Hillary Clinton Slams Bernie Sanders for Not Working to Unite Democrats in 2016

[betsuni]

89. Russians knew what to use. Effect on young people:

"Among the most unjust consequences of Sanders's branding Clinton as an establishment tool was the effect on young African Americans. Their parents -- particularly their mothers -- were virtually solid in their support for Clinton, and that wasn't the result of her racial 'pandering' (as Trump later suggested) but rather Hillary's quiet, steady work, over decades, on issues of 'kitchen-table' importance to black families and the relationships she built with black leaders. This history was either unknown to or ignored ... ; Clinton 'has to be willing to get out of what's comfortable and get on the streets,' said one obviously ignorant of the fact that at the age of twenty-four, Hillary had been a civil rights activist who went undercover to investigate the discrimination in public schools. Hillary was also the first candidate to pay attention to the Flint, Michigan water crisis ... .

"But like Clinton's work on LGBTQ issues, decades old rather than campaign inspired, none of this made it into flashy stories headlining her lifelong commitment to racial, gender, and sexual justice. Instead, we were teated to a huge media flap over a mistake she made, misdescribing Nancy Reagan as fighting for AIDS research (when it was quite the opposite). Sanders made sure that '1994 Come Bill' and 'super predator' defined Clinton on racial issues, especially for those active in the Black Lives Matter movement who were influential in shaping the perception of other young black Americans.

"In fact, Sanders himself, along with many black leaders, had voted for the crime bill ... She also apologized profusely for using the 'super predator' label, even though in her speech it was not aimed at African American youth but the dealers who exploited them. ... But for too many millennials, both black and white, '1994 Crime Bill' and 'super predator' said all one needed to about Clinton. Some spoke as though she was personally responsible for the spike in mass incarceration that was a consequence of her husband's bill. 'She was part of the whole problem that started sending blacks to jail,' a young black man from Ohio observed."

Susan Bordo