denied equal rights, they were, for the most part, economic and social captives in the southern states and subjected to one of the darkest periods in American history. The rise of the Ku Klux Klan was dramatic and literally threatened the lives and livelihood of all freed slaves without fear of retribution or law enforcement. It is estimated that there was a KKK organization in nearly every county in the former Confederate states. President Johnson turned a blind eye to the KKK devastation.

For 100 years following the end of the Civil War, the centerpiece of the Democratic party was segregation and all that it entailed. From 1865 to 1965 the Democrats were the party of the south. They demanded, got and enforced segregation of African Americans for 100 years.

As a young adult, I recall TV coverage of the Democratic Party’s pledge to continue segregation and keep African Americans riding in the back of the bus, drinking from “blacks only” fountains, from ordering a cup of coffee in a restaurant or attending a white school. Two examples:

Orval Faubus, Governor of Arkansas from 1955 to 1967; a Democrat, is notorious for his 1957 stand against desegregation of the Little Rock School District. By ordering the Arkansas National Guard to prevent black students from attending Little Rock Central High School, he refused to comply with a unanimous decision of the U.S. Supreme Court made in the 1954 case, Brown v. Board of Education.

George Wallace, Governor of Alabama, sought the United States presidency as a Democrat three times, and once as an Independent party candidate. He is best remembered for his staunch opposition to desegregation and declaring in his 1963 Governor’s inaugural address that he stood for “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever”.

I care about African Americans. I know African Americans. While serving 32 years in the US Army I stood shoulder to shoulder with them every day. I served under and was mentored by outstanding Black leaders. I led them, trained with them, fought beside them. I respect their courage, capabilities and commitment. Here is what I know to be true; the only difference between white Americans and African Americans is the color of our skin. Period.

Some will counter this conclusion by saying, “yes, but if you go into a predominantly African American community you will experience a different culture.” Certainly, you will, just as if you entered a predominantly Italian, or Polish, or Jewish community. Differences in culture does not translate to inferiority.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 ended the 100-year Democratic Party hold on segregation; sort of. The “colored only” signs are gone and Democrats can no longer embrace segregation as their party platform. But even in the passage of the Civil Rights Act 100 years after the close of the Civil War, only 7% of the Democrats in Congress from the former Confederate states voted in favor of the Act compared with 90% from the Union states. Overall, 64% of Democrats in the Congress voted yes while 80% of the Republicans did.

So, how are the African American communities, as a whole, doing over the past 50 years since the Civil Rights Act? I would conclude, not so good. Are African Americans still struggling to achieve equality? I believe so.

Look at the state of African American communities in Detroit, Baltimore, Washington DC, East St Louis, Chicago, it’s a long list, and they all have one thing in common; decades of continuous Democratic Party control. It is called “identity politics.” That is, the politicians identify a segment of the population, Black communities for example, provide government programs that create a dependency on the government for life’s essentials, (housing, heat, food, child care, etc.). They then convince the African American voters that the Republicans want to take away their benefits.

Nothing could be further from the truth. The United States, is the most benevolent country in the world. For those who are incapable of providing for themselves, there will always be a government helping hand. The difference between the two parties is that the Republicans want to create a business-based economy in the Black communities. The Republicans do not want any “identity group” in a state of dependency but rather in an environment where they can be self-sufficient, live their lives believing in self-worth, higher esteem and more properly providing for their families.

Yes, the Republicans want to do away with some government handouts but ONLY, only, when they are no longer needed.

The community of East Lake is about 5 miles east of downtown Atlanta, Georgia. In the mid-1990s, only 13% of the residents of the East Lake Meadows housing projects had a job; 87% UNEMPLOYMENT. The high school graduation rate was about 30%. The crime rate was 18 times the national average.

Through an array of community efforts working together the nightmare for East Lake is history. Of the first graduating class from Charles R. Drew Charter School (pre-K through grade 12) 100% were accepted into college in 2017. The streets are safe, the gangs are gone, the government housing project has been removed. East Lake is a model community studied by groups from across the country who want to move away from government-controlled poverty and do not want to be beholden to a Democratic Party “identity group.”

During Donald Trump’s campaign in 2016, he addressed the African American community and summed up their potential future with a single phrase, “What the hell do you have to lose?” In eight words he made the case I have been trying to explain in the above paragraphs. As President, he has done more for the African American communities in 18 months that any other President. Black American unemployment is at an all-time low. Americans on SNAP (food stamps) has decreased by about 2 million with the rise in employment, better pay, less taxes and full-time jobs. This is an example of taking away a government handout when, and only when, it is no longer needed. Self-sufficiency, self-esteem in the Black communities is on the rise.

