Cabarrus Today

We’ve all heard the saying that “this is the most important election of our lifetime,” but I genuinely believe that the 2020 election is the most important in the history of our country. 

When considering what’s at stake with this election, I am reminded of the 1949 recording by the Library of Congress of Mr. Fountain Hughes – a former slave.

The recording shows just how far America has come and where Democrats want to seemingly take us back to. The idea that in 2020, my skin color is the determining factor of how I am treated in the workplace, by the police, or how I am viewed by “society” is an attempt to have me as a person of color concentrating on the past – despite never experiencing slavery. The same people would have me believe that Donald J. Trump is a xenophobic, egomaniacal modern American version of Mussolini. 

What’s baffling to me is that in the age of easy access to information, many of my fellow Americans believe those very things about a president who has taken no salary and at every turn put America first. 

It is interesting that for years I’ve heard Democrat politicians talk about the need for criminal justice reform in America while doing nothing about it. It took the Trump administration to pass the First Step Act, which has benefited African Americans the most by far. It’s interesting to hear politicians talking about the need for equity in education and the need for Black Americans to have equal access to a good education. Yet they are against opportunity scholarships and school choice. 

President Trump not only supports school choice and opportunity scholarships, but he also worked to ensure that Historically Black Colleges and Universities received increased and permanent funding, which no other administration or president has accomplished. Does this sound like the work of a racist? I think not. 

And that’s not all. President Trump is now launching his Platinum Plan to ensure opportunity, security, prosperity, and fairness for Black Americans moving forward. He is committing nearly $500 billion to create an era of new prosperity for Black communities throughout the country, and he is promising to build on the First Step Act with new legislation. President Trump has provided so much for us, and he’s not stopping anytime soon.

Meanwhile, I look at the economy of former President Obama with its burdensome regulations, its growth of the welfare state, and its failure to lift Americans out of poverty. In comparison, the Trump economy saw the highest levels of labor force participation and lowest rates of unemployment for Black Americans than ever before the coronavirus pandemic hit our shores. 

At the debate last Tuesday night, Joe Biden made it clear he was more than ready and willing to return us to the failed policies of the past – the same failed policies that he pushed with President Obama just a short four years ago. President Trump has freed us from the shackles of those burdensome regulations and the ever-growing welfare state that so many Americans previously relied upon. We simply can’t go back to those failed policies of the past.

I ask you, why would a racist care to make things better for Black and Latino Americans?  Why would a racist support citizenship for Liberians? Why would a racist stand on a stage with Rosa Parks and Muhammed Ali? Why would a racist do a skit on a Method Man album, for crying out loud?

I am Black and Hispanic. I am a veteran. And I am a Republican. I will be voting for Donald Trump on November 3. This isn’t just because of the economy, the restoration and modernization of the United States military, or the historic peace deals in the Middle East. I’ve voting for President Trump because he is the only person standing in the way of America becoming the next failed communist state – like Cuba or Venezuela.  

– Addul Ali is the former Chairman of the City of Kannapolis Community Development Commission and serves as a member of the Black Voices for Trump coalition.