A group of high minded civic types conducted a survey of black Milwaukee neighborhoods that voted overwhelmingly for Obama in 2008, producing thousands of votes, and found that hardly anyone lived there, and they wondered where all the people who had voted in 2008 had gone. The answer, of course, is that they were never there in the first place, all those fake votes just the Democrats’ way of spreading democracy. I visited one of those Milwaukee neighborhoods this past Spring and found a woman who said yes, there were empty houses, but more than that, a lot of empty hopes and dreams.

I had such hopes, the woman said

In such a quiet voice

She said she thought she’d get ahead

That’s why she made the choice

To vote for him back in oh eight

His vision and his dreams

Were hers as well but as of late

They’ve turned to scattered reams

Of so much paper promises

That haven’t any truth

Now we’re all Doubting Thomases

Who’ve moved now to Duluth

Though some have gone to better climes

Down South for Red State jobs

My neighbors felt that in these times

Obama weaves and bobs

And takes us all for granted when

It’s time for us to vote

She asked where I was going, then

Said, “Wait, I’ll get my coat”