Politico: How Bernie Sanders Exposed the Democrats’ Racial Rift

Status
Not open for further replies.
D

dramatis

Member
From Politico, regarding Sanders's more problematic supporters.
Though it might offend his uber-progressive supporters to hear this, the Sanders insurgency is largely a white revolution. All the talk about Sanders representing the future of the Democratic Party because of his overwhelming popularity among young people leaves out an important caveat: He couldn’t persuade minority voters to sign on. In many ways a Sanders victory, propelled by the least diverse states in the nation, would have been a step backward in American race relations. Now that Hillary Clinton has laid claim convincingly to the nomination with decisive wins in California and New Jersey, the party—and Bernie’s supporters—are at a crossroads. If they insist on maintaining their purist divide from Clinton, they will create a rift in the party that’s not just ideological, but racial.
Click to expand...
Clinton won every contest with at least a 10 percent black population, except Michigan, and each state where Latinos make up at least 10 percent of eligible voters, except Colorado, according to Harry Enten of FiveThirtyEight.com. On top of that, they have been mocked by some Sanders supporters for supposedly “voting against their self-interest” because they refuse to believe a political revolution is at hand. That has been particularly galling to black voters who had to endure claims from conservatives in 2008 that they were voting for Barack Obama only because of race—even though they had spent their entire adult lives voting mostly for white presidential candidates. Now their preference for Clinton’s brand of pragmatism, something they’ve seen result in real progress time and again, is being questioned as well, this time by fellow Democrats.
Click to expand...
That’s why, despite what looks like intractable problems to white Democrats, minority voters are more optimistic about the future than their white counterparts. That Obama was able to become president and get stuff done is an enormous source of not only pride, but hope. The Kaiser Family Foundation found that more than half of young black and Latinos believe their lives will be better than their parents, compared with less than a third of young white people. On many measures, black people have seen much worse days—the black unemployment rate neared 17 percent at the height of the Great Recession and is less than half that now—even as they continue fighting decades-long struggles. Things aren’t perfect, but the progress that has occurred during the Obama era isn’t something they want ignored or downplayed. Given that reality, why would they believe in the need for a revolution?
Click to expand...
Minority voters have been watching in horror as millions of Republican voters choose Trump either because of, or despite, his open bigotry. The Sanders supporters who toy with the idea of shunning Clinton in November and allowing Trump to become president to force a revolution that Sanders couldn’t deliver are playing with fire. To minority voters, Trump’s candidacy feels like an existential threat. It’s one thing for Republicans to either ignore or embrace his racism; the party already seems unwilling or incapable of making the kinds of adjustments it must to attract more non-white voters. It’s quite another for white Democrats to not appreciate how liberal minorities feel about the possibility of a Trump presidency and what that would say about the state of racial progress in America. It would be a slap in the face, the latest sign that a kind of white privilege—throwing a temper tantrum because they don’t get their way despite how much it hurts people of color—is deeply rooted within liberal, Democratic ranks as well.
Click to expand...
Jonathan Chait came closest to recognizing the looming problem in a piece that was published in early April, detailing why black voters are pragmatists:

“That refusal to accept the necessity of compromise in a winner-take-all two-party system (and an electorate in which conservatives still outnumber liberals) is characteristic of a certain idealistic style of left-wing politics. Its conception of voting as an act of performative virtue has largely confined itself to white left-wing politics, because it is at odds with the political tradition of a community that has always viewed political compromise as a practical necessity. The expectation that a politician should agree with you on everything is the ultimate expression of privilege.”
Click to expand...
Much more at the link.

Recently after Hillary sealed the nomination, there have been many posters proclaiming that they would abstain or vote for Trump. The most painful part, to me, is that approaching these voters seem to be a hopeless situation because they are (in my opinion) incredibly conceited and demanding. A blunt reply to these posters indicating what the exact value of their action of abstaining/vote for Trump only induces defensive doubling down and indignant accusations of condescension and arrogance.

