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The politics of building presidential legacies

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Lately we’ve been assaulted daily with details of speeches and sound bites from a deluge of Republican presidential hopefuls, especially Donald Trump. Sorry Republicans, none of you have a snowball’s chance in hell of winning the presidency in 2016. However comfortable and likeable a candidate the Republicans finally put up—most probably Jeb Bush—it really doesn’t matter. Barring some major scandal or national catastrophe that frightens everybody, a Democrat—most probably Hillary Clinton—will win.

Even though the Republican National Committee and most major Republican thinkers refuse to acknowledge what the 2012 presidential election clearly indicated, the Republican Party’s policy platform is toxic to the majority of Americans and women.

Women failed to coalesce around the Equal Rights Amendment effort decades ago, and the Geraldine Ferraro candidacy a little later, and they see what’s happened since then. Women are now very good at this political gamesmanship, and they do learn quickly, even if politically astute men can’t see that.

Here are a few facts to consider:

In nine consecutive presidential elections since 1980, more eligible women voters have cast ballots than eligible male voters in the the nation.

Thirteen straight times since 1964, women have simply outvoted men in presidential elections.

*In the 2008 election, more than 70.4 million women voted compared to 60.7 million men; and in 2012, the gender gap was even greater.

*More than 53 percent of all voters in the 2012 presidential election were women, making it a fact that more than one out of every two voters was a woman.

But this column is not principally about that. In 2016, besides leaving behind some key accomplishments, the outgoing POTUS will get a golden chance to cement another part of his legacy, again barring an unforeseen national catastrophe. That legacy will be his keynote address opening the new African American Museum of History and Culture in Washington, D.C. This modern edifice will be the largest, most well-equipped and well-located monument to the Black experience ever built. It will tell our story the best it has ever been told.

For reparations activists, it will be at least one face of victory. For Carter G. Woodson aficionados and all other guardians of comprehensive Black history and culture, it will be a lasting edifice of what a star-crossed people can do, have done, and will continue to do in this country and in this world. We’ve survived, we’ve created, and we have soared. The museum will present our grand narrative to the world.

The museum’s executive director and major guiding light since 2005 is Lonnie G. Bunche, Ph.D., formally the curator of history and program manager at the California African American Museum (CAAM) from 1983 to 1989. At CAAM, he organized several award-winning exhibitions, including “The Black Olympians, 1904-1950” and “Black Angelenos: The Afro-American in Los Angeles, 1850-1950,” among others.

In 2005, there were only two staff members, no museum artifacts, and virtually no money. There was simply an idea and an authorization. Ten years later, the museum now employs more than 120 full-time staffers and volunteers. It’s artifacts       collection now numbers around 33,000 artworks and historical objects, including the Parliament Funkadelic’s original Mothership, and a full-fledged Jim Crow-era trolley car, and the museum’s leadership has raised the facility’s profile enough to attract nearly $476 million in public and private funds, including more than $13 million from Oprah Winfrey.

This is a really big deal, and all of us should plan a 2016 trip to D.C. for the opening of the museum. It’s the second major monument in Washington, D.C., for Black folk to savor and for which to be thankful. (The first, of course, is the 30-foot statue of Dr. Martin Luther King.)

Professor David L. Horne is founder and executive director of PAPPEI, the Pan African Public Policy and Ethical Institute, which is a new 501(c)(3) pending community-based organization or non-governmental organization (NGO). It is the stepparent organization for the California Black Think Tank which still operates and which meets every fourth Friday.

DISCLAIMER: The beliefs and viewpoints expressed in opinion pieces, letters to the editor, by columnists and/or contributing writers are not necessarily those of OurWeekly.

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