EffieBlack
EffieBlack's JournalWashPost asks: "Why aren't Jews backing Sanders?" Which raises another important question:
Why aren't Sanders supporters asking Jewish voters to explain why they're supporting Hillary over Sanders?
Is it because, unlike voters of color, Jewish voters aren't assumed by some to be low-information voters, voting against their interests because of blind loyalty who need to have Sanders' value explained to them? Or are there other reasons?
“We like Hillary Clinton. We’ve known her well for many, many years. We’ve worked with her. There’s a tremendous comfort level,” said Rabinowitz, the former Bill Clinton staffer. “Bernie Sanders? Eh, don’t know him so well. Like him. Excited for him. Proud about his success. But we’re with the other guy.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/03/08/bernie-sanders-is-jewish-why-isnt-that-convincing-jews-to-vote-for-him/
I'll just set this one right here ...
"Black Men For Bernie Educates Black DETROIT Voters"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511454511
I have less concern about Bernie's use of the term "ghetto" than that his frame of reference for POC
seems to be limited to poverty, criminal justice and welfare.
For example, when he was asked last night what he would do to improve race relations in this country, he talked about crime, poverty and welfare.
And last night was not an aberration; that's a common refrain for him. For example, in a debate a few weeks ago, he was asked what he would do to improve race relations and he responded as follows:
"And the progress that we can build on is to understand that we should not have 35 percent of African-American kids in this country living in poverty ... we need real police reform. We need to make sure that when people are in jail, often, African-American and Latino, there is a path back -- back to civil society so that we don't have the rates of recidivism that we do right now.
"We have got to do away with mandatory minimum sentences. And I'll give you one example where we can make huge progress.
"Right now, it turns out that the African-American community and the white community smoke marijuana at about equal levels, OK? But it also turns out that blacks are four times more likely to be arrested than whites for possession of marijuana, OK? And that is why I believe that we should take marijuana out of The Federal Controlled Substance Act. Too many lives have been destroyed. Too many young people have been -- incurred police records for possession of marijuana."
This is why so many people think that Bernie is tone deaf. But his tone deafness comes from a cramped view of race, which is not surprising since race and race relations is just not something he has focused much attention on in the half century since he worked in the civil rights movement in the 1960s.
That doesn't mean that he is a bad person, that he is a racist or that he hates black people. But it does mean that he is not as racially sensitive as he and his supporters are trying to convince us that he is.
NY Times: "NRA Praises Bernie Sanders for Debate Comments on Gunmakers"
Strange bedfellows, indeed.
http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/03/07/n-r-a-praises-bernie-sanders-for-debate-comments-on-gunmakers/?_r=0
Repost from GDP: The "PoC don't support Bernie because they don't know him" claim is actually true
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511378718Despite all evidence to the contrary, many of Bernie Sanders supporters continue to claim that the only reason he is struggling with black voters is that "they don't know him," but if when they learn that "he's been fighting for civil rights for PoC his entire life" they will flock to support him.
But if Bernie really were the great civil rights crusader that his supporters claim he is, he wouldn't have to be "introduced" to black voters. They would already know who he is and what he has been doing for their community.
Bernie's problem is not that black people don't know enough about his record - and if only they are told about it again and again, louder and louder, they will fall in love with him, too. The problem is that if his civil rights record were as robust and exceptional as his supporters claim, they wouldn't have to explain it to black people since they would already know about it.
And this is not an instance where anyone can claim with a straight face that "Bernie doesn't seek attention or glory." This isn't about seeking attention. If he were actually working so hard for black people, the people he's supposedly been fighting so hard for would know it because they're in the arena fighting, too and they know that Bernie was not in the arena with them - at least not long enough or meaningfully enough to develop relationships with any of the people there or even to make enough of an impression that anyone remembered him.
This doesn't mean he hasn't supported civil rights for PoC - he clearly has. But for the past 50 years, he's been doing it from the sidelines, far away from the real, hard, day-to-day work that people who are fighting for civil rights must do. While he has occasionally leaned into the ring to offer encouragement and support, he has not been a presence in the arena. The people who ARE fighting in the ring doing that work know the other people who are also doing it - and if they don't know them firsthand, there aren't many degrees of separation between them. And they don't need to be introduced to them and have their record explained to them after they decide to run for President. If Bernie had been such a fighter for civil rights over the past several decades, black folk would already know it and Bernie's supporters (most of whom also have never been spent any time in the arena) would not need to try to explain it to them.
