I am sad to report that on the Democratic Forum with Rachel Maddow, Bernie Sanders sealed his fate in this election. He is going to lose the African-American vote country wide, but particularly in the south. Without that vote in the South, he will lose the South to Hillary Clinton. I hope I am wrong, but here is why I have come to this conclusion.
When Rachel Maddow asked how he was going to do better among African-Americans in the south, he still stubbornly failed to understand what I believe is the number 1 issue for African-Americans in this country. Not only did he not put this issue first in his answer, he didn’t make a strong case for it in any of his answer to this question. That number 1 issue, I believe, is “Am I going to live through tomorrow and not be shot be a police officer or some southern bigot?” Bernie seems constitutionally unable to get this.
The second chance where Bernie really blew it, and you could see the African-American members of the audience being turned off by his remarks, was when he emphasized the need to get the white working class voters of the south to start voting Democratic again. It was bad enough that he said it this way, but he failed to redeem that remark, by giving equal or more emphasis to getting African-American voters to consider him for the primary. In fact, I think he repeated his meme about the white working class voter at least one time. How can a man with his civil rights record be so tone deaf?
Furthermore, Sanders used the theme of not understanding why the southern white working class voter has continued to vote against their own self-interest by voting for the Republicans who are tilting the economic system against them. In the Student Town Hall that he did a few weeks before the Rachel Maddow event, he pin-pointed exactly why the white working class voter has done what he seemed mystified about. The Republicans have a southern strategy first enunciated by Richard Nixon. That strategy is to convince the white working class voter that the African-American citizens are the cause of all their problems. It is a divide and conquer approach that also distracts them from understanding who their real enemy is. Their true enemy is the upper 0.1% of the wealthy in this country who are taking all the economic gains for themselves, and not only leaving nothing for the white working class, but are even taking from the white working class what they already have.
On this same issue of relations with African-American voters, Hillary Clinton had a bravura performance. I find it hard to believe that Bernie Sanders will be able to improve his standing among African-Americans after this performance. How I hope and pray that I am wrong, and that he will find a way to understand and neutralize this dismal performance. I can’t imagine how he will turn this around in his own mind, let alone in the minds of the voters.
Hillary Clinton also did a very smart thing. She has apparently learned by listening to Bernie Sanders that no President can accomplish the lofty goals Sanders has set out for the country, and Clinton has mostly parroted, unless that President has an upswelling of the population loudly proclaiming their support for his (or her) initiatives. This political revolution will make Congress understand in no uncertain terms, that unless Congress people start supporting the needs of the average voter, then those Congress people will not keep their jobs representing the people.
If Hillary Clinton can learn from Sanders about the needed political revolution, then why can’t Sanders learn from Clinton about how to talk about the race problems this country has? Sanders performance is even more mystifying given that he previously demonstrated in that Student Town Hall that he did understand the issue and how to talk about it.