After the Paris attacks the GOP conveniently went after Syrian refugees which allowed the American Left to turn the debate of Islamic terrorism into a part of the 2016 presidential election contest. It became part of the classic battle between the Democratic party’s multi-culturalism and the Republican Party’s resurgent racist nativism. In the process the threat of real live Islamic terrorism was ignored, even belittled. I wondered, a month ago, how we on the Left would react when American Islamic terrorists, inspired by ISIS, would attack. Continue reading
Category Archives: Bernie Sanders
Ahmed Muhamed
I don’t understand how Bernie Sanders, of all people, can be so tone deaf about this kinda thing. In fact, his one big stumble so far was when he infuriated Black LIves Matter by never going off message even for a tweet or two to comment on the police shootings and beatings of African Americans. I’m not so sure how many Bernie supporters are aware there was even an issue with that, but in the Black community it did him in. That more than any other factor is why so few people of color show up at his rallies.
So when I saw Hillary comment on the racially profiled arrest of fourteen year old Ahmed Muhamed in Texas for designing a clock, I expected a hollow up from Bernie Sanders. But there was nothing. He refused to go off his message even one iota to make a statement about this and give even a hint that he is concerned with issues of police abuse and racial profiling. Of course he’s concerned…but he keeps missing out on opportunities to show it. Today was a perfect opportunity. Apparently Bernie and his whole staff was busy. It would have taken only thirty seconds but been worth a million dollars in television advertising in southern primary states next March. And I simply cannot fathom how neither he nor anyone on his staff had figured that out. And as a result, there are a hundred stories on the web right now that quote in their entirety the tweets from Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
What is it that makes Bernie Sanders ignore the value of the symbolism in tweeting in anger about the police abuse of a person of color. I know it’s not a problem in Vermont, but it’s a huge problem elsewhere, and he needs to address it when it come up, even if all that means is a simple little message on Twitter.
His campaign needs to stop ignoring people of color, because those people make up a huge proportion of the Democratic Party. This party has been based on poor people and immigrants for its entire existence, and you can’t bend over backwards appealing to hip white progressives, a goof chunk of them members of the top fifth of Americans in income, and pretend the rest of the party doesn’t exist.
The revolution will not be twitterized either, apparently
Was just looking at Dr. Cornel West’s twitter page to see how he is pushing along Bernie’s drive for black votes. Turns out Dr. West does not tweet. Well he tweets, but apparently only when he’s in the mood. He’s almost never in the mood. The last time he was in the mood was September 8, when he tweeted briefly about it being John Coltrane’s birthday. Before then he released a whole flurry of tweets on August 24, the day he endorsed Bernie Sanders, in what is basically a long essay broken up into little tweets. And that is all that Dr. Cornel West has done on Twitter to help Bernie Sanders. That’s it. Instead of a torrent of tweets on Bernie’s behalf and attacking Hillary, Dr. West can’t be bothered to do a fucking thing. And this is the man who will turn Bernie’s standing in the African-American community in the South around.
No wonder there were nobody but white people at those rallies in the Carolinas. They were probably the only ones who even knew about them.
You cannot fundamentally reform the nation if your campaign staff can’t even do some basic advance work for a few campaign appearances.
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Bernie Sanders speaking to the whitest bunch I have ever seen
I’m an unrepentant lifelong Democrat and I know what the breakdown of the Democratic party is, especially in the South. And this is the first time I have ever seen a Democratic candidate with a following that looks like a cross between the Republican convention, a Kenny G concert and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. In a nation approaching 50% people of color, Bernie Sander’s supporters are the whitest bunch I have ever seen outside the Republican Party, AND THAT IS A MAJOR PROBLEM.
