Still not over...

So he managed to weasel himself to another primary win. The only thing sadder than the possibility of another four years with Marion is that the ones that will surely suffer the most are the very people who came out and voted for him. Because unlike the supporters of the challengers these people really are hoping...pleading that this time he will make good on another batch of promises. To pay back their support with permanent jobs...affordable housing, etc and the fact of the matter is not only is it NOT going to happen but they (the Barry disenfranchised) have just about sealed the deal that by the time change does come they will almost most likely not have a voice in it.

For those looking on the outside in or watching the local news coverage on the election it may have appeared that these were die hard Barry fans. That the entire Ward was rallying behind their great savior! He has arisen! He has come.

Nope.

What you say is another Marion Barry mirage. What you saw were a lot of poor and unemployed people who were begging at the table of MB begging for crumbs. One needs to ask themselves how all these people on a work day were available to sit in front of polls for 12 or 13 straight hours? It's easy - they were paid and not even paid very well.

Marion has figured out a long time ago that poverty and fear works to his advantage. That desperate people make desperate decisions. That $100 today beats a lifetime of self sufficiency.

And for that I am truly sad for those people. They don't even realize they have dealt themselves out yet again out of a game that has been in progress for years. When they finally realize it it will be way to late and once again they will find themselves outplayed, ignored and disenfranchised.

I have a friend in the Mayor's office and they told me "if you could only see how he regularly plays his own people out for his own personal gain it is mind blowing! The only thing that MB cares about is MB and he will use the threat of his "army of supporters" to strong arm his way to getting what he wants but at the end of the day he would and continually has sold them out."

I asked a few of those same green and white t-shirt clad folks why they were supporting the (un) great man himself. I got a variety of answers from "he is going to win anyway" to "I am just trying to get paid" to "I don't know". Not one person was able to even remotely articulate what exactly it was that MB has done or will do that has garnered their respect.

It is not in MB's best interest to have these people continuously working...at jobs that pay a living wage. It is in his benefit to keep his people hungry...to forever just hold the carrot out of their grasp. To keep them dancing to his tune all while blaming their circumstances on "them". When will these people smarter up and realize that if MB was even half as good as as he claimed to be that they would see "progress" and not "promises"?

On election day the ward had an opportunity to clean out the "cobwebs of corruption" to endorse someone who looked like them who represented the best "of them" and they failed to do so. Part of it could be linked to poor voter turnout (and indeed it was poor), or just for a failure to hope or an inability to let go of that fear of change.

The great news is that this is not the end. It is the beginning. Barry doing another four years in reasonable health and unindicted is a snow ball's chance in hell. So a special election or special prosecutor could be right around the corner.

We can always hope.

Until then the Barry Stops Here! blog will be going on strong. Shining a bright light on the corruption that is and will always be Marion Barry!