I can't stand the persecution complex Bernie Sanders, his campaign and his supporters seem to have.
As a black male, I will never, ever support him or his candidacy for a number of reasons.
I'm also a black male, I'd like to address some of your points here.
One; I find his refusal and inability to adapt when it comes to understanding and willing to understand socioeconomic issues as they relate to individual communities massively problematic. The "rising tide will lift all boats" economic screed isn't one that is suited to serve me or my community.
Race and class are intersectional, right? I believe Sanders, and many on the progressive left, have messaging and priority flaws when it comes to addressing issues primarily affecting POC.
But the neoliberal stance, which is tokenism and "woke capitalism", is a solution that is totally incomplete.
Issues in the black community aren't just social. They are socioeconomic. Just having token representation while ignoring the vast wealth disparity between blacks and whites in America, doesn't address our issues.
Two; His massive blind spot when it comes to racial issues and understanding. He has had numerous gaffes and misfires when talking about and trying to appeal to the black community and he hasn't shown himself to be any better in this regard this time around. His campaign's outright dismissal of Southern primaries in 2016 with a high percentage of minority voters was unforgivable in my eyes.
Sure, Sanders has had gaffes on race. Worse than Clinton? Probably not. Worse than Joe Biden? LOL son don't play.
Three; His supporters. Just recently on this very forum (which isn't representative of most people, I know) we saw those peddling the same racist dog whistles Bernie's supporters often engage in claiming that "African Americans" often vote "against their own interests" and that only "low information voters" would refuse to support his candidacy for President. There is a reason why we don't support him and his supporters who benefit from white privilege and hold racist viewpoints (even if they refuse to admit it under the guise of being "progressive" lol) are a large part of the reason why. Don't tell a voting bloc, yes a non-monolithic one at that, how to vote or that we are low information voters when black voters, and black women especially are the ones trying to save this country from itself and are a reliable democratic vote.
First of all, there are a lot of POC Sanders supporters here. Don't assume that you speak for all of us. Sanders is the most popular candidate among younger black voters. You say that we're not a monolith, cool, then don't speak for us.
I said that quote myself. I don't know if anyone else did, but I said that exact line in a post (that African-Americans often vote against our own interests).
Because it's true! We do. We voted for Hillary Clinton, and Bill before her, racists who deeply harmed our inner-city communities with their crime laws and dogwhistling, who support the systemic racism that keeps black communities poor, keeps black schools bad. We voted for Barack Obama, who inspired us, but who wagged his finger at black Americans who weren't as fortunate as he was, who was deeply invested in respectability politics, who deported more immigrants than prior Republican presidents, and under whose presidency we saw black wealth slip even further. We have voted against our own interests again and again, for a number of reasons.
Four; the cognitive dissonance and desire to beat each other down instead of lifting each other up. Lessons learned from 2016? Hardly. There is a constant need and desire to make everyone else look worse in order to make Bernie Sanders look better. Why are we doing this again? Stop claiming everything is rigged and stop calling other Democrats "Republicans". This toxic discourse and ridiculous other-ing is such a turn off and disgusts me.
I can not wait until he drops out.
Leftists don't owe you support for your milquetoast liberal candidates. I don't know how much more plainly we can make this point. I'm a lifelong Democrat but a candidate like Joe Biden or Corey Booker doesn't represent my values or beliefs, and I wouldn't vote for them. We aren't going to prop up these candidates because not doing so might hurt them in the general election. Honestly, Sanders has handled the liberals in the race with kid gloves so far. I hope he goes scorched earth before the 2020 primary is over. Because there are huge problems in America, in the world today. Problems too big for liberalism to solve, like climate change, the health care crisis, racism in the criminal justice system, and automation. Bernie (and Warren, too) need to give voters a clear choice.
You're going to be waiting a while for Bernie to drop out. For my side, I hope that Harris and Biden split the centrist vote, and it comes down to Sanders and Warren. We have the chance go get away from establishment centrism and do a full reset after Trump. We should take advantage of this opportunity, not put forward more of the same.
