I will have to hear the comment in context but just hearing the statement itself I do think Sanders has a point. Unless you've experienced racism you can't really understand it.
Eh, this accusation somehow happens a lot when people defend their political views for a long time and when they don't back down. On Facebook, I used to get accused every day by hordes of right-wing nuts of being hired by the German government or certain German news agencies, just because I argued in-detail with ultra-nationalists and debunked their nonsense with objective and accurate posts. It's kind of funny (but slightly annoying) when it happens to you, but also shows that people take your opinions a bit more serious and that you get into their heads.
I mean if you completely change the words he said it might make sense but if you look at what he actually said, it is incredibly racist and dumb.
Every time you post I think "troll" because that's all you do. You and your passive aggressive buddy. Yeah someone who isn't smart enough to read context would think the way you do. 5 cents! Dang, why aren't you posting as much as Dada? Just think you could have earned $5k by now!
Sweet Tards got teeth! We all know who the tard is. "When you are white, you don’t know what it’s like to be living in a ghetto, you don’t know what it’s like to be poor, you don’t know what it’s like to be hassled when you are walking down a street or dragged out of a car"
LOL. The post was removed by the moderators. Surprise surprise. Not sure if that was just a very poorly thought out idea/phrase, or just blatant pandering and racism.
You are correct in the statement that you don't necessarily target someone in hoping to drive up their vote, that's not the point. However I think you are missing the context of what i'm trying to say. In your original statement, it seems as if you are implying that Hillary is the target of the GOP because they feel as if she's the DNC candidate with the strongest policy and will be the toughest challenge. I disagree. I in-fact think that because they feel she is weaker and will be easier to face off with then Sanders in a GE, is why she is the main target of their attacks. Targeting, in the right political context, can be used to your advantage. For Example, I'm Hillary Clinton, and I see that in a GE poll, I beat Donald Trump by a fair margin, but I don't match up as well against Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. It is then advantageous to me at this point to hope that Donald can win his side's primary so I could win a GE. Now what is the best way to make sure that Mr.Trump win's his primary? If I try to attack Trump, the reality of the situation is that a vast majority will still support him and I don't really benefit much from this. However, since this is a headline/media driven society, if I keep constantly mentioning and attacking Trump, his competitors don't get much coverage. It then becomes mostly Clinton vs Trump. This is what I want. I don't want Republicans talking about Rubio vs Clinton. I don't want them talking about Cruz vs Clinton. I want people to talk about Trump vs Clinton. I want Trump supporters to be angry enough at me to vote and make sure he wins his primary. And I wan't Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio to fade into obscurity. Hopefully I was able to explain this better.
I think the Sanders anger thing doesn't play well. It makes him seem older, crankier, and crazier. He should slow his hands down, for one. He can be clear and firm without the anger. Just talking "electability" and the basic mammalian test that goes on in our brains. The one quote about race is just unfortunate b/c so many white people are poor in America now. Ghettos are awful. So are a lot of small meth-infested hopeless rural white towns. (Louie Gohmert's America, you might say. Ahem.)
Clinton can't really win these elections. She can only play not to lose. Question to Hillary, and she gives a calm, measured, this-is-how-we-should-approach-it response. (She has to be calm. Even the "Feel the Bern" white middle aged liberal males on MSNBC talk about how they hate her voice: "shrill", "don't need to shout"; I guess it's okay to shout in a baritone?) Question to Bernie, and he gives a get-off-my-lawn, this-is-the-way-it-should-be response.....idealistic crowd erupts in orgasmic glee. Maybe when I was in my early 20's I would have listened more to the "revolution" stuff. I mean, "We're gonna give a free college education." Hey, who wouldn't want that? Better health care......hey, who wouldn't want that? But.....how the hell are you going to make it happen? What, are we all gonna s*** the money that turns into free education and health care? As bad as Wall Street can be, we are a capitalistic free market society. What, we're just going to go all Star Trek overnight? "I suppose you don't use money in the future." "Well, we don't." Universities, other politicians, hospitals, insurance companies, Big Business in general, they would all pull out the old Michael Corleone on Bernie: "Don't you know that that's an impossibility? That that could never happen? That I'd use all my power to keep something like that from happening?"
It isn't so much about whether privileged white people know what it is like to be poor or live in the ghetto. It is that such a comment, even if worded correctly, is incredibly patronizing and insulting. You want to know why black people are rejecting Bernie Sanders? This is exhibit A. You can't just come around and pander to African Americans and think you'll get their votes by dropping lines you think they want to hear. As a black person who is neither poor nor lives in the ghetto, this is one of the most insulting things I've ever heard a politician say. And then he further insults me by implying that the reason why I don't get treated the same by the police as a white guy is because I'm poorer than the white guy, and Wall Street blah blah blah. Ugh. If a Republican had said this we'd all be calling for his head on a stake. Good grief.
It would be great if that's what he said but he blatantly brought up the white race in his example. His entire campaign is based on minority pandering and white guilt and he's still not doing well with the minorities and now he just insulted 95 percent of his supporters.
I like this post... unfortunately our politicians are not getting elected by people that put this much thought into their vote. My wife was at the polling station last Tuesday and they ask the lady in front of her if she is voting in the Repub or Dem primary. This lady says [insert full Texas redneck accent here] WHICH ONE IS TRUMP! This is the type of voter that is electing our president. Welcome to the idiocracy where substance and character matters not....
I love this. Bernie's 'White's can't empathize with blacks' line is probably the most controversial statement he has made in regards to race while the entire GOP and their populist narrative continuously labels entire groups based on race as lazy or having rapist tendencies or having inclinations to commit violent crimes and idiots want to make a comparison between the two?
That response on the poor was a very bad mistake by Bernie. It wouldn't have helped him even if he worded it properly. It doesn't matter though, he's already well past the line of doom. Pretty much all the major states coming up in the next 7-10 days have a large percentage of Blacks. I expect Clinton to win all of those states rather decisively.
I don't agree with his comment, I do believe he misspoke. The statement itself was ridiculous, insinuating that you have to be black to know what being poor is. The problem with that tho, is that he himself was poor. If Clinton had made this statement, it would be obvious to me just how out of touch with reality she really is. On the other hand, Bernie's record and authenticity lead to me to believe it was just an extremely sloppy/incorrect statement. I don't think he ever had any intention of pandering to blacks, but given the frustration he has likely felt from blacks not even considering his policies and staying extremely loyal to Clinton , he has had to start framing his answers in ways that address them specifically. This however, was a complete F***up. And by the way, this was an anomaly in terms of why blacks are rejecting him. Bernie was just immediately stigmatized as the quintessential white, male politician before his policies were even considered by the black community. This statement, unfortunately, is a big example of why blacks are skeptical of white politicians and thus it did not help Bernie's case. However, it should be noted, there's a reason why black intellectuals like Cornel West and Ta-Nehisi Coates are supporting him. Bernie may not understand the black experience in the United States, but he does understand injustice and unfairness. He has fought to end prejudice throughout his life, and that is indisputable. As far as record and actual policy is concerned, Bernie's policies far outdo anything that Clinton is proposing. In addition, if blacks knew Clinton's actual record, most would not vote for her.
I have no idea about how black people see Sanders, I do think this was pure pandering. Also poor is a relative term but I don't think was even close to destitute. If he had plenty of money for clothes and food went to a quality public school he was much better off than millions of other white people during that time. Especially in the south. Illegal immigrants are not a race of people. Neither are mexicans. Neither are muslims. This is the most racist thing said so far.
