So I guess we can put you in the Bernie column. Is that what you’re saying? Just don’t try to use his Judaism to make your point. I don’t see Sanders doing that. I don’t see why you should. And this is coming from another Jew. Steve made an excellent point about white privilege by turning the example around, and on its head, to make the case that white victimization is really a fallacy, much like the bullshit belief that Christians are being persecuted in the United States. Whenever I hear that…I just have to roll my eyes.
The point I’m making here is that it was an effective piece of performance art whose point Sanders and O’Malley–and possibly some of Bernie’s online supporters (and O’Malley’s if he has any)–would do well, tactically and morally, to embrace and explicate rather than getting their whiney-ass “and after all I’ve been through and all I’ve done for you people” huffs on.
This isn’t original with me. I frankly admit I’m parroting David Koch’s (not that one) commentary which is getting a fair amount of play. There’s an opportunity here which Bernie blew, and continues to blow and which, notwithstanding his “all lives matter” gaffe, O’Malley,–who, unlike Bernie, has much to answer for in this area–handled and is handling better.
Edit The other thing this episode highlights, however, is something that’s a real problem with white progressives, a thing we saw rear its head repeatedly in 2008–a sense that being a leftist means one has so completely transcended racism that one no longer even talk about it and, in particular, a tendency to fall back into dogmatically thinking that black problems and white problems are all really just class problems and thus class-oriented solutions can solve all black problems so why are we even talking about this, you people? And besides, my credentials are impeccable, so how dare you question my premise?
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Your hatred of autocorrect is well-placed, but your own spelling needs a little work too… if what you meant was experiential.
You do know that black voter turnout exceeded white voter turnout in '08 and '12, right?
Honest to god, actually the spelling substituted by Chrome when I switched to it from Safari in frustration. I swear I’m not making that up.
Update: Safari, however, recognized the misspelling and corrected it. Gaaahhh!
In 2012 Obama won 51% to 47%, a 4% margin
By race:
White 72% of voters * 39% for Obama = 28%
Black 13% * 93% = 12%
Hispanic 10% * 71% = 7%
Asian 3% * 73% = 2%
other 2% * 58% = 1%
So more than half the votes that put Obama in office came from white voters. But SpocksBlackPants says “fuck that demo”. How does Hillary get to 51% without that 28%? Women were 53% and Obama got 55% of them, so maximum gain there is 25%. Was it too much to ask that Sanders be treated politely for 20 minutes when his demographic was more than half the votes that won the last election? Is it too much to ask that the language Dems use be more inclusive of white working class voters when more than half the votes they got in the last election came from them?
You can only afford to throw away 4%, after that every vote you alienate will have to be replaced from the folks who voted for Romney last time.
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You know that even with the record turnout by Black voters in the last election, they still provided only 24% of the votes that elected Obama. White voters provided 56%.
Or from the vast number - about 42%* - that didn’t even vote. It’s not a single demographic, but if someone ever figures out how to bring them in…
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Edit to add: I’m still waiting for examples of racism faced by the white working class btw.
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“At higher rates” does not mean “In greater numbers”.
The racism is in attitudes like yours that we don’t need no stink’n white people in the Democratic party. Or NCsteve’s attitude that don’t need to be polite to Sanders or O’Malley. Or Spock’s attitude expressed as “fuck that demo”. He can’t seem to see the 40% who are with us, lumping them together in a very racisit way with those who are against us.
The lesson of the numbers is that we need at least all of the top 3 demographics to win again, and actively dissing any group is to court disaster in 2016.
As a white guy that seems to be in a very similar position to SpocksBlackPants, I would ask you to explain what you mean by this. I’m not challenging you here because I don’t understand what you’re claiming.
Seems like you are trying to make the case that today’s white Democrats are so fickle as to vote GOP or not show up to vote unless we are sufficiently stroked? Correct?
Again, I think this is a personal issue and nothing systemic within the Democratic Party. If the modern Democratic party feels too “ethnicky” to you, then you need to figure out why you feel that way and stop blaming the party.
Perhaps today’s reality is that we vote Democratic because we believe our party has the right morals and the right policies to elevate everyone. We vote Democratic because we give voice and action to marriage equality, wage equality, gender equality, and racial equality, and on and on and on.
So, my point is that white Democrats aren’t excluded. We are lucky to be on the right side of a number of narratives.
And to clarify my clunky remarks. I read your whiney post as an attempt to say that we need to do more to get the FoxNews viewer or the Jim Webb type of voter. And I’m saying the white Democratic voter today is not that person. All my political life (Reagan 1980 onward) has been this Democratic fretting over the loss of the white voter. And all I’m saying is that Reagan and the GOP took the white voters we don’t need to court back.
We need to speak younger and broader, not older and whiter.
I understand you’re upset that Bernie was shut down by protesters at netroots nation but that doesn’t translate to reverse racism or racism against white people for heaven’s sake.
Bernie’s economic populism doesn’t address the institutional racism that was baked into the cake in this country from inception. Recognizing that one hundred years of slavery, followed by another hundred years of lynching and disenfranchising, followed by another hundred of red lining, maligning and castigating an entire subsection of the population to “get a job” or “pull up your pants” is not racism against white people.
Yeah, Sanders and O’Malley were caught out unexpectedly and Clinton has an advantage because she wasn’t even there but she had already given a speech where she acknowledged that racism is still a big problem in this country.
What’s Wrong With ‘All Lives Matter’? It’s aspirational but it’s not true.
The demographic being discussed is “white with 12 years or less of eduction.” That’s not the same thing as “white.” Obama got the majority of the “white with college or professional degree” vote both times out, though in both cases he did better with the women in that slice than the men. Hillary isn’t going to do worse than he did with that demographic. The question is whether, and if so, by what means, she can do better with white people with 12 years or less of education.
You know, whatever personal issue is behind your abstinence obstinance* in tendentiously conflating “white” with “white working class” in pursuit of your contention that you, or white people, or something is/are somehow the victim of “racism” is really getting to become an elephant in the room that someone, and by someone I mean you, really needs to deal with. Because though god knows I do love pachyderms and passionately advocate for their cause notwithstanding the GOP’s misappropriation of their name, likeness and image, it’s getting kinda crowded and a little stinky in here.
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You don’t know much about Hillary.
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They were taken advantage of by a self promoter. I do wish NN had been better managed. I do wish NN had properly vetted Tia Oso. She had no idea of Sanders history. She had no idea he has a 100% rating from the NAACP. NN had no idea that her heightened profile might inspire someone to look into her background.
Tia Oso, Protester Who Interrupted Martin O'Malley, Is Convicted Embezzler | Phoenix New Times
In and of itself that’s fine, but it has another impact to BLM.
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In '91 Barney Frank said of Bernie Sanders “He alienates his natural allies. He’s completely ineffective as a lobbyist because he offends just about everyone” adding that he had a “holier than thou attitude” and thought he was “smarter than everyone else and purer than everyone else.” I see a lot of those traits in Bernie’s supporters.
It doesn’t help Bernie one bit to attack Hillary Clinton which is probably why he doesn’t do it. He knows better. And it doesn’t help Bernie one bit for you to attack Tia Oso as a “self promoter” and link to an oppo article about her being an embezzler. That sort of thing just pisses me off and turns me off to Bernie Sanders.
I’m not even sure what the hell that’s supposed to mean, Bob.
And, on a side note, I dearly wish autocorrect was a person rather than a program so I could do this to it:
Me too, to all of that.