Democrats Should Stop Blaming Republicans for Every Issue They Have, Alabama Candidate Says
12:00 GMT 05.11.2022 (Updated: 13:12 GMT 06.11.2022)
© AFP 2023 / GEORGE FREY
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The US is preparing for the midterm elections on Sunday, with polls forecasting a major red wave. Republicans are expected to take over the House of Representatives and boost their positions in state legislatures across the country. However, President Joe Biden said he is optimistic about the prospects of the Democratic Party in the upcoming vote.
Sputnik discussed the situation American voters are facing ahead of the midterms with Lennora Pierrot, who is running for election to the Alabama House of Representatives to represent District 82.
Sputnik: Tell us more about your campaign, what issues are the people of Alabama facing right now, especially amid all the economic challenges in the US?
Lennora Pierrot: It's important that we empower individuals; then by doing that, you help people become accountable. Because many times we put people in office and we’re hoping that they're going to do what they're supposed to. And many times they're not able to do what they're supposed to and we're not making them accountable. We just say: 'Oh, no, they're just going to have four more years'. We, as voters, need to be more informed and more involved ourselves.
And when we look at - with my race specifically, I'm here in a community that is 98% Democrat. And it's a very difficult race because if you don't have the funding and the people to help you see that, hey, if we say we need change, we need change in my community - because our representative has been in office for well over 17 years and within that time frame, we're declining. And so that's the problem, because in that time she’s created relationships. She’s created lots of things and the things that she’s created, one county is gaining and the other is losing. And that in itself is a problem.
Hajjah Lennora Joyce-Muti’ah Pierrot, a candidate running to represent District 82 in the Alabama House of Representatives.
© Photo : Lennora Mu'Tia Pierrot
And so today distrust in that individual that they're going to create balance is not what we need as a district. And that's what my campaign is about. My campaign is about acknowledging that we're all here as a community. And when we're here as a community, it's important to empower everyone.
So we've been individuals who have had the time, the energy to be in that position for us. With who's been representing us, it doesn’t makes sense that the baton gets passed, so if it's not going to get passed, we have to step up to the plate and take this baton and take this good time, this intelligence, because if we just take the baton and just keep moving, we've got to take the baton and acknowledge our representative, because if he is willing to share and help us, then our job will be easier.
But if he wants to take on state positions, take on this situation that is already declining, it is just negative for us as a community. We don't have healthy equity in our system. We have people coming into leadership [without it].
Sputnik: What do you make of the Biden administration’s policies? Does the federal government really care about the ordinary Americans?
Lennora Pierrot: In every single way, as an American citizen, I have to uphold all of the departments within my country; that is doing the best they can. And the federal government does care about the American people. The American people have to be aware of the people that they put into leadership, because if the people you put into leadership, when they get the federal dollars, the federal dollars are not being trickled back into the community...
So the federal government does care. They are consistently trying to create equity within our system and it’s a challenge for them. But the challenge then becomes how to collaborate when you have leadership - for my community, we have leadership, money is coming into our town. But that money is not being reported fairly.
You don't get to see how the money is being distributed. When there is a lack of transparency of distribution of the money, it appears that the federal government does not care, because we know that the money is coming from the federal government, but we're not seeing the money. And so the transaction is from the leadership and the people.
With the U.S. Capitol dome visible, a voter drops a ballot into an early voting drop box, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2020, at Union Market in Washington
© AP Photo / Patrick Semansky
So, yes, our federal government does care about us as an American people. And I think it's a challenge as I'm here taking on this position, I am realizing that it's a very difficult process, because everything functions as a system and many times within the system, based on what side of the system you're in, it makes it difficult, because you already have these preconceived notions and ideas about what you think should happen. And once you step into the system, you realize, okay, wow, this is why this is slow. This is why it's not happening. It's why things are going the way they're going.
And at this point right now, with the economic challenges that we're facing, we're not just facing the economic challenges in the United States. We're facing economic challenges globally. So there is a there is a responsibility for all leadership to come together to address it globally, but not in the inequality way that it has been done in the past. We have to change our ways of doing business.
I am definitely an individual that deals with accountability. Being an individual born and raised in the Caribbean, I come from a history of fighters. They fight for their rights; they fight for freedom. For black women in America and the South, the right to vote and the right to fairness and justice is something that is part of our DNA.
When we become complacent; in 2022 we've become complacent. We have President Biden taking arms... He sold us this idea and concept that he would be ready to take on all the challenges that we have, that we were facing when he came in, in 2020. He came in with that idea and concept that he was ready to face those challenges - and then the idea of blaming, you can't, as a Democrat, you can't blame the Republicans for the issues that you're having.
This is where I find that we have this fight that makes it very, very difficult for us. It's how do we come together to help build our nation in this time of crisis? Not blaming the Republicans, because all of the Democratic ideas and concepts, if they're having issues, they blame the Republicans. That's not what will create the change for us as a community.
So moving forward, the challenges that we have, we have to find ways to build equity for us, not just Republican or Democratic. They are important in how we function; we have to look at the bigger picture. How can we create fair equity, justice, equity for us as a nation.
US President Joe Biden stops for ice cream at Baskin Robbins in Portland, Oregon, October 15, 2022.
© AFP 2023 / SAUL LOEB
Sputnik: How do you see the Republican party transforming in the future, as well as how can Republicans of the ‘next generation’ as you say, benefit the American society?
Lennora Pierrot: I see myself as a ‘new’ Republican. I am the living legacy of Booker T. Washington. I am the living legacy of Frederick Douglas. And the Republican Party, as the Democratic Party - there are so many different negative aspects to every single party. But the people make the party. So when you have negative people in either party, the most important thing is for you as individual. So I deal with self-accountability. So as an individual who functions and deals with economic justice and who deals with fairness, that is how I'm addressing; me as a Republican.
I am an American - my conservative values, since the time I was six years old is what formulated my Republican values. And in that process, it has always been about forward movement, forward change, self-accountability. And in moving forward, I see that each and every one of us are conservatives deeply in the things that we do and the things that we believe. But because we're forced to take a side, it makes it difficult. So do you pick the side of the Democrats because for so many years, you’ve been in it?
The original party for the African-Americans was the Republican Party. So with this shift, it ended up that now they’re Democrats. There are different arguments and I respect everyone's position. But I can't argue with every single negative point that comes up as to why I shouldn't be a Republican. But what I can say is that my ancestors died so I could make this choice. And that is where I find that we have this misconception. For many years we didn't have a choice. And today we have rights.
So I believe we get the freedom to choose and the freedom to be the best Republican that I can be, the best conservative that I can be. To respect if my children choose to be Democrats, to respect the fact that they're choosing to be Democrats, not that my children have chosen either party. I'm just using that as an example that, I have the ability and it seems to be a Republican... I am comfortable and I am proud to stand for that position, because now more than ever, those conservative values will help save my community. It's what's going to help save Alabama. It's what's going to help save many different issues that we have within our community.
