I only get into trouble on DU when I try to get to what's real.

[shaayecanaan]

7. No difference from Howard Dean, Dennis Kucinich, etc etc

Only 1% of Howard Dean adherents were African American:-



Some of that is down to mundane reasons. Both Dean and Sanders are from the same largely white state. As such most of their supporters originated from that demographic.

More fundamentally, white radicals have always fared poorly with Black voters, even going back as far as Upton Sinclair. The Communists and Socialists found it very difficult to recruit Black workers, although they made significant efforts (eg funding the legal defence for the Scottoboro Boys).

On the flipside, black radicals have always fared poorly with white voters, even if their politics were simply left-wing rather than Black nationalist (eg Shirley Chisholm).

The upshot of all that is that any serious Black candidate today sticks as close to the political centre as possible to avoid spooking the horses (ie Obama) and any white candidate generally seeks to do the same (Clinton).

Whats interesting is that Dean never encountered overt hostility due to the makeup of his support base, whereas Sanders currently does.