Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Selling Out? The Rightward March of Black Elected Politicians

Opinion

Selling Out? The Rightward March of Black Elected Politicians

Two elected officials shaking hands.

Getty Images, shironosov

Are Black American politicians fighting the fascism they fear or aiding its rise?

The second Donald Trump administration is doing pretty much everything it set out to do from Project 2025 without much resistance from the oppositional Democratic party—most notably Black elected officials.


The Black voting bloc is ostensibly the most progressive political bloc in the United States. Yet many Black politicians on all levels of government appear disconnected from the needs, desires, and aspirations of Black people.

Black politicians deserve support from their constituents if they are genuine fighters for the people. This chaotic political moment requires more than putrid opportunism and careerist tepidness.

In a symbolic gesture, construction crews in Washington D.C. recently set out to dismantle the Black Lives Matter Plaza as Mayor Muriel Bowser folded to Congressional Republican pressure.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) recently all but conceded political defeat in a press conference where constituents and Democratic strategists were pressing for an active response to what many call a f ascist assault of the new administration.

Democratic Sen. Ralph Warnock in Georgia helped pass the Laken Riley Act into law expanding the powers of the Department of Homeland Security and ICE under the Trump Administration. This bill was opposed heavily by organizations like the ACLU, The Leadership Council on Civil and Human Rights, and the American Immigration Council.

Also in Georgia, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens continues to face deep criticism from activists and the community for his dogged support for “Cop City,” a police training facility that will specialize in preparation for urban warfare.

Fighting fascism requires a courageousness and creativity that is projected toward a more just and humane future for all. In fairness, there have been attempts at resistance.

At the recent State of the Union Address, Rep. Al Green from Texas disrupted Trump’s speech and was removed for it, breaking decorum but publicly showing his disdain for the administration.

In February, Rep. Ayanna Pressly at a rally to defend the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau explained, “We are going to litigate, legislate, agitate and resist, because you are worth it. So we will see you in Congress, in the courts, and in the streets.”

The work of the Solidarity Budget in Seattle and different Participatory Budgeting programs expand on the imaginations and aspirations of communities beyond politicians’ campaign rhetoric.

From Participatory Democracy campaigns to grassroots think tanks that advocate for reparations, communities are imagining, dreaming, fighting, and creating a future that speaks to their wants and needs.

Yes, there are efforts and the creativity of Black elected officials will be stretched as the new administration battles the judiciary.

But recent history shows it is an ongoing challenge. In my hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, both the first Black Mayor, Cavalier Johnson, and County Executive, David Crowley, who are Democrats, lobbied to bring the Republican National Convention in 2024 to Milwaukee. In a completely foreseeable set of circumstances, the GOP won Wisconsin, a swing state, in the national election last year.

The RNC brought in thousands of police from jurisdictions all over the country, and out-of-state police killed a Black man at a Milwaukee park more than a mile away from the RNC perimeter. City officials promised the community that all non-Milwaukee law enforcement would be only within the perimeter of the convention.

During this time, Johnson and Crowley seemed to be busy working with Wisconsin Republicans on a shared revenue deal that bolsters the carceral state and specifically ends using sales tax raised funds for any DEI initiatives within the respective jurisdictions. It appears they did not consider the shared revenue plan from Democratic Governor Tony Evers which was financially twice as generous and didn’t have the harsh and racist restrictions on fund use.

More recently at his Black History Month speech at Gracie Mansion, New York Mayor Eric Adams likened himself to Jesus as he faced calls for his resignation, in light of the Department of Justice dropping his corruption case. Adams, a former New York Police Department cop, bizarrely took aim at “Negroes” who were critical of him as he compared himself to the biblical figure.

Late journalist Glen Ford coined the term “Black Misleadership Class,” which could be applied here. Gleaning from the historical genealogy of the Black Radical Tradition, Ford argues that there is a class of Black politicians and leaders who market themselves as being from and empathetic to marginalized Black communities only to use that social capital to sell them out for selfish and short-sighted gain, buffering themselves from criticism within the community.

