Be Bold Biden: Bolster the Black Base

Pardon The Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Marilyn Mosby, Esq., Jesse Jackson, Jr. and Political Prisoners

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Comments and Commentary by Dr. Ron Daniels

The Democrats lost the 2024 presidential election in part because Biden failed to boldly tell the story of the historic selection of the first Black woman as Vice-President, the appointment of the first Black woman to the Supreme Court and to emphasize a range of policies specifically designed to benefit Black communities. People cannot act on what they don’t know or are allowed to forget. Equally disastrous, the Harris-Walz campaign and the Democratic National Committee refused to double down on motivating Black voters as the bedrock base of the party. They failed to substantially and creatively invest in Black voter education, mobilization and get out the vote strategies.

In the meantime, the President-Elect, unapologetically and relentlessly played to his white nationalist, anti-black and people of color grievance-laden base. Now he is preparing to double down on his base again by pardoning hundreds of January insurrectionists. Why? Because it will electrify his MAGA mad base. And those who are released will forever be grateful, vocal, rabid, blindly loyal followers of their “leader.”  Many will become his shock troops willing to die, if necessary, in service and defense of their liberator.

In the meantime, in nauseating, typical fashion Biden is timidly tipping along with “care” and “caution” as it relates to enacting HR-40 by Executive Orde; acting to send desperately needed military and humanitarian aid to Haiti or utilizing his presidential pardoning power to bolster the Black base. Biden boldly and understandably pardoned his son Hunter and commuted the sentences of hundreds of incarcerated persons convicted of non-violent drug offenses, the majority of whom are likely Black people and people of color targeted by the War on Drugs. But so far Biden has pardoned fewer than 50 individuals.

The problem is thousands upon thousands of Black people and people of color were entrapped by the Drug War. So, Biden should do more, much more. He should bolster the Black base by boldly acting to address this criminal injustice by pardoning thousands of victims of the Drug War. And Biden should do more than this, much more.  He should boldly pardon high-profile figures in Black America like Jesse Jackson, Jr., the son of Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, in recognition of his historical contributions to the nation; Baltimore City Prosecutor Marilyn Mosby, Esq; and issue a long overdue pardon to the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey, the greatest mass organizer the Black world has produced; a much-maligned icon who was the first victim of the FBI.

Finally, while the President-Elect is preparing to release insurrectionists who attacked the nation’s Capital in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election, scores of Black political prisoners are languishing in jail, many suffering for decades for acting in the defense of the Black Freedom Struggle, a valiant cross-generational quest to achieve freedom, justice and equality for the sons and daughters of Africans in America. The insurrectionist attacked to destroy the union. Black freedom fighters fought to create “a more perfect union.”

Be Bold Biden. Respect, fire-up, bolster the Black base to battle and defeat the retrograde, reactionary, racist infected forces of MAGSIM! #BeBoldBiden