Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/03/10/overton-windows-r-us-2.html
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The eminently electable Bernie Sanders enjoys strong support from African-Americans and young people
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I’ve always seen Sanders’ age as more of an advantage with young people. He’s the crabby old Silent Generation grandpa who tells them the hard truth and calls for action instead of blowing “everything’s gonna be OK if we stay the course” smoke up their arses like their parents do.
Connecting with African-Americans has been more of a challenge for him, but dumping some of his more tone-deaf campaign team members from 2016 will probably make things better this time around.
All that said, and acknowledging my strong support for him in the 2016 primaries, I would have preferred that he continued in his role as advisor and organiser via Our Revolution in supporting progressive Dem candidates rather than becoming one again himself.
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Please tell women that “Bernie Bros.” are a myth. They will be so relieved that they imagined the whole thing.
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Sanders is more popular with racialized people than white people, as popular with women as he is with men, and is especially popular with young people.
Isn’t this true of every possible Democratic nominee, named and un-named?
Isn’t this true of a Democratic candidate wearing a paper bag mask?
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But he would have won in 2016, man. He would have won!
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I wonder how much of Sanders’ supposed problem with black voters is due to the fact that black democrats are on average slightly more right wing than the party as a whole.
This is a statistical effect of the polarization of American politics on the grounds of skin colour- conservative white voters are likely to be registered as Republicans, while most black voters are registered Democrats. So any candidate that appeals to the left of the democratic party is going to have a bloc of moderate to conservative black voters that they are going to have a hard time reaching.
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People vote because they think there’s a possible future payoff. They don’t vote because someone was good, inspired, or saintly in the past. A lot of good people don’t win.
Trump wasn’t a life long anti-abortioner, but he convinced people he would pay off for them somehow.
To get over a cloud (fair or unfair), Sanders has to convince people he would manifestly pay off, not just that he has great or neutral intentions. No one is owed votes in this system, as it stands. It doesn’t do any good to say that any voter’s being unreasonable, even if they are. It doesn’t do any good to say they should already have been convinced. That’s the path to noble defeat.
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Perhaps you missed this:
Sanders is beating Kamala Harris 2-to-1 in polls of African American voters
Unsurprising, as he remains the most popular politician in America:
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/424806-poll-sanders-most-popular-senator-flake-least
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Hard to imagine that the most popular politician in America might have won:
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They also stay home because they’re not convinced that a politician represents a meaningful alternative. From the FA:
Johnston, Schulte, and Olaniyi all said they would’ve voted for Sanders in 2016 if they could’ve at the time.
When asked if they would support the ultimate Democratic nominee even if it’s not Sanders, the trio hesitated to respond.
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And polls also showed Hillary clearly beating Trump.
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WHEEEEE LET’S ARGUE ABOUT IT
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In 2015 Hillary was the most popular politician in the country.
EDIT
Also probably voting Bernie again
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Don’t want to. Just the whole premise is flawed. Great, you like Sanders. But the “everyone is wrong and I am right and here’s some polls to prove it” is tiresome. Apparently some poll in June 2016 showed that Sanders would beat Trump, so that just proves that Sanders would have won in November and Hillary was a bad candidate (ignoring Hillary beating Sanders by 3 million real votes, and Hillary beating Trump by 3 million real votes).
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Just what we needed: another zealous re-litigation of the 2016 election.
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Totally agree with you. If Sanders convinces people he’s a meaningful alternative on race issues, then people who care most about race issues will boost him even more. And by convince, I mean what I said before, on meaningful possible future payoffs, not past worthiness.
I didn’t miss it. I don’t think Harris is a good or strong candidate. My point was that all Democratic candidates do some degree of better with black voters, but the only Democratic candidates that win are those that have inarguably enthusiastic levels of support from black voters. If he can convince enough people, he’ll do fine. If he beats Kamala Harris without also convincing enough black people in the lead-up to the general election, it won’t matter. Same for Kamala Harris and any other candidate.
(As an aside, I wonder what the first polls for Democratic candidates in 2007 would have told us about our present?)
(Second aside, have polls somehow become magically more credible than they were on Election Night 2016? “I never said you could come back in this house, you Polls…”)
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[Citation needed]
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here:
The relevant graph:
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there is old and there is OLD
dude would be 82 years old at the end of his first term
how about someone who could make it through the strain of a full eight years
it’s not like he is the only progressive voice to choose from, dang get over him already
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I’d prefer a younger, preferably female candidate, but if Sanders wins the nomination, he’ll yeah I’d vote for him. He’s not my preferred candidate, but he’s a damn sight better than the alternative. I voted for Hillary for the same reason. Heck, as much as I hate Cory Booker’s education policies, if he gets the nomination, I’ll vote for him too. The presidential election isn’t about who you want as president, hasn’t for my entire adult life (my first Presidential election being 2004, when I was a Dean supporter), instead it’s about who you dislike the least.
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