The story goes, according to legend, that aspirational blues musician Robert Johnson found himself at a crossroads in the Deep South in the 1920s, and traded his soul to the Devil in order to learn how to play guitar.
Cross Road Blues was recorded and released twice by Johnson, first in 1932, and then again four years later. I have no idea about the spiritual side of it. If you actually listen to the lyrics to the song, either by Johnson or any of the tons of covers, notably by Eric Clapton and Cream in the 1960s, it's about finding himself in the middle of nowhere late at night in the still-racist Deep South, and having to rely on the graciousness of someone to pull over and give him a ride.
90 years later, another Robert Johnson, and the Democratic Party as well, find themselves at a different type of crossroads.
Robert L. Johnson, a billionaire entertainment mogul most famous for the creation of BET, Black Entertainment Television, is a Virginian by residence, and has a storied career. He was the press secretary for D.C. Congressional Delegate Walter Fauntroy, the last living co-founder of the Congressional Caucus. Johnson also spent time doing comms for the National Urban League, and he was the public affairs director of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Johnson is a man of the left, and a staunch advocate for Black rights on all sorts of issues.
He once called for a national Black political party, and in 2020, called for a $14.7 trillion dollar reparations plan to be approved. Suffice it to say, Johnson is not a rock-ribbed conservative.
Being a billionaire, Johnson has been very active in politics, both at the national and state level in the Commonwealth. His fellow Virginian, Terry McAuliffe, partnered with him for a while in the 2000s and 2010s, raising around $900,000 dollars. In McAuliffe's 2013 successful bid for governor, Johnson gave the maximum in personal donations, primary and general election cycle, and worked with the Democratic Governors Association superPAC to help raise another $1.2 million for the Macker.
Johnson has raised money for and/or endorsed Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden. But in 2019, he found himself at the political crossroads. He began to look around at the Democratic Party becoming hijacked by the most extreme fringes of their base even then, and began to speak out.
A year later, even while wishing and working for his reparations plan, his sense that Blacks were being used and taken for granted by the Democratic Party only grew.
When McAuliffe came out of retirement in 2021 to try for another spin as Virginia Governor, Johnson did something remarkable. He stayed out of the top line of the ticket. He didn't endorse, he didn't fundraise, and he didn't give any money to McAuliffe. He did, however, give $500,000 to Winsome Sears, who was running as Glenn Youngkin's lieutenant governor. He said his donation had nothing to do with her politics, and everything to do with being the first Black woman to run for high office in the Commonwealth.
Johnson has been relatively silent of late, but has been complimentary of Donald Trump in the past for his economic policies that improved the lives and opportunities for Blacks. He made those remarks in 2019 on CNBC's Squawk Box. Last week, Johnson once again put his money where his mouth is.
On Thursday at an Arlington County school board meeting discussing their policy on trans bathrooms, Lt. Gov. Sears showed up and spoke. Outside, a group of protesters did what protesters generally do if they're on the left - went one step too far.
BREAKING: The woman who held up this sickening racist sign to protest Winsome Sears, has been identified as a campaign volunteer for Virginia Governor Democrat nominee Abigail Spanberger pic.twitter.com/uz6pl0yUqs
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) August 22, 2025
So she wasn't just a rando. She was working as a volunteer for the Democrat running for governor. For the next 24 hours, Spanberger was silent. She didn't condemn it immediately. She did not fire the staffer. This gave Sears and her supporters an open backfield. On Friday, Sears went live with this new campaign ad.
🚨 NEW AD: Abigail Spanberger is hiding from voters because she’s sold out to extremist nonsense.
— Winsome Earle-Sears (@winwithwinsome) August 22, 2025
You have my word I will always stand with you and with common sense. pic.twitter.com/2RT8FaaQMO
This was the point when Spanberger realized she's got a problem on her hands and meekly condemned the sign. Meanwhile, Mark Broklawski, the vice-chair of the Rules Committee for the Virginia state Democratic Party, poured gas on the fire.
Abigail Spanberger’s Democrat Party is blaming me for the racist sign her own volunteer made.
