[quote=“jsroberts, post:300, topic:59394”]
Sanders is running on the basis of a grassroots movement, and this shows that it’s not just money that people are contributing to the campaign.
[/quote]Unfortunately, the BLM may end up with the bad end of this deal and I really don’t want that to happen (see below). The only winner in the end may end up being Hillary Clinton and her billionaire donor who funded the BLM. Unlike Sanders, they will very likely throw the BLM under the bus if she’s elected. Similar to what the Koch brothers did to the Tea Party grassroots people as they increasingly influenced politicians via astroturf money, etc. as well.
[quote=“Mindysan33, post:298, topic:59394”]
I think they go after Sanders because they know that, unlike the other candidates, they will get some traction with him.
[/quote]If that’s the case, I think it would be very wise at this point for the BLM leaders to be honest and transparent and say that very explicitly.
Some of the BLM movement may be counting on Hillary Clinton to win and fear challenging her, however, they’re losing some Sanders supporters in the process (including many blacks). That’s not good for the Black Lives Matter movement. It’s creating solidarity issues at a critical time in the BLM movement.
Not including any criticism towards Clinton by the BLM is a rotten strategy especially now that everyone is finding out that the BLM movement was funded by a Hillary Clinton billionaire campaign donor.
The dire problem with that strategy is Sanders supporters are increasingly tiring of a focus that’s only on Sanders especially when it includes baseless attacks such as saying his supporters in Seattle were “white supremacist liberals” along with other vicious hyperbole such as Sanders is “ignoring the plight of black people”.
The problem is the BLM is justifiably appearing to Sanders supporters as a group that’s giving Hillary Clinton a pass while attempting to derail his campaign in order to have her win.
BLM is losing support due to this fact and this includes many blacks (see above).
A long time ago a big lie was propagated by marketing agencies that’s still being repeated today that “all publicity is good publicity”. That’s untrue. There is such a thing as bad publicity and it can have devastating effects even for great causes.
The BLM at the very least needs to start releasing statements against Hillary Clinton and also attend her events and make some noise there. Otherwise, they are going to begin to lose support and that’s a damn shame because most of Sanders supporters support the movement, but not their increasingly partisan tactic of focusing on Sanders and Sanders alone.
Add to that the recent hyperbole and lack of transparency I mentioned above to @anon61221983, and the BLM may start to lose ground despite all the billionaire astroturf money that was put behind it. Kind of like how the Tea Party spun out of control after the Koch brothers increasingly pulled strings behind it.
I support Black Lives Matter, however some of their tactics are equivalent to shooting oneself in the foot and I’m not alone in that opinion, by far. The billionaire can continue to throw money at BLM and Hillary Clinton, but it won’t persevere if it’s found have an opaque agenda against Sanders and a promotional platform for Clinton.
History has shown us that true grassroots movements don’t function very well for progressives once they become corrupted by billionaires. And, the longer the BLM appears like it’s in the pocket of a billionaire by giving Hillary Clinton a pass, the weaker it will become.
I want the BLM movement to gain strength. However, an opaque, anti-solidarity angle isn’t going to accomplish that very goal well.
The negative reaction on Twitter and other social media by POC against BLM is strong right now. I mentioned a small sampling in one of my previous posts and please observe just one example of many on Facebook now as well:
Look at the top-voted comments there. Billionaire money isn’t going to white-wash that negative reaction from both POC and others.
This was posted only 4 hours before my screenshot and it’s already hitting almost ONE MILLION views: Seriously read the top comments.
(click on image to enlarge - may have to click twice & scroll it)
EDIT:
I just checked it again at about 3:17 PM Denver, CO time. It’s now rapidly heading towards two million views in just a matter of hours. Currently near 1.8 million.
Final update: 6:50PM …
Now up to about 3 MILLION in a matter of hours.
The POC are still at top and vastly positive for Bernie and vasty negative for the BLM.
/END EDIT
This is bad for the BLM. This is bad. It sadly seems tragically similar to astroturf-esque mistakes. Honesty and transparency with a heaping of good strategy is the way to go. This BLM move that leaves Hillary without criticism to is going south fast.
I think there’s a lot more POC supporting Bernie Sanders than much of the establishment realizes and perhaps some here at Boing Boing do as well. I don’t think some of you realize just how incredibly effective our truly grassroots outreach into urban communities has been already. We’re moving and growing much faster than I think some of you can imagine (and certainly beyond the establishment bean-counters expectations).
[quote=“funruly, post:297, topic:59394”]
Now we can watch as Clinton again needs to dance to the left.
[/quote]Pandering to the left by Clinton and what Sanders is doing are two radically different things.
