Why African-American voters may doom Bernie Sanders’ candidacy

[Cali_Democrat]

By Paul Waldman
January 22 at 12:18 PM

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are now arguing about race, and like many such arguments in campaigns, it has nothing to do with any substantive difference between them on policy issues. But the stakes could hardly be higher — indeed, it’s no exaggeration to say that if Sanders can’t find a way to win over large numbers of African-American voters, he will have virtually no chance of winning the Democratic nomination for president.

Which is why, when Sanders released an ad showing him amidst his many adoring supporters, Clinton ally David Brock, who runs about a hundred different super PACs and other organizations devoted to getting her elected (I exaggerate, but only slightly) gave an interview in which he said: “From this ad, it seems black lives don’t matter much to Bernie Sanders.” Because of course, if the crowd shots in his ad aren’t diverse enough, that must mean Sanders doesn’t care whether black people live or die. (Full disclosure: some years ago I worked for David Brock for a time.)

Naturally, the Sanders campaign was outraged, but Brock’s attack cleverly alluded to the period last summer and fall when Black Lives Matter activists were interrupting Sanders at speeches and pushing him to endorse their agenda. Sanders was the perfect target for those actions, because he’s a liberal eager to show African-Americans that he’s on their side, but also someone likely to make the kind of verbal slips that would allow them to criticize him.

That’s because despite his commitment to civil rights, Sanders hasn’t spent his political career in an environment where African-Americans are what they are in most of the country: the very heart of the Democratic coalition. Since Vermont is 95 percent white, Sanders hasn’t had to build up the kind of partnerships and habits of mind and work that other Democrats do, which is just one of the reasons he has a steep hill to climb with African-Americans.

Read more:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2016/01/22/why-african-american-voters-may-doom-bernie-sanders-candidacy/

[KingFlorez]

1. Black votes matter

Winning the Democratic nomination requires a broad base of support, which includes black votes.

[JRLeft]

42. This black voter is with Bernie not the Goldman Sachs candidate.

[HerbChestnut]

2. You guys still stoop to any level, won't you?

[Cali_Democrat]

4. Now what did I do wrong?

[KingFlorez]

10. You pointed out the truth

It really hurts some people.

[cali]

3. Sure, she'll almost certainly be the nominee

Weakened. She already is weakened. She is a horrible.campaigner and a lousy candidate. I've said for years, if she's the nominee, she'll lose the general.

[KittyWampus]

35. Ah, but mention all the stuff about Bernie that hasn't been focused on and how his favorabiity

is a mirage and… RED BAITING!

Clinton, for all her faults, has come out on top every time.

Sanders can't even deal with interviewers without getting agitated, annoyed, impatient.

[Autumn]

5. She will probably win unless she implodes. She won't win the GE.

So we all lose.

[TekGryphon]

41. Not if progressives can drown out voices like yours.

[TM99]

44. Progressives both in and out of the party

on the left ARE these voices.

And we will not elect Clinton in the GE. Sorry.

[artislife]

46. Yup

[TekGryphon]

47. You won't. Progressives will.

You can stay home, right along with all the other fair-weather, "only if I get my pony" Democrats.

My only regret is that you guys aren't just worthless to the progressive movement - you're counter-productive. All you do is spew hatred against and motivate people to stay home in November.

It's the Ron Paul movement all over again, only this time its in our house.

[Dawson Leery]

6. "nuts and bolts".

Better stated: Hillary is a doer. Bernie is a dreamer.

Minority communities cannot afford dreamers. They need results.

[Autumn]

9. Yeah the results have been simply stunning. Minority are all doing just wonderful.

[TM99]

11. What was that famous speech?

Oh, yes, I have a dream.

Yes, we minorities completely dismiss 'dreamers'.

Now here is a great article on what Sanders has done as a doer --

http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/20-examples-bernie-sanders-powerful-record-civil-and-human-rights-1950s

Let's see Clinton's shall we? Because off the top of my head, what comes to mind is welfare reform, NAFTA, the continued expansion of the drug war, and her previous support (she just changed her positions this election!) of the private prison industry.

Have I missed any?

[tecelote]

17. Kaboom!

Shut that down.

You also pointed out why the media can not allow Bernie airtime.

He's the real deal. He not only gets things done, he gets down in the trenches shoulder to shoulder with the rest of us.

Bernie's priorities are not regime change in the Middle East, he's focused on regime change here in the U.S.

Just in the nick of time.

[bvar22]

23. Sanders has done MORE for minorities than both Clintons put together X 100.

What a shame that he would be SwiftBoated on his remarkable, 50year long record
of working for ALL Americans.

[TM99]

24. Indeed!

But the Clintons and most of their supporters here and elsewhere are quite racist. Sad but indeed very true.

[Hekate]

37. ROFLMAO. Stop! stop! My ribs are hurting from laughing!

[TM99]

45. Well come on then.

Post some of the ways, now be very specific & cite your sources, that Clinton has truly & deeply helped our communities.

I will wait.

[Hekate]

48. Why would I want to repeat what has been posted (with verifiable links) over and over again here?

HRC has a fantastic Democratic and feminist and civil rights record going back to her earliest college years. Why would I want to repeat the obvious and truthful in a setting where no one is listening?

[Mufaddal]

16. Someone should have told MLK

that minority communities couldn't afford him.

[draa]

18. Yes, results like 22% Childhood Poverty is sure to help the "establishment" get PoC votes.

If people can look at their lives and say they're better now than before 2008 collapse they may support Clinton. If they can't they either won't vote or Bernie gets their votes. And that goes for ALL skin colors.

