Bernie

[Caliman73]

12. You are right about 1 thing. Bernie is not the enemy.

He is an independent politician who caucuses with the Democratic Party and holds many similar ideas. That said, your story while interesting has no real bearing on Bernie's situation.

Bernie is not a Democrat, even though he is closely aligned. The problem that a lot of people have with Bernie, aside from the residuals of the 2016 primary, is that he has made comments about race and "identity politics" that show his blind spots and they hurt a very loyal constituency to the Democratic Party.

Structural racism is built into the fabric of society to the point that Black and Brown people who grow up without direct intervention at home, will carry negative assumptions about themselves. There was a study in the 60's or 70's where Black children were asked to identify the "good doll" and "bad doll" or the "pretty doll" or "ugly doll". The majority of Black children pointed to the Black doll as "bad" and "ugly". They pointed to themselves. "Well, we've grown as a society since then" NO They replicated that study recently and found the same results continue to hold true. This society sends a message to women and people of color that we are inferior. Then Bernie goes around and says that White people who are uncomfortable voting for a Black politician aren't necessarily racist. What are they? Inclusive? Open minded? They are not classic, overt, lynching racists, but racism colors their decisions. Bill Bradley was a well qualified politician in California who ran for Governor he was our Andrew Gillium and everyone was talking about, "I'm gonna vote for Bill" then he lost, by quite a margin. They call it the "Bradley Effect" because people wanted to act in a racist way, but not be perceived as a racist so they lied.

If for some reason Bernie should run and win the Democratic nomination for President in 2020, I will vote for him in the general because he is 1000 times better than the VERY BEST Republican, but I hope he does not run because he is not a good representative of what the Democratic Party is or should be moving into the future.