Jolanda Jones gave the appropriate message in no uncertain terms
Jolanda Jones, former city councilwoman, had a prescient message for judicial candidates that should be extrapolated to all Democratic candidates. Democratic precinct chairs and Democratic activist from across Harris County Texas met at the IBEW Main Hall on Saturday September 6th, 2014. Many candidates were present. They activated, entertained, and motivated.
A panel of judicial candidates provided ample reasons for their candidacies. It is evident that these Democratic judicial candidates offered much more to support middle class centric issues than the current crop of Republicans running for or are in office.
One of the candidates gave a heart wrenching story of an old man whose fate on his land was predetermined negatively by a local Republican judge. Absent the appeal process he would have lost his property. Anyone who doubts the need for Democratic judges that follow the law should know the above case is not the exception.
Candidates in general and the panel in particular seemed to have missed a few issues. Jolanda Jones, as stated in the video above, wants them to talk about an issue of life and death to the sons of Black and Latinos in the city, the county, and throughout the nation.
“We need to go after bad police officers,” Jolanda Jones said. “That is important. It is especially important in the Black community. It is especially important in the Latino community. .. So if this Party wants to motivate Black people and Hispanic people, we need to talk about that. I know it’s a touchy issue because we are dealing with challenging law enforcement. But if you want to know one way to get Hispanics and Black people riled up is talk about the fear we have of our sons going out everyday and potentially get profiled by police.”
Jolanda Jones went on to talk about Republicans using fear to motivate their base. She said we should use that fear but in a justifiable manner. After-all, profiling and arresting the wrong people based on intrinsic prejudices mean a less safe community as real offenders remain free.
Ms. Jones’ points need to be heeded. People vote generally when some value or issue close to them is at stake. Republicans are great at creating false reasons that demand an action, that demand a vote. Democrats are generally lacking in that level of motivation. Democrats must engage on all issues to keep their entire base motivated irrespective of the election cycle.