The Bernie Sanders movement needs to dump this white only crap and reach out, and this corny half Beatlemania/half messianic thing is not cutting it. If you want to win the nomination and the election, get real. Just as Democrats are praying for Trump to be the Republican nominee, the Republicans are praying for Bernie, and for the same reason. Both candidacies are quite delusional about their supposed mandates. Both, incidentally draw the same percentage of support from their respective parties. And neither base seems especially good at math. Continue reading
Dr. Cornel West and Bernie Sanders
It is just a sign of how clueless Bernie Sanders supporters are that they think Cornel West will bring Bernie the black vote. This is the man who just this past June on CNN called Obama the first N-wordized president. And repeated it. And went into a very long explanation of just what he meant.
It did not go over well with the voters whom Cornel West is supposed to bring to Bernie Sanders. Nor will it go over well when Bernie Sanders is asked about it. Or when Dr. West, called on to explain, repeats his comment. Dr. West is an impressive man, and not a man to back down, certainly not when pressed by a bunch of annoying reporters. It will be a great moment for Cornel West, the kind of battle he thrives on, the kind of battle that made his reputation, but it will not be good for the Bernie Sanders campaign. This is a presidential primary campaign, and unless Bernie Sanders can get several million black voters in the south to switch allegiance, his campaign will effectively end come Super Tuesday. This is not the time to agitate, agitate, agitate. This is the time to sweet talk, sweet talk, sweet talk. Dr. West’s job is to make people really like Bernie Sanders. But that is not quite the way Dr. West rolls. He’s not a feel good kinda guy. He’s an agitator from the days when the only way for a black man to make it in America was to agitate. But it’s a changed America now, and Barack Obama, more than anyone else, certainly more than Dr. Cornel West, is what changed it. Barack Obama, young enough to be his son (or Bernie Sanders’ son, for that matter) is a feel good guy. Which offends Dr. West. In fact, just about anything about Barack Obama offends Dr. West. “I just don’t respect the brother at all” he has said. Continue reading
The real campaign
“Obama still was able to convey a sense of progressiveness and realness that was nonetheless very exciting. You don’t think of the middle as being an exciting place…”
Depends on your point or view. Most candidates on the left of the Democratic party have been spinning essentially the same hackneyed ideas since Adlai Stevenson, just as those on the right of the GOP are still tossing the same raw meat that was tossed to their ancestors in the fifties. Almost invariably new ideas come from the center, where workable plans have to be developed out of compromise. On either end of the spectrum the candidates know there’s no real hope of attaining almost anything they promise so they promise the moon because the audience out there loves it and to be honest doesn’t care if any of it ever passes or not, they’re just there for the show. Only twice in the last hundred years has revolutionary reform been possible after an election: under FDR and then under Reagan. After that you have various candidates pretending it’s 1932 and 1980 again respectively. Just like now, with Bernie Sanders on our side making impossible to implement proposals and nearly all of the GOP cast of crazies on their side promising to do exactly what Sam Brownback is doing to Kansas now. It’s complete crap on both sides, but it’s good theater, and it sure gets Facebook worked up. But you ask any of these Bernie Sanders fans just how his proposals will be implemented in real life they will not be able to answer…nor will they care. And it goes without saying that the GOP is the same. This campaign is not about change, it’s about show biz. Once the press begins focusing on Bernie Sanders for viable explanations for how to pass, fund and implement his proposals, that’s when it gets hard. Right now he and all the GOP are playing to Facebook. This is still recess. The real campaign hasn’t even started.
Progressive scorecard
1968. The Democratic party, bitterly divided between liberals and way liberals, blows up.
1972. George McGovern is elected in a landslide victory and America is changed forever.
1984. Water Mondale is elected in a landslide victory and America is changed forever.
1988. Michael Dukakis is elected in a landslide victory and America is changed forever.
2000. Voters, disgusted at Al Gore’s sell out conservatism, elect Ralph Nader in a landslide victory and American is changed forever.
2004. John Kerry is elected in a landslide victory and American is changed forever.
2008. Barack Obama, reaching out to black and moderate voters, is defeated in a landslide and America is unchanged forever.
2012. See 2008, but way worse even.
2016. Bernie Sanders is elected in a landslide victory and America is changed forever.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
Brick's Politics 