Bernie Sanders is going to run in the 2020 Presidential Campaign. Unfortunately, he has pissed off the largest Democratic demographic…35+ Black Women, and we aren’t having it!
“You know there are a lot of white folks out there who are not necessarily racist who felt uncomfortable for the first time in their lives about whether or not they wanted to vote for an African-American.” – Bernie Sanders, 2018.
I am in no way a liberal snowflake, with thin skin. This doesn’t keep me up at night, and the world is not going to end because he made this comment, but let me be clear. His rhetoric and untimely comments about Hillary needing to do more to warn us about Russia this weekend, pushed me, and a lot of people who look like me, over the top. I know that there are TONS of people who support him…He was the favored politician, (noted: not president), by 57% of Americans according to The Harvard Harris Survey, conducted last year.
I’m not here to judge and I’m not here to bash, I’m here to tell you why Bernie Sanders does not have the black woman vote in 2020. (Pin It)
Don’t believe me? Ask Obama. (LOL!) Black women win presidencies, and that’s a fact. From main stream media, to the GOP, who are trying desperately to keep votes suppressed…KNOW the voting power of the black woman. Why else would they try to silence it? The major problem is that the MSM and even our own party, takes us for granted, and never really factor us in. Things and times are changing.
Bernie’s “Guide to Political Revolution” is outdated. Psssst..Plus? And this is good…He’s NOT a Democrat! So who is this “Political Revolution” for? Right now in America, we need a clean sweep of the Republican party from every crevice, office, seat and over turned rock. We don’t need division. (Insert Eye-roll). I’m going to drop this quote right here.
“Some people think that the people who voted for Trump are racists and sexists and homophobes and deplorable folks. I don’t agree, because I’ve been there. Let me tell you something else some of you might not agree with, it wasn’t that Donald Trump won the election; it was that the Democratic Party lost the election.”
Bernie Sanders 2017
WUT?!?!?!?!? *Gulp*. You mean…the same people who have BEEN fighting since the civil rights movement, for inequality and police harassment, deportation of our brown brothers, and daily racism just took a hiatus?
Look, I know you Bernie Bros are just as aware as I am that my people let us down in 2016 by staying at home on their asses, but black women, have never equivocated from our unconditional love for this party. Bernie told CBS News right after the election, that he was born in a white working class family and he was “deeply humiliated” that the Democratic Party, the one he does not identify with, lost to Trump.
Do you want to know what humiliated us Bernie? The fact that working class white women voted for a misogynistic racist that was hellbent on caging children and bringing Jim Crow back from the dead. We’re also humiliated that you keep focusing on trying to convert Trump supporters and gain votes from people who dislike minorities, who are the Democratic party’s most faithful voters. Why not get out there and talk about issues affecting those communities.
Bernie knows how to write a book, and his policies look great on trees. Some would even call them potentially effective policies. Yet, at every given opportunity to explain SPECIFICALLY, with FACTS AND SUPPORTING DATA, how these policies are going to help the black community, he can’t answer, and he fumbles…miserably!
During a campaign stop at an economic forum in Minneapolis in February of 2016, a black American by the name of Felicia Perry who was a mother of a child suffering from asthma, and increasing health problems due to a garbage incinerator in the midst of the city.
Not So Fun Fact: Black children are twice as likely to suffer from asthma than any other race.
Ms. Perry had every right to ask the self proclaimed, “political revolutionary” what were his policies on addressing and eliminating environmental racism. She also went for the throat in the second part of her question, asking Bernie to address what she believed was his refusal to acknowledge discrimination against people of color
“My black son. I know you’re scared to say black, I know you’re scared to say reparations. But it seems like every time we try to talk about black people and us getting something for the systematic reparations and the exploitation of our people, we have to include every other person of color. … Can you please talk about specifically black people and reparations?”
Felicia Perry
Here it was…Bernie’s moment to win over the community he claimed to fight and care so much about, maybe even show a smidgen of human decency and empathy for specific struggles and challenges of black mothers who have to raise children in unsafe areas afflicted with egregious environmental racism.
