Maryland Dems Just Don't Get It

CLINTON, Md., April 2, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following is being released by Mt. Ennon Baptist Church:

As Maryland's legislative session nears a close it is apparent that Democrats in the state just don't get it. The election of a Republican governor in a solidly blue state in the 2014 mid-term election was a referendum on the state's Democratic Party. Low voter turnout in predominately African-American and minority districts was the result of the failure of party leadership to connect with voters by putting their interests first. Voters in heavily Democratic districts see through the symbolic overtures towards them as "sounding brass signifying nothing."  The masses of discontented voters say that the Party has not and is not doing enough on their behalf.  Low voter turnout in November 2014 was not a case of apathy, but of deep dissatisfaction with state Democrats and their policy agenda, or lack thereof.

When will party leaders wake up and realize that the reason voter turnout was lowest in traditionally democratic strongholds of Baltimore City, Montgomery County, and Prince George's County is because most Marylanders in these areas don't trust the Democratic Party?  November 2014 was not just a referendum on an individual candidate, but on a party that has failed to capture the hearts of the people they promised to serve once elected.  

Given the dismal results in November, many expected party leaders to enter the 2015 legislative session with a commitment to deliver for these disaffected voters.  Instead, it has been business as usual.  Party leaders have failed, for example, to provide substantive responses to the call from the public and citizen groups to address the state's foreclosure crisis, police accountability concerns, and criminal justice reforms.  With legislative solutions to these problem well within reach, Maryland's Democrat-controlled State legislature has chosen to table all seventeen of the police accountability, ignore meaningful consumer protections to address the foreclosure crisis, and put the special interests above the public interest.  

Instead, voters in these districts have to wrestle with the prospect of cuts to education, tax hike proposals, and Democrats who clamor to celebrate Dr. King's birthday, but are anemic when it comes to advancing Dr. King's dream.  When newly elected Republic Governor Hogan stated that police brutality was "not a Maryland problem," many were not surprised.  But we did not expect State Democrats to effectively offer their tacit agreement with such views by not bringing any of the seventeen proposed bills to a vote.  Politics in the state of Maryland are deeply troubling, and speaks to the way in which money in politics is threatening to undermine our democracy.  Is Maryland a "pay-to-play" state? Does special interest money have to come into the picture in order for politicians to prioritize the public policy aspirations of their faithful constituents?

Maryland Democrats have left African-American, Latino, working class, and progressive voters feeling ignored. As voters and community leaders, we must hold elected officials accountable, or they will continue to take the public for granted by giving us a worthless check that cannot be cashed. Our state is desperately in need of a party that is truly of the people and for the people.  November 2014 should have provided Maryland Democrats with a moment of clarity; with an opportunity to reimagine itself as a more responsive party; a party that is acutely aware that it is not in its long-term best interests to continue alienating their base, and abandoning the sacred trust accorded it by the voters.  Marylanders deserve better than this.

The Rev. Delman Coates, Ph.D., is the Senior Pastor of Mt. Ennon Baptist Church in Clinton, MD. Reach Pastor Coates on Twitter @delmancoates

CONTACT: David McGruder, 301-856-2170

SOURCE Mt. Ennon Baptist Church