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I would be an absolutely terrible politician in the country where I live -- this would be the absolute worst job for me.
People in my community have been saying I should run for office for about 15 years, because they do need and they think they want someone like me to get into office and start working for the people.
The problem with that has been apparent since Herman Melville wrote about it in Moby Dick, way back in the 19th century: in the end, people do not want an honest man in office, to say nothing of an honest woman. Life becomes uncomfortable if a person starts telling too much truth in this country.
In the United States, we have just had the spectacle of half our House or Representatives go to scrapping on the House floor because of a disagreement over who should be the Speaker of the House.
I would have had to tell all those old men to go somewhere and sit down because we don't need overgrown children leading us into the second quarter of the 21st century – “In fact, what y'all need to do is resign immediately for having embarrassed this country around the world – the kids in my church's children's department act better than y'all do, so get out.”
I could never fit in on the national level. I could never compromise enough to not say that to those men – in fact, I did a whole YouTube video about the situation and what African American women in particular need to learn about it, and that video, by itself, means I'm never getting a job as a national politician.
Locally, I live in a city that decided in 1947 that it was going to move its African American population out, and is planning for a 2040 in which African Americans are not even included. I've already told local police and boards of supervisors that I've seen the documents and that I know about it. I also know that California has run its African Americans out six or seven times since 1856, so this is nothing new, but I'm not going to sit around and stand for it. This is known. So much for me getting into office here.
I just can't lie enough to be a good politician. I can't overlook the inclinations the slave-owning Founders of this country have left in here to ground up everyone to powder for profit and pleasure who isn't like them – including ALL women.
(Go read James Madison in the Federalist Paper No. 10. I dare you!)
I just can't stop caring enough about the elders and children I minister to to make it as a politician in this country.
I prefer making the lives of politicians more interesting from where I am, showing up in person or by letter to remind them, “YOU work for ME, and if you need a reminder, I'll let people know not to buy from the companies who support you.”
It is really, really upsetting to politicians to have to deal with an African American woman who knows that most of them are the last open slaves in this system, wholly owned by their ambitions, compromises, and corporations they need money from, and who can read them from heaven to earth, from 1607 to the present day, and let them know: “I, the daughter of the enslaved, actually own those who own you – SO YOU WORK FOR ME, and you WILL find a way to do the will of the people I represent. There are powers greater than you, from the consumer dollar to corporate boardrooms to heaven above, and as Harriet Tubman, Ida B. Wells, and Fannie Lou Hamer taught me, YOU CAN BE DISMISSED if you don't cooperate.”
I can be diplomatic, of course, but at heart, the politicians of this country disgust me, and I don't spend time and seek jobs around people I don't respect.
I do my best at every election to pick the best candidates I can, but even that is a struggle, as if four days in as many years is too much to be rubbing up against the majority of them.
Now, I and the crew I run with do powerful local politics on behalf of our community – the mayor, the board of supervisors, city agencies, and our state and national representatives know the quality of our work and that if we are not pleased with the quality of their work or we need something, they know they will hear from us, by phone, by letter, or in person. We get things done, and things are moving forward.
I would make a terrible politician, because I like being exactly who I am, doing the politics that I am doing with the people I am doing it with. I can't step down to a more compromised, WEAKER position!