It seems Donald Trump wants to give young black men a platinum card to make up for all the shortfalls in economic relief to black communities over the last several decades. Trump is once again pushing the idea that the Democrats have imposed a "plantation mentality" on blacks, first pitched by Kanye and other disgruntled Black Americans, who think the Democrats have no real interest in improving their situation. Only the Donald can give them prosperity, and so he unveiled his "platinum plan" earlier this month as part of his pitch for Black Economic Empowerment. Not surprisingly, there is little in it to suggest there will be any infusions into black communities, just a bunch of vague promises.
However, this was apparently enough to pique the interest of a few rappers, notably Lil Wayne and Ice Cube, who offered to join forces with Team Trump to deliver on these promises. 50 Cent initially expressed interest but has since stepped back, with his former girlfriend, Chelsea Handler, saying he is still voting for Biden. Kamala Harris tried to reach out to Ice Cube, hoping he might give Team Biden's plan for black economic empowerment, which dates back to May and is far more comprehensive, but he blew her off, stating "I want to get things done." This after Trump's son-in-law Jared, who seems to run every Trump committee, claimed that the only thing holding blacks back is their lack of ambition.
Pollsters are trying to guess what impact, if any, this will have on the election. It does seem there are a lot of disgruntled young black men out there who might be interested in Trump's new message, if it wasn't for all the racially-charged statements he has made in recent months concerning the Black Lives Matter movement. Last I saw it was Joe Biden, not Donald Trump, who visited the relatives of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Trump has gone out of his way to demonize BLM, which makes one wonder why any black person would have any interest in him, as it is pretty clear where his allegiances lie when it comes to race. However, the swirl of media interest generated by Lil Wayne and Ice Cube joining forces with Trump could indeed tip a few votes his way.
The only question is whether it is enough at this point with so many votes cast? An estimated 80 million persons have already voted, well over half the electorate, and voter turnout has been heaviest in black precincts in Georgia and Texas, largely in response to Trump's endless race-baiting.
You would think Team Trump would be investing its energy in Latin-American communities, particularly in Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada, which have largely been ignored this campaign. However, he would have to explain his heinous immigration policy that has disproportionately affected Hispanics. Nevertheless, he seems to have found an audience among some Latin American men, particularly in Florida, where his "cult of masculinity" appears to be playing the loudest. Trump was very proud of his Bay of Pigs award at one point.
The part I haven't been able to figure out is how Kanye West stays quiet through all this? Earlier this summer he was trying to get on state ballot in his bid as an American Independent candidate for the White House. Then he went AWOL after failing to get on more than a handful of ballots. Team Trump had been trying to help him out in this regard, but missed most of the deadlines with more phony names than real ones on his petitions. Seems Kim urged him to stand back from the abyss.
You would think the RNC would at least invite Yeezy to their convention. Instead, they dug Herschel Walker out of the woodwork to give a speech in favor of Big Don, harking back to his days with the long-defunct New Jersey Generals of the USFL, a league that folded largely because of Trump's gambit to compete head to head with the NFL. Why Herschel would have any interest in Don the Con is anyone's guess, but he said the Wall Street Lothario treated him well, and has since been an avid spokesman on the campaign trail. Interesting whether it helps Trump any in Georgia, Herschel's home state?
What's so funny about all this is that Team Trump has attacked Joe and Kamala for all their celebrity endorsements, as it did Hillary in 2016. Yet, Trump seems to be banking on all the twitter followers Lil Wayne has, some 35 million, to carry him in Florida. The two are virtual next door neighbors in South Florida.
The larger strategy for Team Trump is to cash in on its highly visible social media profile to make up for its lack of commercial ads in key states. For whatever reason, they ran out of money over the summer and find themselves struggling to match Biden's television media blitz in battleground states. So, they hope to lure some of these big social media names to boost their visibility. 35 million is impressive, but it ranks pretty far down the list of celebrities with the most followers. Biden is getting heavily tagged these days thanks to celebrities like Rihanna, who has close to 100 million followers.
The reality is that these followers don't translate into votes. Most of these are false or dormant accounts, as we found out last year when twitter and facebook both made major purges. So, if you are banking on voter turnout due to celebrities' high profiles on social media, you might as well believe in faeries.
Nor does it seem will these last minute endorsements from rappers generate anything more than a little buzz in the media looking for some story other than coronavirus to feature this week. Unless Tucker Carlson's "vanished documents" that UPS recently located are as incriminating as he said they were, there's nothing much left here for the Donald to exploit. Alas, even this last great hook turned out to be as empty as Al Capone's safe. Sorry, Ice Cube, it looks you got sold a phony bill of goods.
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