(PresidentialHill.com)- President Joe Biden marked the second anniversary of George Floyd’s murder by a police officer in Minneapolis last week by signing a new executive order to reform practices by federal law enforcement agencies.
In attendance at the event were some of Floyd’s relatives, civil rights leaders and reform advocates. While the mood of the day was somber and celebratory at the same time, it underlined one major problem Biden and Democrats continue to face heading into the 2022 midterm elections — getting support from voters in the Black community.
Biden’s comments on the day were very representative of the progress he and liberals are making with Black voters. He said:
“The work of our time — healing the soul of this nation — is ongoing and unfinished. This is a start.”
“Ongoing and unfinished” is a great way to describe Democrats’ progress with Black voters, as is “frustratingly slow nature of progress,” as he the president referred to in his speech.
Biden has been forced to sign executive orders on some of the more progressive measures he and Democrats want to take because they’ve been unable to work those initiatives through Congress.
What’s more, Biden’s positioning near the center of the issue — rather than the far left — is a possible risk to alienating some voters who want him to do more. It’s what might be necessary to stave off potential disaster at the polls come November.
But, Biden’s executive order will only apply to federal law enforcement agencies. It won’t apply, for example, to the Minneapolis Police Department, which is where the four officers who were charged in Floyd’s murder worked for.
That’s what caused Vice President Kamala Harris to say at the ceremony that the order is “no substitute for legislation nor does it accomplish everything we know much be done.”
Leaders in the Black community are being very outspoken against Biden’s messaging on some of the most important issues to them. For example, while many progressive leaders are backing the “defund the police” movement, Biden backed a “fund the police” message during his State of the Union address back in March.
Black leaders also aren’t happy with the fact that the Biden administration hasn’t been able to pass certain reforms bill with Congress as of yet.
One such group is BlackPAC, a progressive group that is working to get out Black voters in six swing states ahead of the November midterm elections. The group’s executive director, Adrianne Shropshire, recently said:
“They have to be careful on this crime stuff. Black voters worry a lot about crime, about gun violence. But no one that we talk to says the answer is that we need to increase police budgets.”
Even a former leader of the NAACP, Ben Jealous, said that Biden’s recent executive order was “too timid,” saying that it would “minimize limits on the use of force … [and] sidestep addressing systemic racism.” He even accused the president of “bowing to the wishes of an entrenched police union establishment.”
Things don’t seem to be going well among the Biden administration, Democrats in general and the Black community. If Democrats want to somehow not experience disaster at the polls in November, they better do something about that relationship fast.