The fact that this isn't the case should tell you something because it speaks volumes about why Bernie is having so much difficulty getting the support of more than a handful of black voters.
The "PoC don't support Bernie because they don't know him" claim is actually true
Despite all evidence to the contrary, many of Bernie Sanders supporters continue to claim that the only reason he is struggling with black voters is that "they don't know him," but if when they learn that "he's been fighting for civil rights for PoC his entire life" they will flock to support him.
But if Bernie really were the great civil rights crusader that his supporters claim he is, he wouldn't have to be "introduced" to black voters. They would already know who he is and what he has been doing for their community.
Bernie's problem is not that black people don't know enough about his record - and if only they are told about it again and again, louder and louder, they will fall in love with him, too. The problem is that if his civil rights record were as robust and exceptional as his supporters claim, they wouldn't have to explain it to black people since they would already know about it.
And this is not an instance where anyone can claim with a straight face that "Bernie doesn't seek attention or glory." This isn't about seeking attention. If he were actually working so hard for black people, the people he's supposedly been fighting so hard for would know it because they're in the arena fighting, too and they know that Bernie was not in the arena with them - at least not long enough or meaningfully enough to develop relationships with any of the people there or even to make enough of an impression that anyone remembered him.
This doesn't mean he hasn't supported civil rights for PoC - he clearly has. But for the past 50 years, he's been doing it from the sidelines, far away from the real, hard, day-to-day work that people who are fighting for civil rights must do. While he has occasionally leaned into the ring to offer encouragement and support, he has not been a presence in the arena. The people who ARE fighting in the ring doing that work know the other people who are also doing it - and if they don't know them firsthand, there aren't many degrees of separation between them. And they don't need to be introduced to them and have their record explained to them after they decide to run for President. If Bernie had been such a fighter for civil rights over the past several decades, black folk would already know it and Bernie's supporters (most of whom also have never been spent any time in the arena) would not need to try to explain it to them.
The fact that this isn't the case should tell you something because it speaks volumes about why Bernie is having so much difficulty getting the support of more than a handful of black voters.
"To Understand the Clintons' Appeal in SC, Meet Bernice Scott"
To Understand the Clintons Appeal in SC, Meet Bernice Scotthttps://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/02/27/to-understand-clintons-appeal-in-south-carolina-meet-bernice-scott/?postshare=2241456762955017&tid=ss_fb
...
To the extent that Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has struggled to connect with black voters in South Carolina, it is in large part because he doesn’t have political roots with people like Bernice Scott – ride or die supporters who have been with the Clintons for more than two decades... It is true that some of them defected to Obama in 2008, moved by the chance to make history by electing the first African American president. Some of them had a falling out with the Clintons, who were accused of using racially-tinged rhetoric to disparage Obama’s candidacy.
But Hillary Clinton’s favorable ratings never slipped underwater among African Americans, and polls have consistently shown that most have been happy to support her second bid for president. They say Clinton is the best qualified candidate, is an ally of Obama who will continue his policies and that she and her husband have history with black voters. These voters provided Clinton with a solid base of support that Sanders has been unable to crack.
...
She is similarly dismissive of a renewed push by some Sanders supporters and activists sympathetic to the Black Lives Matter movement to call attention to Clinton's past support for anti-crime laws and welfare reform that some argue have disproportionately harmed black communities.
“You find me a person who has not made an error. That’s how we grow – from our mistakes -- and she has said over and over again that some of the things we worked on she didn’t understand at the time the whole impact it would have. But now she sees that and she’s been doing is trying to correct it."
POC aren't buying the "Bernie's been fighting for you all his life so you should vote for him" claim
yet that meme is not only alive and well, but is being doubled down on DU since last night.
This argument is clearly not working as evidenced by how it's being rejected by black voters so roundly and soundly that it seems to be backfiring. Isn't it time to try a different tactic for attracting the black vote?
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