But it is a discussion that needs to be had, because white liberals will apparently eventually choose not to support the Democratic party and prefer to have elections lost and progressive setbacks.
 
I read it before, really great article.

Democrats can waste time debating why minority voters should have connected better with Sanders—and get caught in a condescending discussion about why white Sanders supporters know what’s better for minority voters than minorities do themselves—or they can begin the more difficult work of coming up with strategies to deal with a divide that will show itself in a more pronounced and public way once Trump exits stage left.
Click to expand...

This is probably the most important passage for me.

Your Entertainer said:
Didn't he often times win a majority of minorities and women under 40?
Click to expand...

Let us say that they were less likely to blow Sanders off...
 
Probably the most valuable thing Bernie did was expose that even among the left we have an issue of race. I think a lot of it has to do with selfishness. Younger white people want what's best for them, something all people want. But we (as in young white people) don't even really stop to think that there are those who have it even worse than us. Until everyone is to our level of privilege I can't really imagine them being interested in joining in making my life better. I mean, prejudice towards persons of color is still very much a part of our legal and education systems. Why should someone who could be shot over a speeding infraction be concerned with my college debt?
 
Trump has had a consistency of racism throughout his speech and rhetoric. There is no way to deny this.

So yeah when someone is pissy because Bernie lost fair and square and proclaim they're voting for Trump, you have to do a double-take. Because unlike other politicians, Trump hasn't been using coded language. He's just went right after it. So it's easily in the public domain on how racist he is and what he thinks as a human.

Either way, I think the data shows that there is less of a percentage of Bernie supporters that won't support Clinton than there were Clinton supporters claiming they weren't supporting Obama in 2008. So hopefully this is mostly overblown given the raw nature of the primary loss. So even for those stubborn people and ones that don't care about the plight of minorities, the right candidate will get the nod. That's not to say there isn't work to do on non-presidential positions. That certainly is something the democratic party needs to fix.
 
Wasn't Bernie all about justice for African Americans?

I feel the real reason he didn't connect is because his image and marketing didn't sell him correctly to minority youths. How did he do with Latinos? Here in Los Angeles he seemed to have a very strong movement with Latin American youths here.
 
kirblar said:
His coalition was young people, white people, and middle-class people. Holmes has a fantastic postmortem here: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=206161605&postcount=17686

If he was winning a majority of minorities, it was likely that they were also young.
Click to expand...

Damn, you beat me to it. It was never one thing that defined the Sanders or Clinton coilitions, but multiple.

Zyzyxxz said:
Wasn't Bernie all about justice for African Americans?

I feel the real reason he didn't connect is because his image and marketing didn't sell him correctly to minority youths. How did he do with Latinos? Here in Los Angeles he seemed to have a very strong movement with Latin American youths here.
Click to expand...

His problem wasn't the positions he held per se, but the way he held them.

For instance he had no problem calling democratic establishment as a sort of slur. To African Americans and black citizens this didn't go over to well, as while far, far, far from perfect the democrats represented the only hope blacks and minorities in general had in this country.

Another problem was Sanders supportrrs havint an inability to compromise and having young white people say they were unable to vote for "the lesser of two evils any more". You can see how this went over: blacks (and minorities) in America have been voting for the lesser of two evils their entire lives, as did their parents and grandparents. So to have a young 20 something white guy say he was sick of the lesser of two evils seemed childish.

Finally, while Clinton put lots of effort into the south, Bernie gave very little, and after he lost SC by huge margins, didn't even give a rally and went to Minnesota to say how smart they were. I'm sure he didn't explicitly mean harm but it sounded as if he was saying that the (black) people in SC weren't smart, which didn't go over well.

So yes, he is for a lot of things that blacks like, but the way he went about them was very dumb and made it seen like he didn't care about black issues more than just rhetorically, while Clinton made it seem as if she did care. Furthermore, most African Americans and black citizens are above all else pragmatists because they have to be, and Clinton was the pragmatic choice.

