Clarence Page

I was delighted but, alas, not all that excited by the platform of policies that Vice President Kamala Harris unveiled to court Black male voters last week.

Her “Opportunity Agenda for Black Men” offers a big package of promising ideas. They include business loans for Black entrepreneurs, legalization of marijuana, and closer regulation of the cryptocurrency market, a response to the widely alleged exploitation of Black men in the crypto market.

I don’t expect these policy proposals to put an end to the old gripe that the Democrats “forget about us until it’s election time.” But it may help shore up a key constituency Harris needs to win; in a tight race even little trends can make a big difference.

Some 70% of Black men in the most recent New York Times/Siena College national poll of Black likely voters declared their preference for Kamala Harris — more than men in any other demographic group. That’s not a reason to rest easy, especially since the polls show the race between Harris and Donald Trump to be, in my view, stubbornly close to a tie.

That the race is so close at this point is a bit of a shock to many of us, given Trump’s almost single-minded efforts to drive so many different types of voters away.

His behavior and language recently have slipped from “weird” to downright bizarre. Yes, we have all grown perhaps too accustomed to Trump’s wild, rambling descriptions of undocumented immigrants, so much so that it barely raises eyebrows when he yet again calls them “animals” or warns that “They’ll cut your throat.”

Same with his outlandish descriptions of Vice President Kamala Harris, without evidence, as being born “mentally impaired.” Or calling her a “radical left Marxist” and the like, despite the fact that many progressive Democrats question her willingness to stand up to corporate power, and that the administration she’s part of has somehow not impeded the stock market from hitting record highs.

Then there is the question of Trump’s mental fitness for the job. At a recent town hall in Oaks, Pennsylvania, Trump stopped taking questions after two people required medical attention — and, as the crowd began to sing “God Bless America,” Trump suggested “Ave Maria” instead.

Inexplicably, this led Trump to discard plans to take questions and asked his team to play what turned out to be more than a half-hour of his musical favorites.

Most disturbing to me is how Trump on Wednesday shrugged off the idea that his conduct on Jan. 6, 2021, should cost him the backing of Republican voters. When called upon at a televised town hall by an ex-Republican voter to account for his dereliction that day by failing to call off the violent mob that stormed the Capitol, Trump called it “a day of love.”

“Nothing done wrong at all,” Trump said in a lengthy response to the ex-Republican voter from Florida.

“There were no guns down there; we didn’t have guns,” he added. “The others had guns, but we didn’t have guns.”

Just to be clear, Trump here used “we” to refer to those who stormed the Capitol, roughly 730 of whom have pleaded guilty to charges related to the event, and a further 130 of whom were convicted after taking their cases to trial, according to the Associated Press. More than 330 served time for their offenses, people whom Trump terms “hostages.”

“The others” who “had guns” were the Capitol Police, 174 of whom were injured fighting to protect the seat of our nation’s government. Four Capitol Police officers committed suicide following the attack.

It’s no wonder that so many Republicans who held high positions in Trump’s administration, including former Vice President Mike Pence — whose life was threatened on Jan. 6 specifically for not going along with Trump’s plot to overturn the 2020 election — are publicly withholding support from him this year.

In the town hall, Trump demurred that only “a very small portion” don’t support him. “But because it’s me, somebody doesn’t support, they get a little publicity,” he said.

Right. We know how much the former president cares about publicity.

However much we may want to dismiss this palaver as “Trump being Trump,” his followers hear and understand exactly what he’s saying. Much like the thousands who went to Washington after he tweeted: “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild.”

“They didn’t come because of me,” Trump said Wednesday. “They came because of the election. They thought the election was a rigged election, and that’s why they came.”

Rigged? Gee, I wonder where they got that idea.

Now would be a good time to remember that Trump was indicted in August on federal charges related to his attempt to overturn the election. That comes after a host of campaign operatives and state GOP officials either pleaded guilty or were convicted of election felonies. And after Trump was charged in Georgia for allegedly leading a “criminal racketeering enterprise” to overturn the election.

I remember how the late Chicago Mayor Harold Washington used to speak angrily of rivals who “throw the rock then hide their hand.”

Such rock throwers can still be found. Some even brag about it. We might be unlucky enough to turn the fate of our democracy over to one in November.

E-mail Clarence Page at cpage47@gmail.com.