Y’alls Revolution
I endorse Bernard Sanders to be president of the United States in 2021.
Not that it matters, and I’m not as excited about his candidacy as I was last year.
Bernie’s going to lose, for the same reason that he lost in 2016.
He just does not get America.
Yes we need change, he is calling for change.
Yes we need progressive policies, with a major caveat on guns, that is what he is calling for.
Yes we need rapid, urgent, sprint not marathon paced act on on climate change.
But for the second time in 4 years Bernie was the wrong messenger, and the message was not for all of us.
Yes he is better on race than in 2016, but he is still not great. He is an older white man from one of the whitest cities in one of the whitest states in the country. He can disparage reparations, ignore disparities between black infant mortality rates, and show up last (After Micheal Fucking Bloomberg, who I remind you bought his way into the election nearly a full year after Bernie officially entered the race) on issues such as childcare and universal Pre-K — the most basic planks in a socialist program.
It’s not that difficult to figure out why Black people did not show up for Bernie Sanders, he never came to us.
We want inclusion not obfuscation, I want this movement to be for me not at my expense.
Now here is the part where I point out that my preferred candidate was (is) Elizabeth Warren. The candidate was great at outreach, and yet we couldn’t bring black men into the movement enough to win either.
But the difference is most of America did not know who Senator Warren was until July 2019 when the debates kicked off and she started ending the campaigns of the moderates… and when her former allies in the liberal media started to attack her.
Senator Warren persisted through the attacks, and the lack of media coverage, and the dismissal of her policies — many of which have now been considered and adopted by her rivals- and earned a significant following of black women.
Black women are the backbone of the democratic party, the most reliable voters and the most consistently neglected in policy.
Senator Warren had a novel concept, why not just put women and people of color in charge of her campaign at all levels?
Why not empower AND center talented women such as Ayanna Pressley and Deb Haaland (More on that later) ?
What if we could actually talk about systemic racism ? About how racism caused the global recession in 2008 ? About how black women led the fight for labor rights in America but get no credit for it? For how our country became a global super power because of the efforts of undocumented immigrants, disenfranchised women and back men who continue to carry a nation on our beaten and battered backs?
Senator Warren spoke of slaves, not just slavery.
Of revolutionaries not just revolutions.
What she was calling for was bigger than Bernie’s revolution
She spoke of systematic racism, naming government policies that hurt black people, naming government inspired violence.
An excerpt from her Atlanta Georgia speech:
“As the idea that Black and White workers could make real structural change if they fought side by side began to spark to life, an evil force was once again mobilizing against it.
In 1883, two years after the successful washerwomen’s strike and as other groups were just beginning to exercise some political muscle, the supreme court struck down a civil rights law that had promised equal civil and legal rights for all, and its loss was another body blow to our fragile, reconstructed democracy.
Racist politicians doubled down.
They divided Black people and White people in every moment of every day of every life, using force, violence, and intimidation to oppress Blacks and to ensure that Blacks and whites would never come together to stand up against those in power.”
The whole speech is worth listening to.
During this speech there were protests and hecklers, Senator Warren calmly waited them out until her surrogate, Representative Ayanna Pressley walked out to deliver a message.
After flicking her hair to activate her black girl magic, Pressley showed what this movement needs — partnership, equality, freedom.
Pressley did not need to get permission or hesitate. She read the room, she understood, she lent her credibility to Warren and then ceded power.
Senator Warren finished her speech and from all accounts this deepened their relationship.
Do you remember Senator Warren correcting any of her surrogates about her policies?
What About Senator Harris? Senator Klobachar? Senator Booker? Anyone other than Senator Sanders and Vice President Biden this cycle?
Me either. Why did Sanders have to correct AOC, Zephyr Teachout, (though notably not Ro Khana who instead just disappeared from rallies and events) ?
Senator Sanders had the most diverse surrogates of any campaign.
Representatives Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ro Khanna are the only reason Senator Sanders campaign survived after his heart attack.
Fmr Ohio State Senator Nina Turner, Mayor Bill De Blasio, Shaun King, Zephyr Teachout
Killer Mike, Dr. Cornel West, Arianna Grande, Cardi B, Micheal Moore.
Nearly all of these surrogates are people of color, many are women, but they were not given any power. They were not centered. They do not leave this race with any more power than they had before the primary.
Arguably some of them may have less.
When Zephyr Teachout rightfully called Biden out for having a corruption problem in the midst of Trumps impeachment inquiry, Senator Sanders apologized to Biden, specifically backtracking on attacks regarding social security cuts that he himself later made in the singular one on one debate months later.
When AOC stated that a public option with a transition would be better than nothing at all, Senator Sanders shut this down forcibly arguing for a all or nothing approach he clearly does not believe in.
When Ro Khana wrote a transition bill for States to transition to Medicare for All (Basically Senator Warrens plan at a state level ) he went on Pod Save America and gave a long interview about it, Ro Khana is the co-chair of the Sanders campaign, surely this idea did not appear in a vacuum, and yet Bernie didn’t say anything about it and no one ever asked him about it in a debate or town hall.
Bernie’s surrogates were supposed to energize young people and get them out to vote, but they were mismanaged and stifled.
I had questions for Senator Sanders in 2016, namely why was he espousing a 20th century view of identity neutral politics ? I thought the one thing about a post Obama presidency that no one would dispute would be that race matters.
It mattered when our government passed the patriot act, it mattered when Micheal Bloomberg’s NYPD spied on Muslims in mosques, it mattered when unarmed black men were slain on camera by officer after officer.
Race sunk the economy in 2008. Race is why Flint Michigan still does not have clean drinking water.
