Vice President Mike Pence told reporters in Ohio this week, “I couldn’t be more proud of what we’ve been able to do for the African American community in this country. … We have the lowest unemployment ever recorded for African Americans. We have more than 8,000 opportunity zones that have been certified in cities around the country. … We passed criminal justice reform, which prior administrations were unable to pass.”
This is just the message that Pence should be getting out there. He should be telling the entire nation that he and President Trump are making the country better for everyone, including groups that voted against him by 80 or 90-point margins. He should be telling it to African Americans as well. If he were able to change even a few minds, to win for his ticket even as little as 20% of black votes in the 2020 election, Democrats might never recover.
Unfortunately, Pence’s comments were of a purely defensive nature. Instead of showing off great accomplishments, he was trying to make excuses for the intemperate and inflammatory tweets and comments recently made by the man who chose Pence as his running mate in 2016.
If Trump were to focus on the positive things his administration has done for black Americans, he’d have a stellar campaign narrative, one that Democrats would find very hard to rebut. Unfortunately, Trump has instead spent the last week in a gratuitous war of insults, picking fights with black leaders and insulting black localities not in a spirit of goodwill or intention to improve them.
No, it isn’t racist to disparage a potentially great city such as Baltimore, but it isn’t a good look for a president, either.
Trump is not wrong in calling Al Sharpton a “con man.” In fact, Sharpton is much worse than a con man. Nor is Trump lying when he asserts, or rather points out, that Baltimore is an unpleasant and unsafe place. Those who don’t read FBI crime reports surely watched the 2015 riots.
But why is the president, or any president, talking about this at all? Why is Trump, in his reelection cycle and facing a grand opportunity to present black voters with a future vision in which they share in growing prosperity, determined to instead punch down? Why does his personal feud with Baltimore-area Rep. Elijah Cummings matter more to him than getting reelected or, for that matter, governing in a way that actually helps make Baltimore a better place, in conjunction with or in spite of its local leadership, take your pick?
Trump’s economic measures, his tax reform and his deregulatory agenda, have had a significant and positive effect on black households. The black unemployment rate is now at a historic low of 6%, down two points since Trump’s inauguration, with all the benefits of prosperity and responsibility that come with new employment. Black workers’ weekly wages are also up, and as Pence noted, Trump succeeded where his predecessors failed on criminal justice reform.
Trump could theoretically use the economic story of recent years to make inroads into the black vote. The president can contrast his economic success with that which his Democratic challengers offer: the economic policies that have led to France’s malaise. Trump is in a position to ask: Who do you think will make your life better?
There is great moral virtue and socio-economic import in Trump pointing to African American success under his administration. He should do so with relentless vigor. But there is no virtue in a president disrespecting a great (and fixable) American city over some petty feud, without any apparent concern over whom he offends or which racial landmines he trips.
If Trump wants to win, he should stop it with the feuding and make the case that he’s succeeding in making America great.
