And I'm sure someone could find a 2008 "Hillary has done more for black people than Obama" think piece. But overall I think it's very hard to deny Sanders fans are far more confrontational and dismissive of black views than Hillary fans were in 2008.
Today isn't 2008 though, and we're mostly getting this from the internet, which is far more connected than 2008. These days everyone has a twitter and facebook. In 2008, it wasn't nearly this big and connected, and the iphone was only out for an incredibly short amount of time before then. Also, your position is debatable. Hilary supporters were definitely confrontational and openly dismissive because "a woman president is a bigger reality than a black president, a black president is too far away!" Don't tell me that wasn't a thing because even black people I know said the same shit, that Obama was impossible to win the nom because of his race. Remember the Tavis Smiley debacle?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/06/tavis-smiley-ends-black-state-of-the-union_n_412825.html It was much worse from the white ones. I definitely remember white Hilary supporters whiteplaining away why it was so impossible and to vote for Hilary. About as much as I see it from Bernie supporters.
I actually agree with Sanders' view that an improved economic situation would greatly benefit black people. A lot of inner cities are in disrepair in large part due to deflated tax bases. Liberals can inject cash into inner city schools every four years all they want but the problems persist when tax funding is low and people don't have jobs. The problem is that Sanders hasn't really made this argument to black audiences effectively, and often outright ignores local issues that can help his point. He wants to talk about Flint, MI by hitting Wall Street. It doesn't make any sense.
But as I've said, Sanders has no connection to the community. He made no attempt to make one. And no, I'm not talking about his BLM confrontation; I still have no problem with how he handled it, and you know my views won BLM. I'm talking about having a visible presence in the community, be it through meeting with activists, attending black events, etc etc. All the things Hillary has attended for decades, mind you. Remember, both Obama and John Edwards made these overtures as early as 2006-2007 in preparation for the 2008 election. Because they understood you can't win the nomination without the black vote. Sanders did none of that and instead showed up in late 2015 talking about MLK. It's not surprising why it didn't work.
I can agree with all of this. I guess we're saying the same thing effecitvely. I think 100% that Sanders policies will help us, but he's not communicating it well behind that wall street rhetoric. Again, it's completely aimed at white middle class people. So we agree in full on that.
I also agree with him not being seen in the community. When the BLM thing happened, a common argument was "he protested in the 60's!" as if that means anything. For me, it still doesn't.
I'm going to say that his way of communicating his vision for America is flawed, although I think it's what we need. Shame, too. My only hope is that he can manage to get Hilary on board with some of his easier to implement ideas that can help Hilary on the campaign trail.
