HARLAN RICHARDS

April 16, 2019

How to Guarantee Donald Trump Four More Years In the White House:
Advocate Reparations For Descendants of Slaves

Of all the lame-brained, idiotic, wrongheaded, politically correct ideas the lunatic left has ever come up with, the idea of giving money to descendants of slaves 150 years after the slaves were freed, is the worst.

If the Democratic party adopts this as part of its platform, I'll become a Trump supporter even though I despise the buffoon. Guess what? Most other white people feel the same way. Why? Let me explain.

My ancestors moved to Kansas during the free state/slave state controversy to prevent Kansas from becoming a slave state. They stood up for emancipation. None of my ancestors ever owned slaves or benefited from slavery. That is true of most of the white Americans in this country. In fact, our ancestors are the reason the slaves were freed. They fought and died in the Civil War to end slavery. To declare 150 years later that the descendants of those who fought and died to end slavery must now fork over untold wealth to descendants of slaves is ludicrous.

That's why adopting this position will guarantee Trump 4 more years in the White House. I don't care how good the Democrats' other policies are. If they adopt this bit of insanity they will alienate the very people needed to win the election. We're better off with Trump's dysfunctional world-view than to adopt a policy like that.

What's next? Reparations for Native Americans for centuries of genocide? Reparations for LGBT folks for past discrimination? I've got a better idea. How about reparations for the victims of the Mass Incarceration Movement?

I've been in prison over 34 years for a crime I am not guilty of. I'm now 65 years old and if they ever let me out of prison I have a future of deprivation and penury ahead of me while I exist on SSI payments. I was prevented from earning a pension, paying into social security, establishing a 401k or saving anything for retirement. I'm too darn old to ever earn enough to make a difference.

I could give you the details of my bogus conviction but I've done that in previous blogs and it's pointless. None of you can do anything about it and nobody in power is going to act on my behalf. My point is that people like myself, who are currently alive and have been unjustly treated for decades are the ones who deserve reparations. Not descendants of slaves who have not suffered personally in their lifetimes as a result of their ancestor's enslavement.