— Winsome Earle-Sears (@winwithwinsome) August 24, 2025
I know Abigail and her elitist cabal are desperate and deluded but this is a whole new level of crazy. pic.twitter.com/E1LlqXlcww
By mid-day Friday, Robert Johnson had seen enough. He wrote a check for another $500,000 to Winsome Sears' gubernatorial campaign, precisely because he was concerned about the growing racism he's seeing in the Democratic Party.
First in @politico: Robert Johnson, the co-founder of BET, donated $500,000 to Republican Winsome Earle-Sears’ gov campaign in Virginia after she was targeted by a racist sign, her camp told me.
— Lisa Kashinsky (@lisakashinsky) August 29, 2025
Johnson was McAuliffe donor, backed Clinton for prez before shifting away from Dems pic.twitter.com/SqYOkNTaYz
In 2021's campaign, McAuliffe had a lead in polling outside the margin of error virtually the entire time. At the Labor Day point in that contest, McAuliffe had just under a 6-point lead. Real Clear Politics' average of polls at that date included in their mix a Roanoke College survey showing McAuliffe up 8.
In this year's contest, Abigail Spanberger has enjoyed a wide lead in polling, but there's been a hemorrhaging of support in the last few weeks, thanks to her defending crime, trans people using bathrooms of girls, and other 20/80 issues of which she's embracing. The current RCP average is at 6.8%, but here's what's eye-popping. In the RCP averages, there's not one, but two different Roanoke polls in the current mix. The first one, taken in mid-May, had Spanberger up 17. They now have one in late August where Spanberger's lead is down to 7. Sears is clearly closing, and one of the reasons is that Spanberger's support among Virginia Blacks is very soft.
In 2008, Obama received 96% of Virginia's Black vote, which make up just under 20% of the population of the state. In 2009's gubernatorial campaign, the Democrat got 90% of the Black vote. The decline in support for Democrats by Blacks in the state has continued over the last decade. In 2024, Donald Trump got 17% of the Black vote, and the polling currently shows that migration continuing in the Republicans' direction. Johnson's backing this week is another indication of that.
Even with a 6-point lead on Labor Day, 2021, McAuliffe ended up losing to Glenn Youngkin by 1.9%. Could Sears, facing a similar, although potentially inflated deficit now close the gap? Sure, especially if Blacks either stay home or stand up to racism and support the person who most represents their interests.
The bottom line is this: the Democratic Party can and still will win elections. They just won a low turnout special election in Iowa's state house, breaking the Republicans' supermajority. They think this is a harbinger of things to come. I'm not so sure. Democrats will win in places they have to win. They'll be victorious in New York City. They'll win in Chicago. And California. And Massachusetts. All the country's strongest remaining blue regions, Democrats will still prevail, to their constituents peril. But as a national party winning big elections for the foreseeable future? I'm just not seeing it right now.
When a blue state governor, in this case J.B. Pritzker in Illinois, is threatening to sue the federal government to prevent them from coming into Chicago to stop crime, this is a party that is no longer a viable party. When a California governor threatens to sue the federal government for commandeering the National Guard in order to protect federal buildings in the middle of a riot, then calls his own press conference two months later to announce that upon further revie, it might be good to put National Guard troops and step up on law enforcement in the Golden State's largest cities of San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles, and San Diego, this is a political movement that is an absolute mess right now.
When James Carville, one of two men alive in the last 80 years to deliver a two-term Democratic president (the other being David Axelrod) blows a head gasket at the Democratic National Party for offering up a land acknowledgement at the start of their summer meeting in Minneapolis, and yet no one in the party will bother listening to his dire warning about their future viability, this is a party that is rotting away at its core.
They have fashioned themselves into the Not Trump party, regardless of whatever it is that Trump is for. Trump has kindly turned that into the most effective center-right coalition in American history by co-opting the 80% ground on virtually everything.
Just like Robert Johnson in 1921 sticking his thumb out for a ride, pleading with some kind soul to help him out, the Democrats are driving right by that stranded Black person at the crossroads. It's the Republicans who are slowing down and pulling over to help.
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