2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Bernie Supporters - Please read my post [View all]DLnyc
(2,479 posts)I appreciate you laying out actual issues without getting sucked into the cycle of name calling and retribution.
Your post helps me understand, really confirms a feeling I have been having, something about if you are in a group that is being actively persecuted, you might tend to lean more toward a tried and true liberal, rather than a new, somewhat radical face.
I absolutely agree we Bernie supporters need to get out and really listen to people in the African American and Hispanic communities.
It may encourage you some to hear that after our Bernie meeting last Wednesday, which happened to attract a group of old lefties, frankly all white, the first activity which we seem to have come up with is setting up a table to do flyering and voter registration. But, unlike our habit of the last couple of decades, instead of putting the table on the main street in our neighborhood, it's going right in the nearby "project" housing, trying to reach out to, and listen to, the poorer, more likely to be African American and/or Hispanic people who live there.
I think if you look past the rhetoric which sometimes goes back and forth here, you will see that this seems to be Bernie's response too: "Okay, we're not doing so well with African Americans and Hispanics, let's listen, respond, try to bring more into the fold."
Really, IMHO, the very basic bottom line is that real change is going to require real coalition building. The Republicans, the oligarchs, the multinational corporations are all glad to see us divide up and split along racial, ethnic, gender, sexual orientation lines (all very powerful emotional things). It's our job as Democrats, if we really want a better world, to listen, respond and grow past these wedges that can drive us apart!
Thank you for your efforts towards productive discussion and action!