By Sean Yoes
AFRO Baltimore Editor
syoes@afro.com
This week, Kim Klacik, a Republican candidate for the legendary 7th Congressional District of Baltimore City addressed the Republican National Convention, also known by some (I am actually some) as the Republican Cavalcade of Clowns, Cons and Cowards.
I myself did not tune into the RNC, because after nearly four years of the worst president in American history, more than 20,000 of his lies and more than 180,000 dead Americans from COVID-19, my bandwidth for BS and pathos was exhausted a couple of years ago.
Yet, I girded myself to watch a YouTube video of Klacik’s pre-recorded comments to the RNC rabble.
“I’m Kim Klacik and I’m running for Congress in Maryland’s 7th District of Maryland, and like Shirley Chisolm I’m unbought and unbossed,” said Klacik in her opening statement to the RNC. Despite the sheer audacity, bordering on blasphemy, of Klacik likening herself to Chisholm, the pioneering political icon, her argument against continued Democratic rule in Baltimore City probably resonates with many, at least on the surface.
Sean Yoes
“The Democrats have controlled this part of Baltimore City for over 50 years. And they have run this beautiful place right into the ground. Abandoned buildings, liquor stores on every corner, drug addicts, guns on the street, that’s now the norm in many neighborhoods,” added Klacik, who Donald Trump Jr., crowned “MAGA Candidate of the Week,” during the week of the RNC.
“Sadly, the same cycle of decay exists in many of America’s Democrat run cities. And yet the Democrats still assume that Black people will vote for them no matter how much they let us down and take us for granted.”
First, I have no desire to disparage Klacik personally; I don’t really know her. In fact, instead of disparage, I will commend the work of the non-profit, “Potential Me” she founded in 2013.
And second, who among us who love this city and its people can unequivocally refute her critique of Baltimore governance over the decades and the Democratic Party’s panache in its ability to capture the Black vote? None of us can.
However, that fact does not obscure the naked cynicism Klacik operates from.
She is waging her quixotic war for the 7th Congressional seat once occupied by the man, the Hon. Elijah Cummings who Donald Trump perhaps hated most of all. Trump the Dear Leader of the Republican Party, who Klacik seemingly has pledged her undying allegiance to, who hates Baltimore with a passion. Trump, a walking anathema to the Constitution and the rule of law. Trump, arguably the most criminal president in the country’s history. Trump, the laziest and most incompetent man to ever occupy the Oval Office. Trump, the most prodigious con man and grifter in the history of the U.S. presidency.
Is this your king Kim Klacik?
The reality is, Black people in Baltimore, the majority of which are poor or low-income have not fared well under Democratic rule over the decades. But, does that mean we should believe that somehow Black Baltimore would be transformed once again to an oasis of Black excellence under the regime of the Party of Trump?
Don’t believe the hype.
Bottom line, I’m fairly certain Klacik will not be successful in her bid to unseat the former and once again Rep. Kweisi Mfume in the 7th.
But, what I am 100 percent sure of is, our nation, the country that Black people built will not survive four more years under Klacik’s leader, the dystopian Donald John Trump.
Sean Yoes is the AFRO’s Baltimore editor and author of Baltimore After Freddie Gray: Real Stories From One of America’s Great Imperiled Cities.