I'd like to not here that I am NOT black so I do not have firsthand experience with any of this, I'm just echoing what others said around me and on GAF.

And Sanders did not do well with Latinos. It varied from state to state, but for instance in California he lost them by ~15%
 
Good article and man I swear I have read the exact same thing from NeoGAF

Black being the most pragmatic voters and all. (Amirox, may be?) :p
 
Frozenprince said:
Many self professed liberals have been showing their asses for the last 18 months.

Bernie just gave them the outlet.
Click to expand...

It's been really frustrating and disheartening for a older, Black life long democrat such as myself. I've grown accustomed to to the complete lack of empathy and racist dog-whistles coming from Republicans. But having a lot of it come from so-called "progressive" Bernie supporters, shocked the shit out of me.

That why regardless of when Bernie dose or doesn't do going forward, I'll never forgive him for his complete dismissal of a large number of black southern democrats during the primary. Whom many of my family members are counted in their number.
 
Everytime I see one of these threads I ask myself, am I being called a racist because I voted for Bernie? Because it feels like that.
 
Geist- said:
Everytime I see one of these threads I ask myself, am I being called a racist because I voted for Bernie? Because it feels like that.
Click to expand...
Yes, that's exactly what's happening.

It's actually more about how young white voters are privelidged enough to mainly think of themselves, which I think your post highlights quite clearly.
 
The idea of the white liberal riding in on his high horse to the black community, selling them a bill of goods, in return for a guaranteed vote, is not a new one. Liberals have been using blacks as a reliable voting bloc while smothering their (our) voice with paternalism and respectability politics for a looong time.

Bernie didn't expose anything that we didn't already know existed.

Think Civil Rights Movement.
 
Geist- said:
Everytime I see one of these threads I ask myself, am I being called a racist because I voted for Bernie? Because it feels like that.
Click to expand...

Then you need to spend a little more time on your comprehension. You didn't vote for Bernie because you are racist. You voted the same as everyone else, it was in your best interest. However if you expect people, who are being literally murdered in our country's current state, to vote in your interests then that's unbelievably selfish.
 
Geist- said:
Everytime I see one of these threads I ask myself, am I being called a racist because I voted for Bernie? Because it feels like that.
Click to expand...

Clearly the issue is when it became obvious he would lose, people then proclaiming fuck the system, I'm voting for Trump(a racist) or not voting at all (lower turnout benefits the GOP and thus a racist).
 
Politico is taking names with these Bernie pieces. Being a liberal don't mean shit, especially if you're white. Something black folks and other racial minorities/LGBT have known the longest.
 
Titanoboa said:
Yes, that's exactly what's happening.

It's actually more about how young white voters are privelidged enough to mainly think of themselves, which I think your post highlights quite clearly.
Click to expand...

Yep, you get the entitlement that is individuality.

Minorities don't get to think like that, we need to think and vote on a macro level, we don't get the luxury to just pick and chose because someone is better for us individually.

Sorry, we're a little too busy trying to get on equal footing to you to be worried about voting along with what yuo want.
 
Cindi Mayweather said:
Politico is taking names with these Bernie pieces. Being a liberal don't mean shit, especially if you're white. Something black folks and other racial minorities/LGBT have known the longest.
Click to expand...
Said it over in PoliGAF- where the hell has this POLITICO been for the past two decades?
 
Geist- said:
Everytime I see one of these threads I ask myself, am I being called a racist because I voted for Bernie? Because it feels like that.
Click to expand...

No?

I mean, self-reflection is important, but I think it seems fair to say obviously not all Bernie supporters are racist. Bernie himself had problems dealing with minority voters and the Bernie-Or-Bust crowd had some pretty crappy undertones, but you're not racist just because you voted for Bernie.