Accountability is a powerful concept and automatically leads to a better life, a better family, a better standard of living. I believe the African American communities have to come to grips with TWO ESSENTIAL ISSUES.

First, EMBRACE EDUCATION. Education is THE key to moving up and moving forward. Remember East Lake, study East Lake and copy East Lake. Take the long view, talk about education, meet and discuss how to do things differently and better. Make education a daily priority.

Secondly, FIX THE FAMILY STRUCTURE. In 1965 out-of-wedlock babies born to African American mothers was 25%. By 1991 the rate had risen to 68% and is currently above 70%. The out-of-wedlock births for white women is less than 20%. Too many young African American mothers are stuck with no way to move up and move forward. Parents, school administrators, preachers, community leaders have to attack this head on. Again, it is an accountability issue.

In the 1970’s the US Army was not in good shape; racial tension, drug abuse and lack of accountability were among the problems. A group of young general officers accepted the challenge to fix it. Part of the solution was to recruit America’s best and brightest to fill the ranks. Part of that process was a recruiting jingle, “Be……all that you can be…. in the Army.” It was extraordinarily effective and by changing the culture of the Army to one of accountability, trust and respect we rapidly moved the organization forward. The African American community can take this page from history, a pledge in your communities to, “be all you can be.”

This blog began with a question, WHAT IS THE ATTRACTION FOR AFRICAN AMERICANS TO THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY? I do not know the answer. What I have tried to point out is that there is reason for African Americans to be skeptical. Just consider the FACTS; historically, the Democratic Party was the party of slavery, the party of the Ku Klux Klan, the party that held up post-Civil War freedom and equality for 100 years, the party of segregation and the party that did not wholly embrace The Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Now, 50-plus years since the Civil Rights Act, the Democratic Party has successfully locked African Americans into an “identity group” that has become dependent on government assistance; programs that keep too many African Americans in poverty.

New economic initiatives over the past two years have created momentum that can carry African Americans to new social and economic heights. African Americans can realize the freedom and equality that President Lincoln and General Grant planned to implement in 1865. “What the hell do you have to lose?”

Lieutenant General, US Army retired, Marvin L. Covault is the author of Vision to Execution, a book for leaders and a columnist for The Pilot, a national award-winning Southern Pines, NC local newspaper.

In case you missed it, Homeland Security just released the Southwest Border illegal immigration statistics for fiscal year 2018 which ended 30 September, 2018.

This is not a pretty picture:
– Total Southwest Border Patrol Apprehensions……396,579. That’s 1,086 a day.
-Of the 396,579, family units accounted for 107,212. A family unit is a child under the age of 18 apprehended along with a parent or legal guardian.
– Of the 396,579, 50,036 were unaccompanied children; 137 per day.

The FY 2018 total (396,579) is an increase of 93,563 over the FY 2017 total of 303,016.

My assumption is that the majority of these people were intent on looking for work in the US.

There is a simple solution to this problem that goes on unabated year after year.

If you have not yet read it, go back to this blog home page and read A NEW WAY TO LOOK AT IMMIGRATION REFORM.

This program will work. It should be a nonpartisan issue. The illegal immigrants pay for it. It is a one-time program and thereafter no one can cross the border illegally and have any hope of securing a job in the US.

Most of the individuals in the 7000-person caravan currently headed for the US, who have been interviewed, indicate they are coming to find a job.

If the immigration reform program in this blog would have been implemented, the current caravan would not exist. Nor would there be a follow-on caravan that is reportedly being formed in Honduras.

Under my proposed Immigration reform, there are four reasons why all the current illegals working in the US will register for the program. 1) They live in fear every day of being caught and deported; that goes away. 2) They currently have no path to US citizenship; citizenship becomes a potential reality. 3) Currently they have no way to legally go home to visit family and then return to their job in the US; they will be able to do so legally. 4) If they do not register, they will not be able to continue working in the US.

This program should stop the flow of people coming for jobs and allow the border patrol to concentrate on stopping criminals, terrorists, drug dealers and the sex slave trade. It may even negate, or at lease reduce, the need for a border wall.

I have spent the past three years trying to get someone in Washington to read the IMMIGRATION REFORM PLAN. Copies have gone to the White House, my Representative and Senators with not even the courtesy of a response.

