Why does this keep happening here?
Is the local machine so untouchable that nobody gets properly vetted?
Are voters just reflexively backing whatever name has party backing on the sample ballot? Or is local media so dead that people don't find out until the feds or state prosecutors step in?
What is it actually going to take to break this cycle?
Prince George’s County does not have a shortage of educated, accomplished or qualified people. The harder question is whether our political culture consistently rewards qualification over loyalty.
Government works best when public employment is treated as public trust, not political currency. Every position filled because of connections instead of competence eventually shows up somewhere else: in customer service, accountability, fiscal responsibility, public safety, economic development and the basic quality of services residents receive.
That is why elections are bigger than personalities. Political patronage can build an extraordinarily loyal voting base, but loyalty to an individual politician is not the same as effective government. When someone owes their salary, access or influence to the person in power, protecting that relationship can become more important than questioning bad decisions.
Prince George’s County, Maryland is one of the wealthiest majority Black counties in America. Our standard for leadership should reflect that distinction. Résumés matter. Experience matters. Character matters. Competence matters. Integrity matters. And residents should never have to choose between political influence and good government.
Tonya Sweat represents the kind of public service résumé that deserves serious consideration: military service, legal experience and a record that extends beyond electoral politics. Whether that translates into enough votes is another question.
The real measure of Prince George’s County politics should never be how many loyalists a politician can create. It should be how much better Prince Georgians are governed because that person held power.
1. It’s not just the environment — it’s what you let into your life.
Being intentional about the human conversations and relationships around you matters just as much as being intentional about the media you consume (social feeds, TV, music). Cutting out noise on both fronts has made a real difference.
2. It’s not that the food is “better” here — it’s that life is quieter.
I won’t say food quality outside the U.S. is automatically better, because that’s not the point. What’s changed is that with fewer stressors in my life, there’s less noise — and in that quiet, I can actually hear God as my compass in making intentional food choices.
3. Products that actually work for me:
**• Witch hazel** — keeps my scalp clean between workouts and washes
**• Pantene Pro-V Gold Series Deep Conditioner + Advancement Oil** — I use the conditioner as my regular wash, and I also dilute it with water to use as a leave-in
Prince George’s County was once marketed as America’s wealthiest majority Black county. Today it is becoming a national embarrassment.
A county full of allegedly educated voters keeps acting shocked by outcomes they personally selected at the ballot box.
You cannot spend decades electing political heirs, insiders, and protégés, then clutch pearls when the same culture produces the same results.
Prince George’s voters elected Angela Alsobrooks, a product of the very political machine they now criticize. They elected Aisha Braveboy, another longtime insider. Then residents log onto social media asking why the county feels stagnant.
The harder truth? Prince George’s County doesn’t have an education problem. It has an accountability problem.
Degrees do not substitute for civic engagement. Affluence does not substitute for competent governance. And a county cannot continuously reward political dynasties while pretending to be surprised by dysfunction.
At some point, the conversation has to move beyond outrage posts and Facebook comments.
Because if one of the nation’s most educated Black counties cannot translate education into effective governance, then the problem was never a lack of intelligence.
It was a lack of standards.
Selective outrage anyone ?
Entire neighborhood groups in Prince George’s County are organizing, drafting petitions, and marching in the streets because a data center might come to Landover.
Everyone is suddenly deeply invested in environmental health, radiation, and the "long-term impact on the community’s well-being."
But where is that exact same energy when another Royal Farms or fast-food joint opens up on the next corner?
Look at the actual numbers. Prince George’s County currently holds the highest adult obesity rate in the entire DC-Maryland suburbs. Over 30% of county high school kids are overweight or obese. Prince George’s County leads the state in hospitalizations for diabetes complications and severe hypertension.
The youth of Prince George’s County are literally facing a health crisis, and the primary corporate neighbors the county welcomes with open arms are the ones selling residents fried chicken and processed sugar.
Nobody is holding a sign outside the new drive-thru. Nobody is protesting the systemic flooding of food deserts with low-quality, disease-linked chains.
Residents are fighting the server farms that hold data while completely ignoring the food corporations that are killing local bodies.
If Prince George’s County is genuinely terrified of what is destroying the health of the community, it is time to look at the plate before looking at the tech grid.
Good luck ☺️
PG and Charles County admit you have blood on your hands when it comes to gentrification. I also find it quite odd how many of you are more concerned with the DC mayoral race - than the rampant fiscal mismanagement occuring in Prince George's County
Anyhoo - black people often want to blame everyone else for what happened to DC but nobody wants to talk about how their families literally handed over the keys.
We watched Grandma build generational wealth in the city just for the kids to sell her house for pennies the second she passed because they wanted a shiny new build in Prince George County or Charles County.
We traded actual equity and historic blocks for suburban tract housing and now we are looking around confused as to why the neighborhood doesn’t look like us anymore.
White people didn’t just conquer the block. We put it on a silver platter, cashed out, and relocated.
Gentrification is a systemic beast but let’s be
We can no longer blame poverty, lack of education, or lack of access for every challenge facing Black America.
In Prince George’s County, Maryland, one of the wealthiest Black counties in the United States, Black residents have some of the highest levels of educational attainment and household income in the country.
Yet voter participation remains low. Civic engagement remains low. Many people cannot identify the basic functions of local government. And increasingly, I hear people talking about leaving America altogether.
What fascinates me is how closely some of these choices mirror the very things segregationists once wanted for us: not voting, not engaging, not participating, and leaving.
For generations, people fought, bled, and died for the right to vote, learn, participate, and belong in this country.
The uncomfortable question is this:
If we voluntarily abandon those rights, who exactly are we proving wrong?
Prince George’s County resident and U.S. Air Force veteran Sherman Hardy has been doing a strong job using FOIA documents to expose questionable uses of county taxpayer funds through his TikTok video series.
His reporting has covered issues ranging from Ed Burroughs allegedly steering county funds to a cousin’s nonprofit, to county-financed trips to Puerto Rico, to reports of an $11,000 payment for one-time hairstyling services.
What stands out is that Hardy was doing this work unpaid and independently long before launching any campaign activity.
His TikTok series can be followed here:
https://www.tiktok.com/@hardy4pg?\_r=1&\_t=ZP-968RyYOIwrn