The point that's trying to be made is that there are plenty of people who do have their undertones but think voting for him absolved them of any guilt and made them in the right, which is a dangerous thought process. Y'know? People who thought they were totally right and failed to examine things from outside their own perspective.

I have to say as an outsider looking in, this election has been eye-opening. The infighting I saw and the vitriol from the diehard Sanders supporters was terrifying and a far cry from the campaign's seemingly-optimistic beginnings. Bernie seemed cool at first, but I just think somewhere along the line the campaign and its diehard supporters lost track of the bigger picture and the infighting/painting Hillary as a Satanic figure was totally counterproductive.

This article does a great job at portraying a feeling that the Sanders campaign felt like it never really adequately covered. Again, I'm an outsider, and a lot of this is probably phrased poorly, but the article's message is an important one, I think. The campaign and its supporters came from a good place, but needed to be more pragmatic, nuanced, willing to compromise/cooperate, and perhaps a bit more educated about other perspectives. That's part of what did things in, and the diehard herd mentality that was created somewhere along the line was damaging.
 
Grover Cleveland said:
The idea of the white liberal riding in on his high horse to the black community, selling them a bill of goods, in return for a guaranteed vote, is not a new one. Liberals have been using blacks as a reliable voting bloc while smothering their (our) voice with paternalism and respectability politics for a looong time.

Bernie didn't expose anything that we didn't already know existed.

Think Civil Rights Movement.
Click to expand...

Well considering up until the 1950s and 1960s, Democrats were full of racists as a core and critical component of the party, it wasn't like the DNC making that move back then wasn't a significant risk for them. And they paid for it by losing the south. And also to be fair the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s introduced critically important laws and decisions for the movement.

The issue is there hasn't been enough progress since then.
 
NoblesseOblige said:
Then you need to spend a little more time on your comprehension. You didn't vote for Bernie because you are racist. You voted the same as everyone else, it was in your best interest. However if you expect people, who are being literally murdered in our country's current state, to vote in your interests then that's unbelievably selfish.
Click to expand...
Sanders platform only benefitted whites? Or somehow a Sanders administration would cause more to be murdered?
 
I don't get to worry about if Hillary Clinton is a hawk, or corrupt, or her special interests or issues with the Clinton Group or anything like that.

I need to think "Which of these two options will make the system more secure so that my rights aren't taken back away from me"? And the answer to that is Hillary Clinton.

The fact that people can't see things like that and only see "but progressivism, free college/health care! Special interests" is why this gap exists.

You gotta be willing to look at things from how we live every day to understand them. I'm not worried about macro politics, if Trump wins his SC justices could strike down the case law that allows me to have consensual sex in my own damn home.

That's the divide.
 
Frozenprince said:
Many self professed liberals have been showing their asses for the last 18 months.

Bernie just gave them the outlet.
Click to expand...

Infinite said:
Yup. They been showing their asses since BLM. I'll have to dig into this article a bit more later
Click to expand...
Yep, which is why I chuckle when the Bernie or busters here demand that we treat them with respect because we need them. Sorry, no. Better to cut off an infected limb before it spreads to the rest of the organism. This is exactly what happened to the GOP when the Tea Party came about. They decided to pander to them because they didn't want to risk alienating them. Now they've taken over and the result is Donald Trump.
 
Could someone point out how things would have been worse for minorities under Bernie Sanders? Honestly to me the biggest differences between him and Hillary that I seen were their stances on drugs, guns, and healthcare. When you shoved the purist stuff aside that is.
 
ThisGuy said:
Could someone point out how things would have been worse for minorities under Bernie Sanders? Honestly to me the biggest differences between him and Hillary that I seen were their stances on drugs, guns, and healthcare. When you shoved the purist stuff aside that is.
Click to expand...
From my understanding the difference is that Bernie would have a much harder time getting elected. Then things got worse when he lost the South and talk started of low information voters and minorities supposedly voting against their own interests.
 
Knuckle Sandwich said:
How do you think minorities feel
Click to expand...

