★ Michelle Alexander Responds to Bill Clinton's Attack on #BlackLivesMatter

[Cheese Sandwich]

Bill Clinton says that he “almost” wants to apologize for his remarkable episode yesterday — you know, when he embraced long-debunked, racially coded "super-predator" rhetoric, compared Black Lives Matter protestors to Republicans and insisted that they support murderers, and blamed his crime bill on black politicians. Personally, I am not demanding an apology from Bill Clinton. Instead, I would like to say thank you. Thank you, Bill, for giving the nation a ten-minute tutorial on everything that was wrong (and apparently remains wrong) with the “New Democrats” and their approach to racial politics.

Unfortunately much of the mainstream media seems to be buying (yet again) much of what Bill was selling yesterday. So to recap what should be obvious by now: Black politicians and activists were not asking for "get tough" measures and nothing else back in the 1990s. Some black politicians opposed the Clinton crime bill, and those who supported it weren’t seeking punishment and nothing more; they desperately wanted massive investment in jobs and schools so the young people trapped in communities where work had suddenly disappeared would have some hope of survival. It is a gross distortion to suggest that black people wanted billions of dollars slashed from child welfare, housing and other public benefits in order to fund an unprecedented prison building boom. It was Bill Clinton's deliberate political strategy -- one he championed along with the "New Democrats" -- to appeal to white swing voters by being tougher on struggling black communities than the Republicans had been, ramping up the drug war and gutting welfare. That strategy of "getting tough" while at the same time eviscerating the federal social safety net was NOT supported by many of the black politicians he seeks to use as cover. Rep. John Lewis (who Clinton referred to yesterday as the "last remaining hero of the civil rights movement&quot fiercely opposed welfare reform, accurately predicting that it would thrust more than a million more kids into severe poverty.

John Lewis said back then: “How can any person of faith, of conscience, vote for a bill that puts a million more kids into poverty? What does it profit a great nation to conquer the world, only to lose its soul?”

The young people challenging Bill Clinton yesterday were asking these very same questions. You may not agree with their tactics, but they were, in their own way, fighting for the soul of the Democratic party and American democracy itself. Whether our nation can be redeemed in the long run remains to be seen.

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=984486031639354&id=168304409924191

[BillZBubb]

1. Funny she quotes John Lewis. He's sold his soul for God knows what.

He should be one of the first people to see through the Clintons and their racial politics. Instead, he's all in for Hillary.

[pdsimdars]

2. I agree, it sickened me to hear him endorsing her. You wonder, what did it take for him to sell

his integrity.

[Baitball Blogger]

4. I don't know how he can go along with this any longer.

The jig is up.

[NorthCarolina]

13. What else.

Money is a hugely corrupting commodity.

[Cheese Sandwich]

14. that was somewhat disappointing

[ReasonableToo]

3. Rec. Comments at link are worth a click. NT

[iAZZZo]

5. bill responds to his attack

[/br]

[Cheese Sandwich]

9. Oh wow I have to copy that image it's so shareable

[iAZZZo]

12. direct link is

"i.imgur.com/1X3kDHO.png" (between the quote marks)

thanks for your many contributions; i like "swiss" ; - )

[Uncle Joe]

6. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Cheese Sandwich.

[noiretextatique]

7. I was saying this just today: DLC used tough on crime language and policies

To win the votes of white swing voters by fanning hysteria about crime ala the racist superpredator bs. I also said that they are no better than republicons when it comes to POC. Bill will never get a "pass" from me, neither will Hillary. He is lying througg he teeth on this issue.

[CentralCoaster]

8. Excellent. KR nt

[kgnu_fan]

10. K＆R

[JudyM]

11. CNN just had a guy on outing Bill for cynically appealing to racist pickup truck dudes

who want to be assured Hillary's going to hang tough. I hope this dog whistle awareness spreads as it should.

[BillZBubb]

15. Too late for the truth to come out now, though. The Clintons already got what they wanted

from black voters. Now they need the white, bubba vote.

[JudyM]

16. .