Too bad for Clinton they can't. Poverty has increased as profits have increased. The rich got richer as the rest were left behind. And we have ample proof of that in the 22% CHP rate. Only an idiot would vote for more of the same, or the establishment, or the status quo. Especially when there's a better choice like Sanders avaliable.

[Nanjeanne]

38. If Hillary were Pres

Remember this from JFK (bolding mine):

"We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too."

If Hillary were President, she would have chosen to go to the airport. It's more practical.

What is amazing to me regarding the discussion about minorities - is the fact Hillary has tied herself so tightly to President Obama - but many of us remember 2008 and the race-baiting and innuendo both Hillary and Bill (and their surrogates) indulged in. I know I remember:

“Senator Clinton’s race-baiting must end today . . .The politics of division now seem to be her core strategy. . ." said James Rucker, the executive director of ColorOfChange.org

Bill Clinton comparing Obama's campaign to that of Jesse Jackson's unsuccessful run in 1988

Let's not forget Clinton supporter Andrew Cuomo's statement, "you can't shuck and jive at a press conference"

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the media seems to have forgotten all that. Hopefully African Americans haven't.

[guillaumeb]

51. Unfortunately for your post, many people do know what the Clinton Presidency

did for minority communities.

[TM99]

7. PoC are no more or less

low information voters than anyone else subject to propaganda and voting entirely against their best self interests.

But this continued race baiting by the Clinton campaign will not end well. She can pretend that she has it all sewn up with our votes but she thought that in 2008 as well.

If she does win the primary, she will lose the general. No two ways about it.

[draa]

8. When Clinton loses IA and NH it's all but over.

Her problem? She's a terrible politician on the campaign trail. She lies every time she opens her mouth. And she's still got that Iraq War vote hanging over her. All those combined with ZERO weakness in her Democratic candidate make this a difficult task.

And people always forget Independents and cross over Republicans when they talk of Sanders losing. He sit at 50% with the first group and 15% with the second. That will be hard to overcome.

[glinda]

12. Bernie isn't "arguing"....appears attacks of untrue proportion are being made on him.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

13. African Americans around here are mostly voting for Bernie

I thin the Clinton campaign is understimating

[AgingAmerican]

14. If people don't want anything to change they will vote for Hillary

If they are satisfied that what we have now is the best we can muster, they will vote for Hillary. Otherwise they will vote for Sanders.

[Lage Nom Ai]

15. Anita Hill

I like the way the writer uses a man who not only attacked an African American professor but a female African American. Not only did he use the misogynist racist but he use to work for him. What's next a David Duke post?

[TM99]

22. Damned good point.

David Brock lost any standing to criticize anyone on race after he wrote The Real Anita Hill.

Fuck him. He is a racist, misogynist pig. That Clinton condones his attacks speaks volumes to her character...well her lack thereof.

[m-lekktor]

43. His log cabin ass only came to "the left" after the right wing shunned him in the 90's

because his Hillary book that he wrote wasn't nasty enough for them.

[riversedge]

19. The optics were not good in that ad. that is a given.

[jeff47]

20. Hey, why hasn't Clinton managed to come up with a social justice plan

that BLM supports yet?

[Hekate]

49. Hey, why haven't her detractors read her numerous detailed position papers?

[jeff47]

50. We have.

The last thing that happened on Clinton's social justice front was a meeting with BLM activists. They were not particularly impressed.

So....where's the plan they think is good? It's been months.

[SidDithers]

21. DU rec...nt

Sid

[catnhatnh]

25. Exact same warmed over horseshit they were presenting last summer

when support for Sanders was 2-3%. That was when Clinton was getting over 85%. But this week as all voters are beginning to look more closely Sanders is over 20% and Clinton is nearer to 70%...

Where have we seen this before-people-no matter their race or ethnicity-take a closer look and Sanders' numbers start rising while Clinton's start to drop? 82 points difference was the runners in the starting blocks. 50 points means the gun has just gone off. I'm not worried about results til they hit the tape.

[Live and Learn]

40. Running out of ammunition, must recycle. nt

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

26. THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY MUST STOP TAKING THE BLACK VOTE FOR GRANTED!!

[KeepItReal]

27. David Brock and his former employee Paul Waldman can kick rocks

We've already been through that "Sanders is from Vermont where there are few African-Americans"...

... and "Hillary goes way back with Black folks" (but not way back like Civil Rights March way back - that doesn't count)

Thanks for including the Waldman full disclosure, though.

[Fearless]

28. "Since Vermont is 95 percent white..."

That's some brazen race baiting right there.

Shame on you.

[Matariki]

29. Are you African American Cali_Democrat?

[Matariki]

30. Seems like the Clinton campaign is using African Americans to further a political agenda.

I doubt most people like being used as political props.

[Cali_Democrat]

31. Yes I am.

I'm half, but that doesn't matter to most Americans.

If you look black, you're black.

[Matariki]

32. Thanks for answering

it isn't any of my business.

[mythology]

33. Then why ask?

I pretty sure you were looking to use the answer against him or her, but you didn't get the answer you assumed you would.

[Matariki]

36. exactly

because this whole thing with Clinton using race issues seems disingenuous

[Cali_Democrat]

39. Please disclose your race/ethnicity....

So I can determine whether or not what you post is acceptable.

That's what you were getting at, right? You thought that I might be white, so I shouldn't have been allowed to post the OP.

Do you realize how absurd and condescending that is? And you're right, my race isn't any of your business.

[Vinca]

34. It will be their loss then.