Black thinkers like Bernie Sanders. They've studied the Clintons' true cost

[Boiler 46,359]

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/feb/24/black-thinkers-bernie-sanders-studied-clintons-true-cost

Spike Lee is the latest black public intellectual to endorse Bernie Sanders and to question the sanity of black voters and politicians pledging their allegiance to the Clintons, who have done as much harm to black America as any living political couple. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I am mystified by robust black support for Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing helped me wake up about race in America when I’d first watched it as a teenager. That’s why I was delighted to read that Spike Lee encouraged South Carolina democrats to “Wake up” in a radio ad on Tuesday and to vote for “Brother Bernie”.

Bill Clinton governed through playing to white fears by harming, locking up or even executing black Americans. He left the campaign trail in 1992 to allow the execution of Ricky Ray Rector, a black man so mentally incapacitated, he reportedly did not eat the dessert from his final meal because he was “saving it for later”. When he left office, after having ended welfare for poor children and destroyed countless black families through a crime bill even he now admits made mass incarceration worse, Hillary Clinton would go out and whip up support for this slow-motion destruction of black America, even when it meant referring to children as “superpredators”.

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The intellectual case against Clintonian neoliberalism is compelling. I am glad to see black thinkers making a case for Sanders’ democratic socialism and its potential to address structural racism. If anyone is smart enough to effectively make Sanders’ case to black America, it would be the thought leaders who have endorsed him thus far.

Take Spike Lee. He is one of the contemporary black geniuses who have helped the nation (and me personally) reconsider race in transformative ways – and the latest to be feeling the Bern. Or Cornel West, who has stumping for “Brother Bernie” for months. Just as I understood race differently after watching Crooklyn and Jungle Fever, I grew to understand black liberation theology and the radical potential of Christianity by reading West’s books – his influence has been immeasurable. And, like much of America, I learned how to better think about the case for reparations after Ta-Nehisi Coates made it in the Atlantic. That’s why it matters so much that he said he’d vote for Sanders earlier this month.

Similarly, much of the country first got woke about the scale and racism of mass incarceration when they read Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow. Alexander has not endorsed Sanders – “I endorse the revolution,” she wrote – but she has offered the most skewering critique on why “Hillary Clinton doesn’t deserve the black vote”, in the Nation. She has also reminded black voters that “we are not checkmated” – that we can approach politics with a sense of possibility.

No one speaks for “the black community” or the mythical “black voter”. But the Black Lives Matter movement has upped the level of discourse and critique in racial politics. So it’s fantastic to see such serious black minds from American film, letters and academia making their cases in public with insight and heft. And given their decades of deep, intellectual work on race (along with Sanders’ commitment to universal public college tuition and healthcare and his aversion to Wall Street and private prisons) their cases for Sanders are sound.

Much less intellectually sound are the arguments of Clinton’s black surrogates. When she was endorsed by the corporate-funded Super Pac of the Congressional Black Caucus (not by the CBC itself or by its members), the only reason seemed to be political expediency. The black members of Congress seemed intent on maintaining their relationship within the Clinton power structure, no matter how deeply invested it may be in white supremacy. Like Clinton, much of the CBC is beholden to Wall Street. So Sanders – with no connection to Wall Street or to a global foundation ripe for harvesting political chits – offers them little possibility of power except by way of his long shot to the White House.

To me, Sanders is not only appealing because he marched with Martin Luther King Jr or was arrested fighting racism (though I like the idea of a president who has been arrested for social justice). Sanders is most interesting because he offers black Americans a real possibility for change, thanks to his willingness to genuinely critique capitalism. You don’t get to take $153m in speaking fees over the years as Hillary Clinton has done, much of it from banks, and get to critique capitalism.

This critique is not without implications for black Americans. Malcolm X infamously said: “You can’t have capitalism without racism.” The Clinton machine is the friend of unfettered capitalism, which makes them the friend of racial capitalism too. Sanders and his dreams of democratic socialism are the enemy of cowboy capitalism – and the racist system in enables.

This is just one of the many intellectual arguments to be made in his favor. As more black geniuses feel the Bern, our arsenal of arguments in favor of the revolution will only grow.