You're thinking black and white. I voted for Bernie but any minority with a modicum of sense would be able to know there's definitely a race problem in the ranks of Bernie's flock and that shouldn't deter you from supporting the man or the left in general. But it is (was) a problem. As a minority, you should be used to making concessions. Supporting a candidate while a lot of his supporters are racist, selfish, tunnel visioned dipshits should be something you can make two and two together. It doesn't make you a racist. But if you have any power of observation you should be able to notice the language and actions of many of his supporters. It doesn't mean all Sanders supporters are white. It doesn't mean all of them are racist. But that doesn't mean there isn't a problem. Stop making this about you in some weird game of "but I'm a minority and I'm fine" thing like you're the only minority who supported this dude. You ain't special, BB.
 
ThisGuy said:
Could someone point out how things would have been worse for minorities under Bernie Sanders? Honestly to me the biggest differences between him and Hillary that I seen were their stances on drugs, guns, and healthcare. When you shoved the purist stuff aside that is.
Click to expand...

You're missing the damn point. As always. As every Sanders supporter has since day damn one.

Bernie Sanders actively and openly ignored the South, Black, Latin and LGBT vote, because he didn't see it as important enough and his supporters continued to crap on these voting blocs the whole way.

If you can't see the political divide, I'm sorry, you're being willfully blind.
 
Atilac said:
Sanders platform only benefitted whites? Or somehow a Sanders administration would cause more to be murdered?
Click to expand...

Well, when moderator asked how you gonna deal with racism, answering "reigning in Wall Street" or "raising minimum wage" may be slightly relevant answer, but don't be surprised if minority scratched their heads
 
ThisGuy said:
Could someone point out how things would have been worse for minorities under Bernie Sanders? Honestly to me the biggest differences between him and Hillary that I seen were their stances on drugs, guns, and healthcare. When you shoved the purist stuff aside that is.
Click to expand...

Sanders would be worse in that he had no real understanding of issues specifically relating to being a minority, and made no effort to really learn even after he was called out for it. He just assumed that everything would be solved for them if you fixed the socio-economic issues, ignoring that this does nothing to fix or at least offset the intrinsically race related issues that many minorities face. In other words, he tried to be color blind, which is bad because it ignores that the situation that white poor and middle class and black poor and middle class face aren't identical.
 
googleplex said:
It's been really frustrating and disheartening for a older, Black life long democrat such as myself. I've grown accustomed to to the complete lack of empathy and racist dog-whistles coming from Republicans. But having a lot of it come from so-called "progressive" Bernie supporters, shocked the shit out of me.

That why regardless of when Bernie dose or doesn't do going forward, I'll never forgive him for his complete dismissal of a large number of black southern democrats during the primary. Whom many of my family members are counted in their number.
Click to expand...

Didnt surprise me for one second. Republicans can be straight up racist but liberal democrats can be damned condescending when they insist they have the right answer and if we disagree obviously we wrong and to sit down and shut up. Glad Bernie's campaign illuminated it.
 
Titanoboa said:
From my understanding the difference is that Bernie would have a much harder time getting elected.
Click to expand...

Bernie consistently, consistently performs better in GE polls vs. Trump than Clinton does.

When the contest is about the primary, we have every right to support one over the other. So many people here think that a preference of Bernie over Hillary somehow means an endorsement of Trump. How does that even make sense?

Yes, if you are concerned about minority issues, you should clearly not vote for Trump. Simple.

You're missing the damn point. As always. As every Sanders supporter has since day damn one.

Bernie Sanders actively and openly ignored the South, Black, Latin and LGBT vote, because he didn't see it as important enough and his supporters continued to crap on these voting blocs the whole way.

If you can't see the political divide, I'm sorry, you're being willfully blind.
Click to expand...

smfh...

Show me his ideologies and policies where he ignores these minorities.

Yes, he lost those voting demographics, but that doesn't mean he doesn't support them. What in the actual heck?
 
