Statement on Danny Davis Endorsement of Joe Biden

STATEMENT FROM ANTHONY CLARK, CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE FOR IL-7

STATEMENT FROM ANTHONY CLARK, CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE FOR IL-7
 The Anthony Clark 2020 Congressional Campaign’s statement on IL-7 incumbent Danny K. Davis’s endorsement of Joe Biden in the Democratic Primary.


We spent this morning canvassing within the 7th Congressional District, knocking on the doors of working class neighbors & making connections in the struggle. We discussed the social & financial difficulties many of them are facing as affordable healthcare, homelessness/housing insecurity, high unemployment rates, lack of livable wages, closed/failing public schools, affordable college/trade, an unjust criminal justice system, never ending wars, gun violence, living check to check, an inability to retire, & pervasive hate all continue to feed widening economic inequality & oppression. 

In our talks of the interconnected issues faced in the struggle, it is clear that the majority of our communities are ready for progress, ready for systemic change driven by interconnected solutions. 

That is why we are running. We can no longer meet our communities & government where they are, we must have the courage to be bold & actively work to take both community & government to where the working class people need them to be. 

The establishment made a choice long ago to place party before people. That is why, we weren’t surprised to learn today, that the incumbent in Illinois 7th congressional district Danny K. Davis, an individual funded by Big Pharma, Amazon, & other corporations chose to endorse Joe Biden in the Democratic primary. 

Chicago is known as the city of big shoulders, this is a place of hard workers & IL 7 like most communities across the nation, is a working class district. In a country where 78% of workers are living check to check & over 500k are homeless, the median income in the 7th is $56,000 dollars & over 80k community members are homeless in Chicago alone. Vast wealth disparities exist in the district & the working class continues to be devastated, particularly working class Blacks & poc by the interconnected issues we face. 

IL 7 is a D+38 district. We have the ability to boldly fight for Deomcratic representatives that will work to move our communities forward. That is why we must speak truth to power in saying that Joe Biden is not on the side of the working class & an endorsement of Joe in a presidential primary, where there are options, should communicate to the nation that neither is the endorser.  

Working class community members are struggling, but when we dare to struggle, we dare to win! We win with the interconnected solutions of healthcare as a human right, housing as a human right (homes guarantee), a green new deal, a federal jobs guarantee, a livable wage, student loan forgiveness, college & trade schools for all, investment in public schools & teachers, support of unions, expanding social security, an end to the war on drugs, legalization of cannabis with a focus on racial justice, an end to all wars & the military industrial complex, an end to privatization, & directly addressing the two head dragon of capitalism & white supremacy. These are solutions that will empower all of the working class, as well as address the disproportionate by design oppression of Black people, poc, women, lgbtqia+ community, people with disabilities, muslims, & jews. 

So where does Joe Biden stand on these interconnected solutions? 

Joe does not view healthcare as a human right, he supports medicare for all who want it, a plan that will still see millions without healthcare & experiencing oppression. 

Despite his multiple attempts to paint himself as a civil rights champion, Joe once voted with his racist North Carolina colleague Jesse Helms in voting to kneecap all federal efforts to integrate schools, anywhere in the country. He voted to bar the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare from requiring schools to provide information on the racial makeup of their student bodies — thereby making it nigh-impossible for Uncle Sam to withhold federal funds from school districts that refused to integrate. 

Name a part of our broken criminal-justice system that Joe Biden hasn’t at one time championed? A criminal justice system that has decimated Black, Brown & poor communities. Joe fought for & supported Mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenders, the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine, civil asset forfeiture, and extensive use of the death penalty — he is famous for his lead role in crafting the 1994 crime bill. A bill that also eliminated education funding for incarcerated students, effectively gutting prison education programs. 

Our military is a welfare state. Using paid for healthcare, employment, housing, & education as bait, the military preys on impoverished communities. Despite Joe’s insistence that he stood against the Iraq war, Joe publicly supported the war before, during, and after the invasion. The US continues to engage in never ending wars of the rich fought by the poor. 

No person is illegal, yet our immigrant communities continue to live under threat & human rights violations continue to occur at our borders. Joe has spent his career helping build the very deportation state now in Trump’s hands. 

Social Security is in big trouble. According to the 2019 report from the Social Security Board of Trustees, the program is facing an estimated $13.9 trillion cash shortfall between 2035 and 2093. If lawmakers on Capitol Hill don't resolve this cash deficit, benefit cuts of up to 23% could soon be passed along to retired workers. We need champions of expanding Social Security, but Joe’s legacy, no matter how much he tries to rewrite it, is a track record of trying to cut it. 

I could continue, but let’s end with Anita Hill. Biden presided over hearings that worked to degrade, silence, & destroy the credibility of Anita Hill. A Black woman who had the courage to stand up against sexual harassment, & yet was accused of being a liar. The hearings uprooted the rest of her life. 

Joe Biden’s legacy clearly reveals that he is part of the problem, not the solution & Danny K. Davis’s endroemsent of him in the primary, not the general, the primary, clearly shows, he is not part of the solution for the 7th congressional district or the country. 

This is a class struggle, the oppressed vs. the oppressors. We have endorsed Bernie Sanders for president, as we believe he represents a movement of struggle that will empower the working class people & end economic disparity. In the wealthiest nation in the world, no one should be too poor to live. 

Rather you as a voter currently support Bernie or not, understand this, the system has rigged a game for the working class to fail. & on the eve of the Superbowl, it's not about picking another team, it's about ending the game. Joe Biden should not be anyone’s endorsement in the demoratice primary & the fact that Danny K Davis has chosen to endorse, should communicate to you the working class people of the 7th congressional district & beyond, he has chosen not to endorse you. 

We say to the people in the struggle in this country & across the world, we can have peace & prosperity if we are willing to fight for it! 

All Power to the People! 



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