Host Larry Higginbottom talks about politics in the midst of the upcoming 2024 Presidential Election.
WBCA Podcasts
Observations From The Trenches
The following commentary does not necessarily reflect the views of the staff and management of WBCA or the Boston Neighborhood Network. If you would like to express another opinion, you can address your comments to Boston Neighborhood Network, 302-5 Washington Street, Boston, Massachusetts, 02119. To arrange a time for your own commentary, you can call WBCA at 617-708-3215 or email radio at bnnmedia.org. I'm your host Larry Englebottom, the name of the program from the trenches, baby. I'm the baby from the trenches. You're listening to WBCA, 102.9 FM, WBCA, 102.9 FM in Boston. Hope you're having a great day today, weather's nice, you know, with some late summer days out here. Hope you're feeling okay. Well, today I want to talk about politics, which about two weeks ago, I don't know about you, but I have to want to be totally aesthetic when November 6th come around because, from my perspective, from my belief, you have your own opinion, no matter who wins, nothing's going to change for the better for my group. My group is not going to fare any better, and the reason why I say that as a member of the boomers, I'm 71 now, in the last five decades of voting. I want you to tell me, no matter who was the president, what have they done that made our collective interest any better, be the presidency, the Senate, or the Congress, last five decades, what is voting done to make our lives better? But we always are presented with gloom and doom. We must vote because this is the most important election of our lifetime. Somebody dies, so you can vote. They're going to take out Social Security. They're going to take Medicaid. They're going to change Department of Education. They're going to take this or that. Always, these care tactics to shame in black American, ADOS, as I identify as a American Senate slavery, that if we don't come to the rescue, we are un-American. Well, if you look at the data, young people, I'm really speaking to Gen Z and Millennium. You look at the data, the last five decades, no matter what occurred on November 6th, our needs were never addressed by no matter who won. You just run the Congress, Senate, or the presidency, the last five decades, nothing worthwhile has come to make our lives better. And so, you hear folks say, well, you know, Trump is a convicted, this, convicted, sexual fender, and, could Trump got 49, uh, conviction and, Trump is this trumpet and, okay, yeah, all this too? But it shows me as a boomer, right? Who's born in 1953, my parents in born 1930, they made me know very early on this is a white mass country. And I don't say that facetiously, or for debate, or for conversation. They make the laws and rules that they want to make, and they enforce what they want to force. But what I will tell you, you but not do what Trump has done, I'll tell you that. And did he find out the hard way, as much as he thought he was popping, right? They said, no, 50 million dollars for bail, no, we don't want your money. You're going to set your behind in his prison sale until your court date. So again, it just reinforced what I was taught for my parents is a white mass country. Rules apply that he wants to apply, and they don't apply when he doesn't want to apply. But if you think for one moment, I'm talking to the Adler's community. If you think for one moment, whether he win or lose, that you're going to have former President Trump in an orange jumpsuit, he symbolizes the hard position, white supremacy, the pregnancy. If you think for one moment that man going to jail, you're foolish, you really are foolish. You really, really have swallowed any delusion pill. Ain't no way in hell that President Trump is ever going to see bars, so you can forget that. And the fact that many of you are echoing that, let's me know, somewhere along the line, us boomers stop teaching our kids about whiteness. We stop teaching our folks about the reality of our country, because for folks to be echoing that nonsense is unbelievable. But today I'm talking about politics, share my thoughts on it. You may agree, you might share something, but at the end of the day, right? Is my belief based on what I now know, what I now know. And after 15, 20 years, things that I believe, 15, 20 years ago, I don't believe, I don't believe now. Which I'm trying to say later, it's what I'm trying to say. My elders who gave us this do or die image around voting, you know, it was wrong. That's a wrong narrative. That voting is a do or die for us, that's why it was presented and so to the black community as long as I've been living. Well, that's the false narrative. Why is that, Larry, I'll tell you why. Our country, system of economic is founded in capitalism for better for worse, again for better for worse. And what it comes down to is no matter who's in office, November 6, your quality of life, the group collected quality of life, going to come down to your skills, your skill base. If your skills require you being compensated high income wise, you're going to do very well in the matter of who's in office. If you're on the margin in the low end, well, no matter who's in office, you're still going to be struggling. So no matter who ends up winning the marriage ship, the government ship, the presidency is still going to come down to your skills. What are your skills worth on this marketplace? Because the economic engine of America is capitalism for better for worse. And I've kind of realized that our people, our elders falsely sold us a narrative that's not true. If you voted don't vote, and I'm not against either, I'm not against either one. Your quality of life is going to come down to what you do. Are your skills in high demand? Yes or no? If they are, come November 6, you will still be getting paid very well. Come November 6, if they're not, you won't be getting paid very well. And for as long as I have been voting for last five decades, these are the, the, I just tipped it all, all's been thrown at, at eight of them. They're going to put you back in chains, going to put you back in slavery. He's a racist, they are racist. They're going to take our social security, Medicaid, they're going to abolish the department education. And as I've gone, as I've grown into higher awareness, what kind of realize this here? Think about this here, young people, I'm speaking to these young people now, young people. What's the likelihood you're going to be able to dismantle the Department of, of, of education? What's the likelihood that that happened? You're going to dismantle the Department of Education and start a first. What's the likelihood of that? What's the likelihood you want to be able to dismantle Medicaid or social security? What's the likelihood of that? Not like it all, not like it all. Or we're going to go from democracy to fascism or communism after 200 plus years. What's the likelihood of that? I'm going to ask you a question. When you think, when you sit back and think about it, it's ludicrous. It's the falsehood, it's the narrative, it's the false narrative. It's only to get you riled up emotionally to catch your vote out of fear, fear-mongering. In November 6, you are no better off. In eight of those communities, you know I ain't lying. After November 6, we have never been better off, no matter who has won in the last five decades. I've challenged any of you to think about, no matter who's won in the last five decades, now that I've made our collective life any better, it's not. Not one hour. But we have been sold as do or die narrative by others, you kind of voted. Somebody died for you. If you ain't voting, what's wrong with you? No? If ain't nothing for me, what do I care? And I say, one thing I've learned from Vive Carneil, who was the founder of The Aylo's Movement, where they're fighting for reparation also of Black agenda. One thing I've really come to understand, if I'm listening to that young lady and also reading all the books that they recommend, let me read, voting really is an exchange. An exchange, the word specificity, what are you getting for your vote? Your vote are your currency. So if you're not getting anything for your currency, why would you spend at that establishment if you ain't getting anything back? It makes zero sense, none whatsoever.