My request is that if you have not read the immigration reform plan in my blog, please do so. If you agree it is a viable way forward, please make an attempt to contact someone in Washington who can get the ball rolling. I am available to go anywhere, meet with anyone who can shine some light on this program.

By the way, recently a couple professors released their findings concerning how many illegals there are currently in the US. After an exhaustive study, they came to three conclusions. 1) The current estimate of 10-12 million is certainly low. 2) It is possible the number may be as high as 22 million. 3) There are valid reasons to believe the number is at least 16 million.

50,000 unaccompanied children were sent across the border and apprehended last fiscal year. That statistic alone makes doing something positive about immigration policy a moral imperative.

Marv Covault

Yesterday, 22 October 2018, President Obama was campaigning for the Democrats in Nevada. The highlight of his speech was widely broadcast on the evening news. The subject was economics.

Obama’s statement began with that smile (maybe a smirk) and a little hesitation that silently broadcast to the audience……..what I am about to say is so obvious that it goes without saying, but I will tell you anyway…..then he continued in that condescending tone, ” ……when you hear all of his (President Trump’s) talk about economic miracles right now, remember who started it.” Obama has made this same point several times over the past six months.

To put Obama’s statement in perspective, maybe a little stroll down memory lane is in order. Some of us remember the 1960 presidential campaign, Kennedy vs Nixon. Three major issues in the campaign: 1) for the past eight years Eisenhower had been a very popular republican president. 2) Across all the parties people were asking, what will happen to the country if we elect a president who is catholic (yes, for you youngsters, that was a major issue). 3) The economy.

Since the 1958 recession, the economy had been very sluggish and unemployment remained perilously high, 6.8%. JFK’s Council of Economic Advisers urged him to attack unemployment with a tax-and-spend strategy (sound familiar?). In 1963, declaring that the absence of recession is not tantamount to economic growth, President Kennedy proposed to cut income taxes. JFK’s message to the American people was that lowering taxes was the surest path to full employment and economic growth.

President Kennedy was correct and from 1961 until his death in 1963, he led a democratic party dramatically different from today’s version.

Now, let’s fast forward to the 1980 presidential election, Carter vs Reagan. President Carter had made a mess of the economy and people were suffering with 12.5% inflation and a prime interest rate of about 20%. Candidate Reagan ran on a pledge to cut taxes and fix the economy. He did cut taxes and it was the beginning of a significant economic upturn.

Apparently, that short history lesson on the impact tax cutting can have on a recession recovery was lost on President Obama. Another thing lost on him was the fact that in modern economics no country has worked its way out of a recession with a tax-and-spend economic strategy.

Now back to President Obama and his claim that today’s booming economy is because he got it all started. Perhaps he has had a lapse of memory because of what he said just a couple years ago while nearing the end of his presidency.

May, 2016, Carrier Company announced they were moving manufacturing to Mexico and Indianapolis was going to lose 1000 jobs.

During a June 1st PBS town hall event, Obama responded to a Carrier employee who complained about the fact that jobs were leaving Indianapolis. Obama: “When somebody says, like the person you just mentioned (Trump) who I’m not going to advertise for, that he’s going to bring all these jobs back, well how exactly are you going to do that? What are you going to do?” said Obama. “There’s — there’s no answer to it. He just says, “Well, I’m going to negotiate a better deal.” Well, how — what — how exactly are you going to negotiate that? What magic wand do you have? And usually, the answer is he doesn’t have an answer.”

That statement was a clear attempt by Obama to argue that Trump’s vow to keep jobs in the United States was an empty campaign promise and impossible to achieve.
As the New York Times later reported, “….before Trump even takes office, he has already convinced Carrier to stop 1,000 jobs being moved out of Indiana to Mexico after a deal was struck with the company.”

It has become clear that President Obama did not have the skills to conduct that kind of negotiation and to do the things that needed to be done to kick-start the economy, a tax cut for example.

Just to put a final point on how ludicrous Obama’s statement in Nevada yesterday was, consider the following:

– Obama is the only president in history to never have a year of 3% GDP growth.

-Obama and his economic advisers were working hard to convince the American people that 2% GDP growth and 5.5% unemployment are the “new normal”; days of 3 or 4% growth are gone forever. This is the same time that China’s GDP was chugging along at about 8% annual growth.

Robert Krugman, Nobel prize for economics and adviser to President Obama on economic matters said, as a result of the Trump victory, “We are very probably looking at a global recession, with no end in sight.”

Yep, Obama really had our economy set up nicely for incoming President Trump.

One final noteworthy Obama quote from the fall of 2016, “Trump will not be President.”

