'What have you done for me'

By Deauwand Myers

“What Have You Done for Me Lately” is a song by American singer Janet Jackson, from her third studio album, “Control” (1986). In the phenomenal album, she asks her lover what he has done for her lately.

As in, he used to come through, buy flowers, and show her affection. Now that the relationship has aged, he has become negligent and noncommittal. This is basically the argument of some progressives and leftists, particular people of color, about the Democratic Party in America.

Lost in their feelings, some on the left have criticized the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, former Vice President Joseph Biden, the Democratic Party as a whole, and the progressive movement in America as being stagnant and taking the colored vote, particularly the black vote, for granted.

But history has receipts.

Democrats and progressives gave Americans the five-day work week, unions, an abolishment of child labor, women's suffrage and Social Security (a system that though once excluded black folks from said program), which lifted more of the poor and elderly out of poverty, per capita, than any social program in world history. Only China's recent economic rise compares to the scope and scale of Social Security in its sheer effectiveness in bettering the lives of the poor and working classes.

Democrats delivered Medicaid, Medicare, Civil and Voting Rights, Title 9 (a program that gave us professional women in medicine to engineering), disability rights, and housing rights.

These social welfare programs, and others like it, are long in the tooth, but they have produced a marked and positive improvement on the lives of ordinary Americans. Add that to the rights of sexual minorities, mainly being able to marry, and attempts to insure all Americans have meaningful healthcare, though incomplete, is a resoundingly powerful record of social and economic justice, particularly considering the roots of America's founding, one of genocidal land theft, slavery and Jim Crow.

Democrats, including Biden, have fought for inclusion and humanity in a society built on the opposite of these. Juxtaposed with the seemingly inexorable pull of white supremacy, these accomplishments are noteworthy and commendable.

Presidents Roosevelt, Kennedy, and LBJ were certainly imperfect. LBJ's vernacular was racist, sexist, and anti-Semitic, certainly in private, but the material evidence is clear by any objective observer of modern America: he was the most consequential president for people of color, the disabled, and women than any president. Ever.

This is why the recent talk of some leftists and people of color disparaging the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Biden, and the Democratic Party writ large, is simply ahistorical and problematic.

Not all old white men are evil, and due to the bloody sacrifices of those in the movement, Democrats have delivered sustained and meaningful change to the American social landscape time and again, changes that are simply monumental in ways a lot of voters aren't fully appreciative or cognizant of; and frankly, I find it frustrating.

It's intellectually dishonest to act as if the Democrats have been perfect. They have not. President Obama's and Vice President Biden's records should be scrutinized and interrogated, and we have and can find flaws; Biden's record on criminal justice and Obama's reticence to engage black communities, coupled with his ego, poor implementation of a stimulus package, and his prodigious use of drones in the war on terror, with the attendant lost in civilian lives, are legitimate critiques.

But just as in 2016, to act as if there aren't fundamental differences between the parties and the presidential nominees is worse than intellectual dishonesty; it's political and civil malpractice, short-sighted, and dangerous.

Biden is as far from anything like President Donald Trump as imaginable. Trump's party and policies present an existential threat to American democracy and world peace (in fairness, on geopolitical affairs, however, Trump is actually to the left of Secretary Clinton and Obama).

Former Vice President Biden is the Democratic presidential nominee. This election cycle is not time for political ideological purity tests, apathy, or anger at Obama and Clinton redirected at Biden. Biden has adopted progressive policies from Senators Harris, Sanders, and Warren, and continually refines and updates his agenda to better impact positive change for Americans.

My maternal grandfather, rest his soul, was wise. A seminarian and reverend, he often said that “there's no such thing as a perfect church. And if there is, don't you go to it, because you'd mess it up.” So it goes for parties and candidates.

If the American Right can stomach the stench and stain of someone as manifestly incompetent, racist and cruel as Trump, Biden's flaws seem quaint in comparison, by any measure. People can advocate Biden fights for policies they deem worthy. That's a legitimate consideration. But let's be clear. For at least four generations, Democrats have been putting in that work.

Deauwand Myers (deauwand@hotmail.com) holds a master's degree in English literature and literary theory, and is an English professor outside Seoul.