WITH each passing week, more and more conservatives in the United States are being made aware of Kemi Badenoch.
She first came to my attention in October 2020 when she gave a very powerful, compelling, and rightfully critical speech on the floor of the House of Commons.
She was speaking about the identity-politics pitfalls of critical race theory which is being pushed incessantly by the left and far-left on both sides of the pond.
In a number of important ways, I share her valued life experiences from the opposite end of the colour spectrum.
As a white child I grew up in abject poverty and was homeless often – and by the time I was 17 years of age, I had been evicted from 34 homes.
After a number of those evictions I found myself in majority black housing projects where I was often one of the few – or the only – white child in my class.
READ MORE ON POLITICS
Liz Truss vows to ditch civil service diversity jobs in £11billion tax saving
Rishi Sunak slams rival Liz Truss as a ‘true Remainer’ over farming plans
During those early childhood years my black friends and I never saw colour.
We were simply disenfranchised children fighting against the common enemies of poverty at large and dysfunction in our homes.
During those formative years, I was blessed to witness that black America was truly a great America.
Again, it was ultimately just families, single parents, and children who had been abandoned by the system fighting to survive while trying to create slivers of normalcy along the way.
Most read in News
MOTHER'S FURY 
Archie's mum blasts NHS' 'execution' as life support is set to be turned off
If tomorrow's Archie's last day then so be it, but we'll fight to the end
Archie Battersbee will have life support turned off at midday TOMORROW
Worker dies at Morrisons warehouse after being 'crushed by collapsing roof'
To this very day, my enduring heroes and role models are the single black mums I knew who sacrificed their own happiness for their children as they worked two to three jobs at a time.
All of that begs the question: What is real-life experience worth in and to today’s political class?
As in the Congress of the United States, many members of the House of Commons and the House of Lords come from great wealth often far removed from the everyday plight and even horrors of the majority of their constituents.
But then, every once in a while, a child in favour of the “working class” manages to gain entrance to these highly exclusive clubs of power and privilege.
What to do with them?
The wiser heads within those chambers should be picking the brains of these “lower class” interlopers as often as possible to absorb as much of their real-life experience as possible.
Why?
Because, in the real lives of those living under the dictates of the entrenched-elite power-players, real-life experience can literally be life-saving.
Aside from her formal education, Kemi Badenoch has the unofficial, but greatly more important, “Doctorate” in real-life experience.
London-born and raised in Nigeria, Kemi came back to the United Kingdom at age 16 and began to work any and every “menial” job to support herself as she set her eyes on that formal education.
Since joining the Conservative Party at 25 years old, she has never been shy about articulating her views.
I would certainly argue that her real-life experience has taught her that the welfare of the people should never be about the “identity politics” pushed by the elites from the left but rather about the needs of the actual people.
Over the last few years, this mother of three and wife has made it crystal clear that she is a multi-issue advocate who refuses to be labelled or dismissed because of the biases or ignorance of others.
Along with that, she has drawn deep lines in the sand to state that she is not only pro-Brexit, but anti-woke and anti-cancel-culture.
Additionally, Ms. Badenoch is courageously unafraid to question the fossil-fuel crushing dictates of pampered “green” loving leftists which not only punish the working-class, but will eventually bankrupt the economy of the United Kingdom (as well as that of the United States).
What my life experiences have taught me over the years is that the extremists at either end of the political spectrum often hate honest, pragmatic, commonsense solutions which benefit the vast majority of the people.
That same experience also tells me that Ms. Badenoch is a truth-teller who does believe in doing the most good for the vast majority of her country.
As she battles the tsars of political correctness; identity politics; wokeness; and questionable or outright fraudulently “green” energy policies, I for one, will be rooting for her success.
Read More on The Sun
Tesco sets off fuel pump war after slashing petrol by 6.5p after Asda cut prices
We spent £9K renovating our fence – our neighbours then turned it 180 degrees
For if Ms. Badenoch succeeds, the poor, the working-class, and the disenfranchised will have a champion looking after them for a change.
As will the people of The United States.
Douglas MacKinnon is a former White House and Pentagon official and author of the book: The 56 – Liberty Lessons from those who risked all to sign The Declaration of Independence.
Source: Read Full Article