I’m not going to name names but I will share a couple stories from the 90s when I was involved with local political and social causes in Cincinnati/NKY in the 90s. I spent most of my time in Democrat circles so I have more negative stories about them than I do about Republicans but I’ll try to provide both so as not to be unfair.

 

I have a strong dislike for both parties based on my up-close experience and so I do not formally affiliate with either party. And truth be told my beliefs/positions are all over the place so I wouldn’t fit in either party.

 

In case you think I am a closet supporter of either party I will provide a few of my positions: I am for gay rights. I am against abortion. I am for amnesty for all the illegal folks that are here in the U.S. as long as they have not committed serious crimes. I am for closing the border now. I am for raising the minimum wage. I am for replacing the income tax system with a national sales tax.

 

I think that’s enough.

 

Well, let’s travel in time back to the 90’s. I was involved (primarily as a volunteer) with various causes in Cincinnati/NKY including the initial proposals to start Tall Stacks, the Underground Railroad Freedom Center, and the downtown Cincinnati initiative to build up the riverfront with shops/restaurants. I also worked on a number of smaller initiatives that you probably never heard of.

 

I wrote position papers or operational support papers for each of these initiatives just on a volunteer basis since there were little funds to hire experts to do that. So for each initiative there was typically a little team of folks, including myself, that provided much of the support necessary to kickstart the fundraising and politicking.

 

During my work on the Freedom Center I sometimes found myself in the midst of the Freedom Center’s board member/executives, local businessmen, and politicians. Many of the Freedom Center’s proposed board members and executives were African-American as you can probably imagine. I would meet with the local politicians either after these meetings or separately.

 

I can’t tell you how shocked I was to hear politicians speaking in clearly racist terms about the project and the people involved (when they were no longer around). And I’m talking exclusively Democrat politicians. They were only there supporting the project because they felt they had to politically so as not to upset black voters. They didn’t give a crap about the historical significance of what that Freedom Center museum would mean.

 

Anyone from the Cincinnati area during the 90s would certainly recognize the names of the people I’m referring to. They would make little jokes and speak of the local black community in derogatory terms that I would expect from people in the old south.

 

Upon attending a couple local private Democrat political meetings (usually at a supporter’s home) I heard the same type of language. Not every time but often enough. And nobody reacted to it so it was clearly accepted by the group. I was a young volunteer and was too intimidated to even think of saying anything. But I was in shock. It was totally unexpected to realize Democrat politicians think this way.

 

I am the person that had black friends since I was a little kid and attended the only integrated high school in my home town. I’m the white kid that ate lunch all through high school at a long lunch table with 25 black dudes and just me. I sat there because my friends were sitting there. I drove a couple of my black friends home after baseball practice each day and dropped them off in what would probably be referred to as the projects. Etc.

 

None of that seemed like any big deal to me growing up and I was probably sheltered or just naïve. But the naïve thoughts were shattered once I got away from home out in the real world. My experience with the 90s politicians just totally crushed whatever belief I had in the system and what politicians really think of us.

 

There’s one other little funny thing that happened. There was one prominent local Dem politician who was really uncomfortable around black people, which is ironic because he was a vocal supporter of AA causes. At the Freedom Center in the early, early days, all of the volunteers were white except this one young woman who was AA. Her last name was Smith (no first name in this story).

 

This politician brought around a couple prominent African American gentlemen who were prospective board members and he introduced each of us to these gentlemen. When he got to the young black woman he got noticeably nervous and introduced her: “and this is Ms. Black” who works on …..whatever. He called her Ms. Black. ROGL. We all just kind of looked at each other because the politician didn’t realize what he’d said and his two guests just figured her last name was “Black” I guess.

 

Man we were rolling with laughter after they stepped out of the room.

 

Ok, onto a Republican story. There once was a ‘family values’ politician in Southwest Ohio... Again no names but it is a very prominent name you would recognize if you’re from the area.

 

A colleague and I were on a field trip to a satellite office of this Republican politician for a face-to-face to get support for one of our causes. It was one of several meetings for us throughout southern and central Ohio on this particular day.

 

Upon arriving at the office, we were greeted by a cute, sweet young woman who offered us coffee, etc. After she got around to checking the politician’s calendar she realized we weren’t on the schedule. (we should have been it was their screw up.) She explained there was a conflict and proceeded to ask us to reschedule and show us the door.

 

We had a long day ahead and didn’t really push it though we were quite disappointed. As we were being walked out of the office the congressman walked in. He asked who we were and why we were there, etc. He realized he had agreed to the meeting and spent an hour with us which was great.

 

As we were leaving the office we were still within the building in the hallway. As we walked away we could hear the congressman just screaming at this young woman who worked for him. He used the F word multiple, multiple times. Used the B word and C word as well. He was just absolutely screaming at the top of his lungs just tearing her apart.

 

I felt sick for this poor young woman having to take that abuse and wondered if that was the first time. I wanted to go back in but my colleague grabbed me and talked me out of it. He said it wasn’t any of our business and it could negatively affect our cause and why we were there that day.

 

So we walked away. I still feel embarrassed that we didn’t go back in and confront this guy. Mr. Family Values. Just killing this young woman, probably scarring her for life.

 

Any time since that I’ve seen politicians preaching the family values, it makes cringe and wonder what that person is really like when nobody is watching.

 

I have other stories but that’s enough I think to demonstrate my distaste of politicians for both parties.

There's not enough space on the site.

Gasp!!! You mean politicians behave differently out of the public eye than they do when they're in the spotlight? I'm crushed.

Isn't calling them Democrats bad enough.