To Be Equal:
We Can’t Afford to Let Anyone Swiftboat Us on Bidenomics
“The truth is that the U.S. economy is a remarkable success story. Don’t let anyone tell you that it isn’t.”
—Paul Krugman
Earlier this year, the National Urban League launched our D3 initiative to Defend Democracy, Demand Diversity, and Defeat Poverty. The initiative to combat poverty emphasizes a comprehensive strategy centered on increasing access and equity across several critical areas, recognizing poverty as a significant national issue that jeopardizes the future prosperity of the United States.
The plan includes expanding access to quality education and financial services, making childcare and healthcare more affordable, and addressing the high costs associated with higher education. It aims to improve social safety nets and create affordable housing while advocating for the decriminalization of poverty and fair pay through living wages. This initiative targets the root causes of poverty, particularly in communities of color, and views the eradication of poverty as crucial for the nation’s moral and economic health.
We prioritize these issues, because we know that there are political forces whose agenda conflicts with our progress and our continued work to keep building on progress and fighting for equity wherever and whenever it is necessary.
As we reported in the 2024 State of Black America, which featured a Progress Report on the Biden-Harris Administration:
“When President Biden took office in January 2021, the Black unemployment rate was 9.2%. As of January 2024, that number is 5.2%. Through a series of bills investing in America’s infrastructure, workforce, technological advantage, and climate, the administration has created opportunities for generations of Black Americans to prosper.”
Simply put, by all economic metrics, Bidenomics is working. It is working for our communities, and it is working for all of America.
Progress works on a continuum and progress requires active participation, that is why our D3 initiative also calls upon every citizen to stand up and defend democracy. We know that efforts to suppress votes through intimidation, suppression, lack of access and other efforts to change the laws and make it harder are part of the strategy to keep our community from participating. In 2022 testimony to a Congressional Subcommittee studying “The Impact of Disinformation Targeted at Communities of Color” the head of the University of Texas Center for Media Engagement said:
“Specific content is drafted as well as tactical behavior employed to influence minority groups. These targeted messages undermine our democracy as they work to alienate and disengage minority groups.”
We see this over and over, so it shouldn’t be a shock that in March 2024 as the economy continued to grow stronger, we saw that Americans for Prosperity, the conservative think tank funded by the Koch Brothers, launched a very strategic and well-funded effort to “Swiftboat” Bidenomics and all the good news and positive outcomes for Americans from bipartisan policies that have led to the strongest post-recession recovery in US History.
The sophisticated campaign led by AFP is both national and targeted in specific congressional districts, including a number of Black and Hispanic represented districts.
Millions of dollars are being spent on ads promoting a false narrative on the Biden Administration’s successful economic policies and to algorithmically profile voters who click on these misleading ads.
As I said in my introduction to this year’s state of Black America, “Our abiding commitment to freedom is undermined by discriminatory voter ID laws, gerrymandering, the shuttering of polling places in predominantly minority neighborhoods, limits on early voting, and reckless purging of voter rolls.”
It is also undermined by divisive disinformation. We know that before any election gets here, anti-racial justice forces will push false narratives and disinformation designed to depress us and divide us in America. By every factor that matters, it is important to remember that Bidenomics Works. These “Swiftboat” tactics that target us on our phones and in our computers are a dangerous tactic we must remain vigilant about as we fight on for justice and equality.
—May 2, 2024
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Come back next week to read Marian Wright Edelman's column.
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