Why Bernie Sanders’ problems with black voters go much deeper than him just blaming the media

[cascadiance]

112. With all due respect, Bernie can't be viable and discuss issues of race ALL of the time...

There are times for him to talk about it, and he HAS talked about these issues too.

But when someone tries to hijack a forum that was to pay credence to topics of social security and basically even deny Bernie the ability to speak at it, let alone talking about issues of race, while calling his supporters racists and "white supremacists", I think you are confused about which individuals were viewed by most Americans as "fumbling things". In my book he had nothing to apologize in those events.

Maybe he needed a little jumpstart to get him to pay attention more and provide more focus on his views supporting POC, which he did after the initial Netroots Nation interruption where activists wanted him to deviate from the forum topic of immigration that he was there speaking on. He'd already hired Simone as his spokeswoman from BLM before the Seattle incident occurred, so it wasn't like he wasn't listening at that point. That was only what they were trying to project on them in their search for getting fame for themselves.

So, if a Republican was shown to you as the only "viable" candidate that was going to win, would you support them because viability is "the ONLY thing that matters"? I'd be surprised if most thinking POC would buy in to that philosophy, that would continue to have the problems they've faced be kept in place for that much longer.

I can accept that POC are more familiar with Hillary Clinton, as most people in America are. It happened that way with Barack Obama as you noted too. But during the campaign things changed as he started to win primaries, etc. and became more known. I believe that Bernie will have the same trajectory, and his trajectory in polls and in fund raising is ahead of where Obama was at this point too. I think it is way too early for us to try and "end" this race, much as it was at this time during 2008 campaign. Debates will help us all understand all of the candidates, and how they want to approach issues on race as well as other issues that affect all of us. Bernie supporters are excited for everyone to discover where the field stands on issues, and for Americans in general to become more familiar with the issues that are very important to solve this time around. This is why we have elections and why we want to solve things that some in the past may have said were unsolvable, but those of us supporting Bernie see a difference the way this campaign is going that gives us hope that we could see a time much like those saw in FDR's time too of the possibility of real change and transformation where everyone can benefit, including POC.

I'm not claiming that Bernie is the equivalent of MLK. I don't know anyone that would try to make that assertion. But he has been consistently supporting of civil rights issues, and I challenge anyone to come up with times where he's noticeably departed from stances like that, unlike Hillary Clinton, who has had differences in her stances over time on these issues. Changing emphasis to economic issues as his primary focus is not the same as CHANGING his views on civil rights issues which he has NOT done. He's trying to do a lot and trying to reach a lot of people, which is absolutely necessary to get a lot of support for viability to work against the big money trying to keep him from being viable.

And it is big money trying to keep him from being viable that is responsible for pulling strings with congress people and others in government to either endorse Hillary now, or not endorse him through threats of campaign money bribes being spent in certain ways, not because some people just don't want to support him. John Lewis certainly looks like he supports Sanders in his marching with him in Selma as shown in this photo, even if he has the good campaign sense not to endorse Sanders when the money gang threatens everyone including Lewis to avoid doing so.



And what makes Cornell West such a bad person for your community? Is it just that he's supported Bernie instead of Hillary and at times as criticized Obama on a number of issues (such as lack of accountability by Wall Street to this administration's DOJ for their crimes, or Obama's mysterious love affair with free trade bills and fast track authority for such, that is so much against the interests of POC and against all of our interests for that matter). There were times when West strongly supported Obama during the 2008 election as I recall, and I think he's said so in his later critiques of Obama too. I think he wants government to work for the interests of POC as well. I'm not seeing how he's not doing so. Cornell West seems to be victimized by targeted criticism from the corporate beholden Democratic Party PTB. If you could shed some light on where Mr. West is criticized in a legitimate fashion, please share them with us.