But, in typical Sanders fashion, he got defensive and refused to take on her challenge that he lacks a racial analysis:
“What I just indicated in my view is that when you have … you and I may have disagreements because it’s not just black, it is Latino; there are areas of America, in poor rural areas, where it’s white”
Bernie Sanders
This is just ONE example of many..and it’s the one that I related to most at the time my disdain for Bernie became clear. How delusional do you have to be to dismiss a woman, black, white, brown or yellow, raising children in unsafe areas, with chronic illnesses? How do you look these women in the eyes and tell them that your policies will help them fight against environmental inequalities, and you are the “Savior” when you can’t even tell her how your policies will actually help her?
FULL STOP!
I’m well aware that Bernie has a few black women supporters. There are people who have written opinion pieces about their support, and truly believe he is the next best thing since sliced bread. I’m not delusional. But what other people seem to be missing here is. This isn’t the 2016 election. SHIT GOT REAL these past few months.
Harvard professor Leah Wright Rigueur dropped the mic in a New York Times article in which she dropped facts that 43 percent of black voters under age 30 supported Sanders during the primaries. While that is certainly more than Trump had, Sanders all but ignored the south where most black Americans resided. To me, this once again proved that Bernie had and STILL HAS little interest in truly getting down in the mud and wrestling with the pigs that Andrew Gillum’s grandmother warned us about.
Here’s a tip for ya’ Bern. If you have no intention on fighting tooth and nail for black votes in the primary, why should we believe that you will all of a sudden put your revolutionary policies and “talk” into action to shed light on disparaging black issues, once you are elected? Here’s another tip. We DON’T!
Donald Trump’s vile and fraudulent presidency is fueling the “resistance,” and black women are at the front of the pack. Yes, BLACK women… Sanders, along with the rest of America, would behoove themselves by acknowledging this—just as he strongly voiced his sympathy and humiliation for white working-class voters.
Since Hillary is not running again. (Can you blame her?), and the Democratic National Committee has fresh blood in terms of new leadership. Bernie and his supporters don’t have any “Bernie would have won” sob stories to tell in 2020.
Bernie has not made any attempts to connect to black women over 35 on a personal level. They, black women, as I have stated, are the Democratic Party’s lifeline. Since Bernie has no chance in hell of winning us over, he doesn’t have a clear shot in hell. He has failed to show us his value and put his policies where his mouth is.
Bernie needs to respect and honor the fact that black women can turn his approval rating among OTHER black women, and HELP him get elected, just as we did for Obama. Since he can’t even really relate to us, we are more than happy to hand him another L, only bigger than the one in 2016, in 2020, just as we did when he didn’t take our voices seriously back then. It’s a new dawn, a new day and we do not need a “Weekend At Bernie’s III”. We need a functional congress, a real President, and a party that represents America…TODAY!
Renee’ s Column, “Dem Words: Wednesday Words of Wisdom”, that breaks down everyday issues from the perspective of the black community.
Her hope is that through her words, she can get more people in her community and across America to become consistently involved in our democracy and become educated and re-informed about how politics does, in fact, affect our every day lives.
Everyone of every race, religion, gender, and creed are encouraged to read this blog each Wednesday and increase your self-awareness as an African American, but also for those of you are avid supporters and believers of all equality to support our movement, and become educated and informed of our struggles as well.
This is for everyone. So we never have to worry about history repeating itself…again! Let’s say enough is enough and let’s stay engaged, and keep those around us engaged as well!
It’s up to us. Those of us on Twitter, ARE the leaders, the ones who are not on social media are the ones we need to reach. This alternative perspective allows you to speak to multiple groups of people and help save our democracy. The midterms are just one step, we have 2020 to get through, and beyond!
#NeverBernie #2020Campaign #VoteDemocrat2020 #DemWords
Bernie needs to go home and take up a hobby, like knitting for example.