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Showing Original Post only (View all)Yes Bernie, the System is Rigged. Whining about it won't win you Black votes. Here's why. [View all]
http://www.theroot.com/articles/politics/2016/05/yes_bernie_sanders_the_system_is_rigged_what_else_is_new.htmlYes, Bernie Sanders, the System Is RiggedWhat Else Is New?
Whining wont win the Democratic presidential candidate black votes. Heres why.
BY: JASON JOHNSON
Posted: May 21 2016 7:05 AM
Bernie Sanders has no reason to be angry. Hes done more to raise his profile in the last 18 months than hes done in over 30 years in the House and Senate. Hes managed to drag the Democratic Party left after years of centrist posturing by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Hes raised millions and galvanized millions more. However, he and his supporters still complain that the primary system is rigged and the Democratic Party isnt treating them fairly. It was the belief that the Democratic establishment is out to get Sanders that led to the violence and disruptions at the Nevada State Democratic Party Convention last week. This attitude is also the main reason Sanders has failed to consistently resonate with African-American voters. Black folks have always known that the system is riggedwhat they want is someone to change it, not just complain about it.
Objectively speaking, there is a great deal to like about Sanders political positions, regardless of your party affiliation. Who isnt in favor of taking money out of the hands of big business and putting it back into the pockets of consumers? Who isnt in favor of making Washington, D.C., more accountable to voters? You may quibble with how Sanders proposes to accomplish his goals, or whether he can actually achieve them, but the goals themselves are pretty party-neutral, which is befitting a lifelong independent senator (more on that later). Despite a strong message about economic inequality, Sanders has never managed to be competitive with African-American Democrats in primary states. Many have argued ad nauseam about why the Sanders campaign has struggled with black voters, and the arguments generally fall into two equally simplistic and nominally insulting categories: 1) Black folks are foolishly loyal to the Clintons in some form of electoral Stockholm syndrome; or 2) Black folks dont ultimately know whats best for them and dont know Sanders well enough to realize that hes the best choice.
Ive avoided stepping into this fray because not only are both arguments faulty, but neither one in any way reflects the black Democrats and independents I know. The real reason Sanders has failed to connect with many mainline African-American Democrats is what happened at the Nevada convention May 14. Sanders and his surrogates represent a discomfiting liberal white privilege that has always made African-American voters feel ill at ease, even when ultimate goals are in sync. Stop me if youve had this experience before: You are driving downtown on a Friday night with one of your white friends in the passenger seat. Suddenly, those all-too-familiar red and blue lights start to flash behind you and youre pulled over. The police officer plays cops favorite game, which is to ask a lot of perfectly legal, but thoroughly insulting and inconvenient, questions in search of a post hoc rationalization for pulling you over to begin with.
While you try to calmly navigate the situation, your white friend is going ballistic now that real, live, actual racism is happening in front of him or her. Which hits you with two simultaneous feelings: first, that its nice your friend has your back; and second, annoyance that it took a routine example of racial discrimination for your friend to finally realize your daily reality. And your friends reaction, while sincere, is way out of proportion to the offense. If anything, it reflects a sort of alienating privilege. In a nutshell, Sanders is your white friend in the car. Of course the Democratic primary system is rigged, Bernie Sanders. What else is new? Party systems have always been riggedask any African-American candidate over the last 100 years. Sanders is angry because the Democratic Party put debates on weekends to help Clinton? How about when the Republicans handcuffed Alan Keyes to keep him out of the Atlanta debates in 1996?
Sanders is angry because the Democratic National Committee state bosses are in the tank for Clinton? In 2008, then-Sen. Obama had to start his own national organization, Obama for America, because he knew that party leaders wanted Clinton. At no point did you see supporters of Obama or Keyes or half a dozen other black candidates throw chairs or make death threats because they were losing. The problem with Sanders and his supporters goes even deeper, though. Sanders just became a Democrat about 15 minutes ago so that he could run for the party nomination. For almost 40 years hes been a proud independent, remember? Legally and structurally, the Democratic Party has every right to make things difficult for a relative outsider to snag the nomination.
When Sanders complains that the Democratic primary is rigged against an independent candidate, he sounds like a white sorority complaining that they lost the step show on points because this years theme was Dark and Lovely. It takes a lot of gall to show up with a membership card so new the ink is wet and start complaining about the process. Now that same sorority is tearing up the gym, throwing chairs and threatening to go all the way to the Pan-Hellenic Council if they dont get their way. Just because you lost something doesnt mean it was stolenunless youre dipped in the kind of privilege that tells you something is owed to you to begin with. African-American Democrats have every right not to like Hillary Clinton, who wore her white privilege like a ski mask in 2008 and whose policy history leaves a lot to be desired. But that doesnt make the self-righteous complaining of Sanders any easier to stomach. Yes, Sanders has been a freedom fighter for progressive causes for decades, but when it comes to the Democratic primary, he and his supporters have been consummate whiners reeking of privilege.