[Rob L 3,811]

Boiler are you then new mouth piece for progressives

On cehst?

[smilesammich 10,727]

from what i've read, black and white democratic voters are split the same way. only the olds want crusty hillary.

[Boiler 46,359]

Feeling the Bern

[Jacque67 7,328]

Boiler are you then new mouth piece for progressives

On cehst?

Biomass, apparently.

[Boiler 46,359]

Biomass, apparently.

Just got the fire going..

[ExPatty 502]

Support for hillary is because people run with the crowd. She is basically a self-fulfilling prophecy; she was the presumed nominee, so people supported her, which made her position stronger. Still everybody seems to hate her, although blacks do overwhelmingly support her, but among whites only old white women like her.

Now, unfortunately for Bernie his campaign is absolutely finished. He was making headway, but it's done now. I think partly he is to blame for this. He should have raked her over the coals in some debates, because although he doesn't want to talk about "her damn emails", lots of other people do. That is a major black eye for her. He also should have rallied harder about her being a multi-billionaire ####### of bankers. He didn't do this because he lacked the spine to do it.

And now Sanders is finished.

Hillary is certainly the democratic nominee unless something crazy happens in the next few months, like she has a stroke or is charged by the FBI. But based simply on the campaign, sanders blew it. Too little, too late.

The funny thing is, Rubio in a general is favored to beat her (he probably won't get the nomination, though) and Trump and her are pretty close. Trump is going to bloody her badly in debates, reminding us constantly about all the nasty stuff she has done. She can only remind us about the stuff he has said.

Edited February 24, 2016 by ExPatty

[Jacque67 7,328]

Just got the fire going..

Flaming?

[smilesammich 10,727]

i don't know anyone irl who will vote for hillary. hillary might be the democratic nominee but the bernie supporters i know are writing him in. i don't think many bernie supporters ever thought he would be the nominee anyway..

[Teddy B 17,252]

Feeling the Bern

Stay out of those back alleys.

[ExPatty 502]

i don't know anyone irl who will vote for hillary. hillary might be the democratic nominee but the bernie supporters i know are writing him in. i don't think many bernie supporters ever thought he would be the nominee anyway..

Talk is cheap. Like good sheep they will vote for hillary when the election comes, just like republicans will vote for trump now, even those who say they hate him.

This will devolve as always into a republican vs democratic election with each hoping their side wins even if they are voting for somebody they don't even like. If it's Trump vs Hillary I will not be voting.

[Rob L 3,811]

Biomass, apparently.

Jacqueline, Bon Retour!

[smilesammich 10,727]

Talk is cheap. Like good sheep they will vote for hillary when the election comes, just like republicans will vote for trump now, even those who say they hate him.

This will devolve as always into a republican vs democratic election with each hoping their side wins even if they are voting for somebody they don't even like. If it's Trump vs Hillary I will not be voting.

well i think this is where the viable differences in generations are most important. young progressives absolutely will not vote for someone that doesn't meet their ideal for the sake of status quo. if it's between trump and hillary, i'll write in bernie and be done. i would never vote for either trump or hillary as both are steaming piles. i'm sure there are plenty of democrats that will vote hillary to keep trump away, however, i feel this trend is with older democrats. strict progressive idealists of any age know deep down there is no difference between republicans/democrats so long as they are funded by the same players. which is the current case.

[Teddy B 17,252]

well i think this is where the viable differences in generations are most important. young progressives absolutely will not vote for someone that doesn't meet their ideal for the sake of status quo. if it's between trump and hillary, i'll write in bernie and be done. i would never vote for either trump or hillary as both are steaming piles. i'm sure there are plenty of democrats that will vote hillary to keep trump away, however, i feel this trend is with older democrats. strict progressive idealists of any age know deep down there is no difference between republicans/democrats so long as they are funded by the same players. which is the current case.

I remember what it was like being young and thinking I could make a difference. Then I realized the reality of it all and became a grumpy old man.

[Ban Hammer 13,716]

until i hear what marvin thinks about sanders versus hillary, i'm not buying the claim about black intellectuals like bernie.