The most consequential political presidential season of modern American history is afoot, and within days, the direction of the Empire will be set into electoral stone. The choices presented to the voting populace is one that could hardly be less appetizing – the spoiled billionaire brat, Donald J. Trump vs. Her Highness Hillary Rodham (although she doesn’t use her maiden name these days) Clinton – and the race is, in a numeric sense, inches apart.

That this is so, that an outrageous political novice, could be within striking distance Clinton, a political figure in her own right, as former Frist Lady (wife-partner of past President, William Jefferson Clinton), Secretary of State under President Barack Obama, and former U.S. Senator for New York, is a rather telling tale of her political woes and weaknesses (imagine where Bernie Sanders would be head-to-head against Trump!)

It is also a sobering reflection of how rejectionist is the U.S. electorate, and how hungry they are for change – any change!  (Bernie, anyone?)

And yet the die is cast. The clock ticks away, and the fate of the Empire is likely to be determined by the swing votes – not of any state, particularly, but by the voting choices determined by the Black Vote – that nebulous, numerous variable that can set the scene of this political tragi-comedy.

With that kind of Power, that strategic leverage, what are Blacks demanding? What promises have they exacted from either major political choice?

The answer is as sad, as it is almost inevitable.

Nothing.

How can we be surprised when that is precisely what we will get?

“Power”, said the great Frederick Douglass, “concedes nothing without demand.”

What have Black politicians, Black preachers, Black feminists, demanded? A repeal of AEDPA – the law that suspended and truncated habeas corpus? A 50% reduction of mass incarceration? An end to the Police-Industrial Complex?

What?

The only voices that emerged from the Black and youth community that dared criticize Her Highness (and the political poison personified by her husband, past Pres. Clinton) has been Black Lives Matter. But among the insiders – the politicians –nothing.

So, Black Americans – who have the most to lose among all Americans-, hang on to Hope.

And little else.

--© ’16 maj