African American
In reply to the discussion: After 10 years, I've never seen DU as crazy as it is right now. [View all]Spacedog1973
(221 posts)O'Malley would love some of the attention these protests are giving Bernie's campaign.
1. Large crowds by themselves do not make a campaign. Especially when they are not covered by mainstream media. Ron Paul had large crowds during his run, but they weren't covered mainly and things fizzled out.
2. The protests bring media interest in an otherwise bland campaign to outsiders. Bernie, outside of the white progressive bubble, wasn't widely recognised. BLM by itself draws black interest in what they are doing and why they are giving a message and to whom. Their presence at Bernie's protests, draws black eyes to his campaign. Eyes that to be frank, would not otherwise have been drawn to him.
3. BLM isn't a political campaign. It isn't tied to either the Dems or Repubs. It isn't tied to any candidate. Its about black lives. The goal will be sought by any means necessary. Its not about Bernie, or the Dems, despite both being the best and most likely way of getting their goals met. By raising this as an issue, it makes it incumbent upon other candidates to include their issues in their manifestos and raise awareness in practical terms as an agenda for the next president to implement.
4. Bernie wasn't putting black lives front and centre in his campaign and white progressives were fine with it, at least, it took BLM to point out its absence. White progressives also sought to 'splain' that Bernie's historic civil rights actions were comprehensive enough not to require specific policies. Yet specific policies on climate change, pay equality, trade unions, health care etc are the very things that attracted them to Bernie: black people were required to be satisfied with generalities and assumptions based on a pattern of voting and historic actions.
5. BLM has achieved some of its goals in a very short period of time; Bernie has hired a racially aware staff member and has changed his manifesto to reflect their demands.
6. Bernie's campaign needs BLM, more than BLM needs Bernie. Bernie won't be nominated without black votes, without black eyes on his campaign and when those eyes are on him, he needs to be saying things that will resonate with that demographic. BLM has helped him do just that and increase his appeal to a wider audience that he didn't have the knowledge or ability and awareness to do by himself.
7. DU progressives and elsewhere have shown how supremacy is all pervasive and how misplaced paternalism can lead us down the wrong path. BLM isn't 'their issue'. Any progressive worthy of the name would refer to it as 'our issue' and understand why.