6 days Ago By Pius Kamau
But for a few changes, Colorado’s government remains intact following the last elections, including sending an equal Democrat/Republican congressional delegation to Washington. I hated seeing Dr. Yadira Caraveo, a scientist, lose to Gabe Evans — by 2,600 votes — in Colorado’s 8th Congressional District in an election campaign marred by a TV ad avalanche that she couldn’t surmount.
We need more scientist legislators to guide our nation. After a four-year campaign, Donald Trump returns to power. It’ll be interesting to see the electorate’s reaction as he fulfills his promises.
In January 2023 I wrote a column: “Rural America is not a foreign country,” based on my visits to rural Colorado and my encounters with people in Kiowa, Strasburg, Sterling — different rural areas of our state. I found them pleasant and friendly; developing long-lasting friendships with some, a friendship that resulted in delivery of an occasional bundle of frozen fish to my office. I meant to suggest to urban America it should acknowledge the America that lives around cities, that many treat as a foreign country.
Many city dwellers are after all transplants of villages and hamlets of America. Anderson Clayton, a 26-year-old woman, head of the Democratic Party of North Carolina, was raised in the rural town of Roxboro. After seeing the importance of rural conversion — from red to blue — she intensified Democrats’ efforts in rural North Carolina.
The state didn’t flip to Democrats this time, but Clayton is just starting. So is her rural American generation. I revisit the tale of my rural sojourn to suggest to Democrats to reach out to rural America.
The Democratic Party must reinvent itself into a more versatile entity that accommodates and attracts both urban and rural membership: field workers, farmers and others. Sadly, national Democrats ignored these and other people, leaving a gaping opportunity for a billionaire to seduce middle-class workers, who Democrats of yore supported with vigor because they were nimble and light on their feet and willing to engage in hand-to-hand combat. The party that Trump’s MAGA movement bested was happy with what it had become: after learning the use of ever-changing, ever-growing pronouns and newly minted groupings; non-binary men and women, gender-fluid people.
I found bizarre the story of a 6-year-old Colorado Springs boy’s parents clamoring for him to use the girls’ bathroom because they thought he felt like a girl. The Democratic Party has fought hard for many groups, Hispanics among them, for jobs, higher salary, immigration and good health care. But many Hispanics find the continued push for new, befuddling concepts incompatible with their faith and family values after minority groups of various stripes and objectives have hijacked the party, consuming much energy, hindering progress to woo new voters.
This applies to other groups that support the party; they have stayed in it not necessarily happy or fulfilled by what they see happening around them. President Biden’s tenure has been wildly successful and leaves a legacy few can equal. I have however found the administration’s inability or unwillingness to communicate to the country what good the administration has accomplished consistently puzzling.
It is a travesty for Democrats — they can’t yell out loud enough about their accomplishments. That occurred to Obama’s passing the Affordable Care Act that today helps 20 million Americans and is a boon to Americans’ health care. His administration just couldn’t publicize it enough to tell the world what a great job they had done.
Contrast that to Trump who shamelessly trumpets what he believes he did or what he’ll do. Perhaps the reborn Democratic Party will learn how to announce its successes and minimize such silliness as “Abolish the Police.” It must never let cheap propaganda tarnish its successes.
Democrats are quick to use their sharpened blades on anything their orthodoxy has christened sinful or unacceptable. I remember how quickly Senator Al Franken of Minnesota, was forced to retire from the Senate for alleged sexual misconduct scandal based on a photograph. The female Democratic wing cauterized all misconduct, emptying its ranks of good, talented men.
Republicans protect and promote their own, including our future president. The Democratic Party must continue its advocacy: for the poor and for workers, and agitate for safe workplaces and for the welfare of future generations in a healthy world. Donald Trump will be seen as different things to different eyes, but a prophet of the working poor he is not.
It is sadly a role he’s absolutely incapable of filling. Pius Kamau, M.D.
, a retired general surgeon, is president of the Aurora-based Africa America Higher Education Partnerships; co-founder of the Africa Enterprise Group and an activist for minority students’ STEM education. He is a National Public Radio commentator, a Huffington Post blogger, a past columnist for Denver dailies and is featured on the podcast, “Never Again.”.
