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
Tag 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
The polls and Donald Trump, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Mixed Up Republicans
I keep hearing that Donald Trump is sweeping America. A lot of Democrats are freaking out. There’s no reason to. You just need to remember that while Trump is leading the Republican candidates with–by far–the most support, that support is still just a minority of Republican voters. Let’s look at some numbers:
There are about 170 million registered voters in the United States. About 55 million of them are registered as Republicans, 72 million as Democrats and 42 million as independents. The latter don’t count right now, because they are not included in the polling during the primaries. Well, they do count in those theoretical match ups (Trump v Hillary, Carson v Sanders, Stassen v McCarthy) but those are so hypothetical, and there is so much time before November of 2016, that they are pretty meaningless. The only polls that have any significance now–and even that is pretty weak–are polls showing the percentage of party member who say they will vote for a certain candidate. And there are two types of those. There are the polls of registered voters by party nationwide, and polls of registered voters by state. The national polls give a general idea of how a candidate is doing, the state polls give an idea of how a state’s primary or caucus vote would break down were the primary election or caucus held today. Caucuses, though, are so obscure and complex and unrepresentative that accurate polling of their results is almost worthless. You can poll Iowa and get an idea of which candidate people prefer, but that does not mean that is how the caucus results will turn out. Any of the polls you see on Iowa may or may not have any relation to the outcome on caucus night. Iowa caucuses are notoriously surprising. (Personally, I think Bernie Sanders will win. No clue on the Republican side.) Polls in New Hampshire and South Carolina will be more accurate, but still, you have to see a series of polls to see if they compare. If they trend one way or the other, you’ll get an idea of how the primary results might well turn out. Continue reading
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 