Frozenprince said:
Yep, you get the entitlement that is individuality.

Minorities don't get to think like that, we need to think and vote on a macro level, we don't get the luxury to just pick and chose because someone is better for us individually.

Sorry, we're a little too busy trying to get on equal footing to you to be worried about voting along with what yuo want.
Click to expand...

Truth right here. Everywhere I look among Trump supporters on my facebook feed, they're either white or in one particular case a rich asian. The only people who back him are the ones able to live in a bubble of total ignorance.

egruntz said:
Bernie consistently, consistently performs better in GE polls vs. Trump than Clinton does.

When the contest is about the primary, we have every right to support one over the other. So many people here think that a preference of Bernie over Hillary somehow means an endorsement of Trump. How does that even make sense?

Yes, if you are concerned about minority issues, you should clearly not vote for Trump. Simple.
Click to expand...

Those polls don't mean anything. Bernie is untouched and untested in nearly every way, hasn't been the target of even a single negative ad. There's a good reason why Trump wanted to run against him, as soon as he would have started blasting the airwaves with $6k in increased taxes and "SOCIALISM!!!" it would have been a much different race.
 
Your Entertainer said:
Didn't he often times win a majority of minorities and women under 40?
Click to expand...

Yes. Bernie dominated with young women and did significantly better with minority youth in comparison to older minorities. He had a racial problem but it was much, much more pronounced with older voters than with younger voters.

I wish I could find the source but I remember seeing a chart at one point that split things by age and race together - it may have just been for one particular state or it may have been national, I don't really remember, but it was pretty interesting because it showed that as any demographic aged they supported Hillary more. So Bernie still lost the black youth vote, but he had something like 30-40% whereas his older black support was something like 10-20%. Likewise he crushed it with the white youth vote, something like 80%, but his older white support was something like 50-60%. He won with Hispanic youth and lost with older Hispanics. This is all off of memory so I could be incorrect, but it would be great if someone else knows what I'm talking about and could find it.

That said, this isn't really surprising. White people tend not to think about how minority voters have seen the country improve over the course of their lives because of the course of their own lives it's gotten worse for them. Millennials, regardless of race, face a specific set of problems that made Bernie an attractive candidate for them, though obviously they also faced different issues within their cohort depending on their ethnic background, which is why Bernie still lost a lot of minority youth in the end, despite coming much closer. His problem was both a racial and age one and I don't know why some people on both sides here keep trying to claim it was only one or the other outside of scoring points.
 
ThisGuy said:
Could someone point out how things would have been worse for minorities under Bernie Sanders? Honestly to me the biggest differences between him and Hillary that I seen were their stances on drugs, guns, and healthcare. When you shoved the purist stuff aside that is.
Click to expand...

One thing is Clinton's push for Pre K, not only would that help jump start education but provide much needed childcare for a lot of families. Free college doesn't mean a lot when you don't have the free time to go
 
massoluk said:
Well, when moderator asked how you gonna deal with racism, answering "reigning in Wall Street" may be slightly relevant answer, but don't be surprised if minority scratched their heads
Click to expand...

Bernie's biggest issue is that yeah, he may be right when it comes to economic corruption.

But when it comes to social and societal wounds, he sounds like yet another out of touch old white man who very clearly doesn't view the issue at its root. And its root goes well beyond basic economics.
 
Why exactly did Hillary win so decidedly with minorities anyway?

I've been a Hillary supporter from the beginning of the primary, but I've always found this statistic a bit odd.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

how do you read the news?
49
1K
0neAnd0nly replied
Exposing the Honey Influencer Scam
Drama Business  2
58
5K
kruis replied
The Pistacchio Diarrhea Love Triange. Or how my life falls apart
38
1K
Days like these... replied
  • Poll
How would you handle your wealth.
42
1K
jason10mm replied
How Are YOU? (physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually)
2
77
3K
Hawking Radiation replied
Top Bottom