Race is the reason why out of the 8 cities and counties in the U.S. to file for bankruptcy all but one of them have significant black populations — Detroit MI, Boise ID(second highest concentration of black people in Idaho), Jefferson County AL, Stockton CA(22% Asian, 12% Black ), Harrisburg PA,Central Falls RI, San Bernardino CA
Mammoth Lakes,CA is the lone exception being 83% White, in a very diverse state.
We tortured people at Guantanamo Bay, brown people, and only brown people. Not Timothy Mcveigh, not Ted Kazincki, not Dylan Roof. People who may not even be guilty, because they are brown.
When the good senator went marching in the biting cold winds to bring attention to the Dakota Access pipeline he knew that this pipe was rerouted away from a wealthy and over overwhelmingly white neighborhood to a river that Native Americans considered sacred, he knew that race mattered.
The Senator knew that race is relevant, he just didn’t want to talk about it.
I already see the hot takes after Joe Biden Won all 67 counties in FL.
I see everything blamed for this devastating loss.
It’s Warren’s fault.
The Coronavirus depressed turnout.
The media tricked people into not caring about Joe Biden's record.
Or.
Black people just trust Joe Biden more and nothing Senator Sanders has done in the last two months has garnered him any support.
President Obama won FL twice.
He came here, along with Joe Biden.
After a hurricane, it was Joe Biden who was sent to shake hands with governors.
Charlie Christ shook Obama’s hand too long and caught democratis.
When Obama said “ If I had a son, he would look like Trayvon “ he was referring to a teenage boy murdered in a town no one had heard of in FL.
Joe Biden was there for all that, there are pictures, there are cringy speeches.
I myself have a presidential commencement mug, Joe Biden's name is on that too.
You go into black churches you may find a picture of Obama and Biden next to Jesus and his disciples.
There was an Obamamart in my native St. Petersburg, FL.
Hillary Clinton had a bitter primary with Obama and only worked in his administration for one term and she won the nomination, so of course the man that by all accounts really did help ensure success in the Obama years became the nominee.
It’s not like people forgot that he treated Anita Hill like crap. But he wrote the violence against women act.
We didn’t forget that he wrote the 1994 crime bill and wanted to be associated with it, but we are used to supporting systemically racist candidates FDR, JFK, LBJ are all more progressive than Biden but they were all racist.
Bernie Sanders had to give black people a reason to trust him, and to like him.
Yes he had great policies, but he wasn’t the only candidate that had great policies.
Yes he had a better record than Biden, but it’s not a much better record.
Bernie Sanders still voted for the crime bill.
Bernie Sanders still voted against the Brady Bill 5 times.
Bernie still dismissed the idea of reparations with a snort and the wave of a hand, before launching into a long passionate speech about how unfair college debt is.
Bernie did not seem to understand the parts of his policies that were great for black people, I assume he did not plan to prioritize them.
Why? Well…
Bernie didn’t show up in Ferguson. Or Sanford. Or
Or Baltimore. Or New York.
Or Seattle. Or Chicago. Or Philadelphia.
Joe Biden wasn’t there either, in fact Joe Biden lies about being there for black people all the time — see anything about civil rights movement.
But Joe Biden was Barrack Hussein Obama’s Vice president for 8 years.
They became friends, he didn’t sabotage his presidency, he followed directions.
Even though he was my 13th choice for president and Bernie was my 3rd, it is still easy enough to come to terms with a Biden’s presidency.
No we won’t get all we want but we will get some of it.
In November I’ll Vote for Joseph Robinette Biden, you should too.
Revolutions don’t succeed or fail due to the results of one election.
We learn, we adapt, we go to talk to black people in Texas instead of white college students in Massachusetts to spite your ideological allies.
Anyway this “revolution”.
To be successful it has to expand to everyone.
And the revolution cannot rise and fall with Bernie Sanders.
At the end of the day his loss is not just on him.
It is his supporters who will carry the blame deserved or not for stifling this movement.
His media.
Kyle Kulinski pissed just as many people off as Joe Rogan, because they have the same views on culture. Kyle is just as racist. Kyle is THE Bernie bro. Kyle is fine with discrimination and racism as long as we have surface level class equality.
Ana Kasparian pushed away allies on a whim, progressive pledge? Who cares. 100% aligned with her issues ? Who cares. She did the most to convince her viewers that they should support Bernie no matter what — as stupid as Blue no matter who. She was the happy warrior who spent two weeks attacking Elizabeth Warren for Senator Sanders sexist remarks. She was the one who called for every progressive not named Senator Sanders to drop out and consolidate behind him because he met all of her requirements. Ana who did not like Warrens transition plan because it was not liberal enough but who seems perfectly okay with TYT’s anti union stance and reportedly low wages.
Krystal Ball spent the whole campaign attacking any person of color or women that made the mistake of acknowledging that there are race and gender specific problems. Did you know that Krystal has called Senator Warren Pocahontas more than Donald Trump? This grifter just wanted to sell you her new book. Krystal who got her job as a political analyst after stealing money from candidates whose campaigns she ran into the ground. She was wrong about everything.
The supporters who doxxed and attacked the members of the Working families party, the culinary union, the campaign staff of his opponents. Who instead of reaching out and asking for support and endorsements of candidates like Yang, Warren, Gillibrand, Harris, and Booker made fun of them and blamed them instead.
Why are these the people who speak for us?
We need an inspiring message and detailed policy platform, commitment to dismantling systems of oppression and a reliable messenger.
We also need reliable allies who do not spend their time torching the left.
We need to feel like we are all in this together.
We need this movement to include all of us.
We need to feel like this movement cares about all of us.
if it’s not me us, than there needs to be an us.
Otherwise it will remain and always be Y’alls revolution.