Author and Princeton University professor Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor contends in her classic 2016 book, From #BlackLiveMatter to Black Liberation: “The utility of Black elected officials lies in their ability, as members of the community, to scold ordinary Black people in ways that white politicians could never get away with…Black elected officials’ role as interlocutors between the broader Black population and the general American public makes them indispensable in American politics.”

Disparities related to Black life expectancy, wealth accrual, and education are just a few issues that seem to not be serious priorities for all Black policymakers but are realities millions of Black people navigate daily.

While electoral politics has a popular hold on how the country understands democracy and politics generally in the US; many community members, organizers, and activists around the nation have worked hard to create more direct democratic processes that would mitigate the reliance on the disposition of individual politicians.

American politics today do not seem to be working for all people. The current massive national layoffs, ongoing economic downturn, and cuts to education, healthcare, and programs benefiting lower income families present harm to every American—and more acutely to Black Americans.

Black policymakers and leaders need to put the people they represent first connected to their desires for a healthy and prosperous future.

Nate Gilliam is the co-founder and director of Milwaukee Freedom Fund and a Public Voices Fellow of Transformative Justice with The OpEd Project.

Read More

Could Trump’s campaign against the media come back to bite conservatives?

US President Donald Trump reacts next to Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk, after speaking at the public memorial service for right-wing activist Charlie Kirk at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, on September 21, 2025.

(Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP) (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Could Trump’s campaign against the media come back to bite conservatives?

In the wake of Jimmy Kimmel’sapparently temporary— suspension from late-night TV, a (tragically small) number of prominent conservatives and Republicans have taken exception to the Trump administration’s comfort with “jawboning” critics into submission.

Sen. Ted Cruz condemned the administration’s “mafioso behavior.” He warned that “going down this road, there will come a time when a Democrat wins again — wins the White House … they will silence us.” Cruz added during his Friday podcast. “They will use this power, and they will use it ruthlessly. And that is dangerous.”

Keep ReadingShow less
A stethoscope lying on top of credit cards.

Enhanced health care tax credits expire at the end of 2025 unless Congress acts. Learn who benefits, what’s at risk, and how premiums could rise without them.

Getty Images, yavdat

Just the Facts: What Happens If Enhanced Health Care Tax Credits End in 2025

The Fulcrum strives to approach news stories with an open mind and skepticism, striving to present our readers with a broad spectrum of viewpoints through diligent research and critical thinking. As best we can, we remove personal bias from our reporting and seek a variety of perspectives in both our news gathering and selection of opinion pieces. However, before our readers can analyze varying viewpoints, they must have the facts.

There’s been a lot in the news lately about healthcare costs going up on Dec. 31 unless congress acts. What are the details?

The enhanced health care premium tax credits (ePTCs) are set to expire at the end of 2025 unless Congress acts to extend them.

Keep ReadingShow less
Congress Bill Spotlight: No Social Media at School Act

Rep. Angie Craig’s No Social Media at School Act would ban TikTok, Instagram & Snapchat during K-12 school hours. See what’s in the bill.

Getty Images, Daniel de la Hoz

Congress Bill Spotlight: No Social Media at School Act

Gen Z’s worst nightmare: TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat couldn’t be used during school hours.

What the bill does

Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN2) introduced the No Social Media at School Act, which would require social media companies to use “geofencing” to block access to their products on K-12 school grounds during school hours.

Keep ReadingShow less
A portrait of John Adams.

John Adams warned that without virtue, republics collapse. Today, billionaire spending and unchecked wealth test whether America can place the common good above private gain.

John Adams Warned Us: A Republic Without Virtue Cannot Survive

John Adams understood a truth that feels even sharper today: a republic cannot endure without virtue. Writing to Mercy Otis Warren in April 1776, he warned that public Virtue cannot exist in a Nation without [private virtue], and public Virtue is the only Foundation of Republics.” For Adams, liberty would not be preserved by clever constitutions alone. It depended on citizens who could restrain their selfish impulses for the sake of the common good.

That insight has lost none of its force. Some people do restrain themselves. They accumulate enough to live well and then turn to service, family, or community. Others never stop. Given the chance, they gather wealth and power without limit. Left unchecked, selfishness concentrates material and social resources in the hands of a few, leaving many behind and eroding the sense of shared citizenship on which democracy depends.

Keep ReadingShow less