You want to talk about a rigged system? Look at Shirley Chisholm, Keyes, the Rev. Jesse Jackson or, even better, ask Democratic state Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal of Missouri, Republican Lenny McAllister in Pennsylvania, or dozens of other African-American Democrats and Republicans who are actual long-term party members who were betrayed in their primaries. If Sanders wants to be a part of the system, he has to find a way to beat it, then take it apart from the insidenot start halfway, then begin flipping chairs when the numbers arent adding up in his favor. Protest appeals to black voters, revolution appeals to black voters, but whining doesnt. It has not always been clear that the Sanders campaign knows the difference.
Jason Johnson, political editor at The Root, is a professor of political science at Hiram College in Ohio and an analyst for CNN, MSNBC, Al-Jazeera and Fox Business News. Follow him on Twitter.
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This is one of the best arguments I've seen to challenge so many of those claiming that Blacks must have "Stockholm Syndrome" to be voting for Hillary Clinton. They just don't get it. I flirted with Bernie for awhile. I went from solid Hillary to undecided. But my state voting later in the process probably helped me go back to Hillary's side because you could see the unraveling of Bernie's campaign begin. Had my state voted in February or Mid-March I may have pulled the lever for Sanders. But voting later on actually didn't work in his favor. So that whole "once people get to know Bernie more they will like him" narrative that his supporters always used was actually the opposite for me. I still like the guy, but the more I have gotten to see this process play out I knew he wasn't the one I wanted to pick. Don't get me wrong. I'm not thrilled to bits with Hillary either, but she is my choice for a number of reasons and I will vote for her in November.
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Yes Bernie, the System is Rigged. Whining about it won't win you Black votes. Here's why. [View all]
UMTerp01
May 2016
OP
No chairs were thrown. A chair was lifted by one guy who was hugged and the chair was taken from him
Baobab
May 2016
#62
I understand- My first post I didnt realize that- but I do now- But wait a second before you lump me
Baobab
May 2016
#76
So instead of answering the clearly stated points in the OP, you come racing in here to talk about
Number23
May 2016
#91
maybe we should do less talk about "connecting" and more talk about money for example, health care
Baobab
May 2016
#97
In the 1990s, the US was instrumental in setting up the WTO, one of the so called
Baobab
May 2016
#108
I believe there is some lecturing going on here as to why you need to support
Jackie Wilson Said
May 2016
#123
Yes. "Sanders and his surrogates represent a discomfiting liberal white privilege."
Nitram
May 2016
#16
I regularly interact with people from China, India and a number of European countries.
NNadir
May 2016
#86
I live in a "developing" country, not that that is any of your business.
truebluegreen
May 2016
#121
Bernie is against nuclear power, lots of environmentalists are against nuclear power.
Jackie Wilson Said
May 2016
#83
Can you tell me exactly where in this article anyone mentioned ANYTHING about "pandering" to black
Number23
May 2016
#92
There are good reasons why Sanders is not appealing to African American and other voters
Gothmog
May 2016
#127
What true colors? I raise an issue specific to African Americans in the African Americans group
UMTerp01
May 2016
#23
... But Bernie isn't trying to pander to black folk by pointing out a corrupt system lol
retrowire
May 2016
#59
Not ONE BLACK PERSON in this thread has seen it has divisive. Judging by the rec's and the
Number23
May 2016
#93
How the hell is anyone in here "divided?" This is the most racially inclusive forum on this web site
Number23
May 2016
#107
Why in God's name do you keep talking about "pandering?" And how is it possible that you do not
Number23
May 2016
#112
It's only "divisive" to those coming into the AA Group who are disrupting and trying to divide.
Cha
May 2016
#132
If you don't like that important issues of race are discussed in the African American group, PLEASE
Number23
May 2016
#94
I'm more disturbed that they're using the sabotage of Rev. Jesse Jackson's campaign as their example
MisterP
May 2016
#43
This is a level of denial that would be disturbing if it was in any way surprising
Number23
May 2016
#95
In politics, doesn't it feel and work best to go with the candidate that stands up for the issues
highprincipleswork
May 2016
#39
Thank you back. I think it's great we can have a real conversation. Phew! Little bits of
highprincipleswork
May 2016
#46
Yo, I would suggest care and ease with a fellow Progressive who'e working it out their own reasons
highprincipleswork
May 2016
#58
Your posts in this thread are combatively and needlessly antagonistic. Was a nerve touched?
Number23
May 2016
#98
Thank you for trying, beastie. That person's proudly antagonistic ignorance is why he's been asked
Number23
May 2016
#100
We're all devastated you couldn't read the entire piece but astounded by your need to comment
Number23
May 2016
#101
I suggest in future you stick (AA Group Posting) in your title, it will save the hosts a lot of.....
Tarheel_Dem
May 2016
#56
I noted that same thing. BS supporters are screaming that no chairs were thrown, or even more
Number23
May 2016
#103
Excellent idea.. a thread about how burnie doesn't "whine" about how the system is "rigged"
Cha
May 2016
#136
He's whining, the long shot black guy won with the same system Sanders is losing with right now...
uponit7771
May 2016
#140