Ta-Nehisi Coates: Why Precisely Is Bernie Sanders Against Reparations?

[Admiral Loinpresser]

94. I think Mr. Coates missed the point on this issue.

I don't believe Mr. Coates has studied Bernie's record and platform sufficiently. To begin with, there is a vast difference politically between reparations and Bernie's platform. I don't believe reparations has majority support, while most, if not all of Bernie's platform enjoy either a majority or super majority of support. So claiming that Bernie's platform has no chance of passage flows from an Establishment perspective in which Bernie won't have substantial Congressional coattails in the GE and his ability to use grassroots citizen participation will have no effect on Congressional debate and all of the other Establishment assumptions involved in predicting that nothing significant will change in politics. Actually, it always does. It's just a matter of timing. So I see Mr. Coates original premise based on expert conventional wisdom, which has proved consistently wrong in this unusual election cycle.

Having said that, I take Mr. Coates larger point, that reparations should be on the table and should ultimately be implemented.

I have a lot of other points I wanted to raise, agreeing and disagreeing with Mr. Coates, but time doesn't permit. Let me just close by offering my perspective. Bernie is a once-in-a-lifetime public figure, like MLK or FDR, in my view. He is one of those rare politicians, like Paul Wellstone, who walks the talk. He doesn't lie and he can't be bought. He loves people and he does everything he can to serve them. So viewed in that light, I think Bernie deserves a close look, for example by reading his book "Outsider in the White House," first titled "Outsider in the House," when originally written in 1997.