Marv Covault

The month of May is strawberry season in North Carolina. Lots of them and they are delicious.

This morning, 22 October, when I went to the barn to do chores, I noticed we had our first frost of the season. As I was opening a gate to go out into the horse pasture, I noticed in our little strawberry patch, one, lone, small, red strawberry. I picked it and before eating it, a thought occurred to me. That little berry was tough enough to bloom and mature in spite of the season and the cold.

That is sort of a metaphor for life. If you are tough enough you can bloom and mature in spite of abnormal, adverse conditions.

Tens of millions of Americans are currently disadvantaged and I’m sure many of them feel desperate to improve their lives. Well, maybe this is the time to do just that, for a couple reasons:

One, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced this week that there are now 6.7 million job openings, the highest ever recorded, and far exceeding the number of unemployed Americans.

Secondly, a disproportionate number of the disadvantaged are African Americans. Currently, African American unemployment is the lowest since records have been kept.

The upcoming election may actually be a national referendum on the two political partys’ philosophies; big government vs less government intrusion, stifling regulations vs private sector innovation, government HAND-OUTS vs a HELPING-HAND.

Don’t under-estimate American grit. Given a chance there are a lot of out-of-season “strawberries” out there that are just tough enough to bloom in spite of the odds and be all they can be/should be.

Go vote.

Marv Covault

On Tuesday, November 6th, tens of millions of Americans will get up, hurry around, get the kids off to school, fight the traffic getting to work and work a long day. And many will conclude they cannot find the time to vote.

Given the importance of a federal election, one would think we, collectively, should do everything possible to get every eligible voter excited about going to the poles. But, we don’t.

Two years ago, during the 2016 presidential election, there were about 240 million US citizens eligible to vote. About 58% of them did vote. About 100 million did not; pathetic, disgusting, incredible or all of the above.

That voting record speaks volumes about how much we take for granted. A democracy needs maintenance, some TLC and attention if it is to thrive and survive. Voting is a civic duty. Voting is the act of reaffirming that we care about our democracy.

Our Constitution (article 1, section 4) specifically gives congress the power to regulate the, “Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections.”

In 1845 congress passed a federal law designating, “the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November” as the time for Federal elections. In 1845 most of the US population was agrarian and it was not uncommon for farmers to have an all-day round trip by horse and wagon to reach a polling place.

Why November? Why not April or July or January. In most of the country the weather can be bad in the winter. Spring planting as well as summer and early fall harvesting were very busy times. By November, the crops were in and the majority of agrarian voters had time on there hands; hence November elections.

Today, most folks are a little busier on a Tuesday in November than they were in 1845. So busy that 42% find a reason not to vote; too busy, polls closed too early, traffic was bad, lines were too long.

Common sense says we need to take away those excuses. All it will take to fix it is a new one-paragraph law passed by congress.

One approach is to simply change election day to the first or second Sunday in November. Open the poles for 12 hours and there is still plenty of time to attend church.

But, just specifying “Sunday” is still not perfect. The Bureau of Labor statistics, says about 34% of Americans work on the weekends. To overcome weekend work, the new law could make Federal Election Day an official national holiday and specify that everything except “essential services” be closed.

There will be those who will say that voting interferes with church services. If that is a valid objection, make the Federal Election Day fall on the first or second Monday in November. Keep it simple but take away the excuses from the 100 million who are currently not making the effort to vote.

While we are re-doing the election-day law, there is another issue that needs to be fixed and it can be done with a simple sentence.

Currently, as the hours pass during election day, media sources go to elaborate ends to be the first to “declare” a certain candidate the winner. This begins early and goes on endlessly until all the contests are resolved.

So, what is wrong with that? What is wrong is that as the polls close on the east coast and winners of a national contest are projected, this is a potential disincentive for those on the west coast to vote. “Why should I vote, the decision has already been made,” they will say.

To fix this, simply add a sentence to the new law stating that, “no data or election information of any kind from any election or official source will be released until the polls are closed in Hawaii” (or perhaps Guam). If the polls close in Hawaii at 7 pm, that would be 1 am on the east coast.

True, we all WANT to know the projected winners as soon as possible. Also true, we do not NEED to know before all the polls have closed.

Voting is a RIGHT; hundreds of thousands of Americans died during the Civil War fighting for everyone’s’ right to vote. Voting is a PRIVILEGE not afforded to most people in the world; we should feel obliged to act out that privilege. Voting is a RESPONSIBILITY; freedom isn’t free and voting is a small price to pay.