I'm a democratic socialist and a big Sanders fan, but I don't think black voters will be switching loyalties any time soon. It's more than just Hillary Clinton, although she has plenty of personal associations that help her with black voters. It's the Democratic Party. Sanders will attract few black votes. People don't realign their loyalties that quickly.

Hillary's support among POC will never go down. That "name recognition" meme is just so much horse shit. Just because you will not admit it does not mean Hillary hasn't a long history of supporting the issues of POC.

How about we bet on it?

I guarantee you it will go down in the primaries. Guarantee.

By at least 20 years.

thanks to the BS 'War on Drugs' crap originally put in place by Ronald Reagan. Michelle Alexander, the author of The New Jim Crow is quite critical of Bill Clinton's role in expanding Reagan's policies that disproportionately affect POC to this day, even though there is absolutely no evidence that POC use drugs more than white populations.

Here is what Michelle Alexander had to say about it in an interview with 'Frontline' in April of 2014:

Between 1990-2000 private prison incarceration rates rose tremendously. It's disgraceful AND unjust.

Most of the black people I know have no idea who Sanders is. There is plenty of time until the election, of course her support among poc will go down a bit, she is not Obama. I do not expect record numbers of blacks to rush to the polls for her, like we did for Obama. Both Hillary and Sanders have good ratings and support for issues that face poc. Both have issues that need to be addressed. I wish people would stop pretending that Hillary is the second coming of Obama to PoC. She is not.

"Most of the black people I know have no idea who Sanders is. "
---Yes, that is the reality, and not just black people but MANY people. I have been accused of being insulting or patronizing by pointing this out. I think the paternalistic need to feel the need to defend black people (as if they can't speak for themselves) is perhaps the more patronizing view.

"I wish people would stop pretending that Hillary is the second coming of Obama to PoC. She is not."
----Yes, this exactly.

If you are a person of color, you pay attention to what is said about your race, and ANGRY about it too.

Bill Clinton has now EXPLICITLY played the race card
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/01/27/443760/-Bill-Clinton-has-now-EXPLICITLY-played-the-race-card

Clinton Race Baiting (a time line, for those still confused)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x4193768

Group: Tell Clinton to Stop ‘Race-Baiting’
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/09/group-tell-clinton-to-stop-race-baiting/

Very astute.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026634558

I'm sure my tears of joy over the SC ruling taste sweet. Enjoy them.

That's what the WSJ/NBC polling data said - yes you could take the results with a Hillary bias and interpret them to mean she leads Sanders 75-15. But when you looked at the data details, Sanders' low numbers were due to lack of name recognition.

The damnation in the details was that given her name recognition her favorability ratings were no higher than her negatives....Sanders' favorability on the other hand was higher than his negatives. I don't see anyway that Hillary can become less known and her unfavorability scores will go down.

starts filling up his big American tent.

as if African Americans and other minority groups just aren't well enough informed.

It's patronizing in the extreme.

It's more than a year before the election.

Lots of people are just finding out who Bernie Sanders is, including black people.

Here's an excerpt from a commentary this week:

http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/presidential-campaign/245937-the-bernie-sanders-phenomenon

Most everything that is written or said at this point in the campaign needs to be taken as hyperbole, since it is really early and the time when inaugural events of the season receive the enthusiasm of base support that overstates broad acceptance. It is still the fact that only 25 percent of the electorate identify themselves as liberal, versus 35 percent as conservative. It is still the fact that the overwhelming polling results show Clinton's lead over Sanders starting at 38 percent and moving up from there to 55 percent (Real Clear Politics has Clinton's lead over Sanders averaging 47 percent). It is also clear that Clinton has shifted her rhetoric to a more progressive tone, and that will impact voters as more moderates enter the fray. It is also the case that Sanders is relatively unknown and has very little of name recognition enjoyed by Clinton.

I don't think it's at all patronizing to speculate that Sander is going to draw off some black voters from Clinton. Who knows? They may decide it's in their economic interest to vote for him. Just like other voter groups.

Many don't know Hillary is being opposed in the primary. All they can see is Hillary vs. the racist republicans. Of course they are polling for Hillary right now. But that will change with time.

Think whatever you want, but I know my people.

Mark my words. Even though some Latinos will vote for Bernie Sanders, the overwhelming majority will vote for Hillary, just like in '08. Remember that?

Back then Latinos remained staunchly loyal to Hillary until the end. The Obama phenomenon didn't sway the Latino population. Obama only received Latino support in the general election, but in the primaries it was Hillary all the way.

If Obama no pudo, I doubt very much Sanders can.

I'll let him speak for himself. Originally in this thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1280&pid=16210

Thanks for sharing that!

So now all 11 of my followers and all 5 of my facebook friends will see it.

Politically aware people are fairly rare in almost all populations.

2016 isn't on the radar yet for most people, unless they're in Iowa or NH.

We have a candidate who's record on supporting civil rights is stellar, yet he doesn't get support from the AA community. Why is that? We're told it isn't lack of name recognition. Okay then, so is it ignorance? Is it bigotry? What is the reason?

As an African American, I still have not forgotten the 2008 primary season. You make the assumption that all AAs will vote for Hillary, and they may do so. However, I am looking at all of the Democratic candidates before I make my decision.

The Clintons are all about political expedience, pure and simple.

And you know what happens when people assume.

Try reading the AA forum for a few weeks and you might get it.

Nobody is telling black people to do anything.

Just skimming through the forum, and nothing pertaining to Sanders stood out for me. TIA.

Go to the AA forum and read for a few days. You just might get the gist of what I just said.

I hear both black and immigrants say they know Hillary because of the Clinton foundation, the years of work on behalf of children and women. People (particularly in churches) see hands on work in Haiti, Africa, and in rural US. Efforts all the way back to Arkansas to improve schools.

I don't think that ANY laws, speeches in the Senate, or other politics matter.

Bernie does NOT have a history working with those groups outside of Washington or Vermont except for some early participation many years ago.

Hillary started with the Children's Defense Fund, and has continued working for her social justice no matter what her title was...and people understand and respect that effort.

Bernie would have to spend years of effort to catch up the respect. Those people don't care about emails or TPP. They see someone who has been on their side for a long time.

It's not that Bernie is bad. It's simply that economic justice as described by Bernie is not on their planet.

he was an organizer from the start. He clearly had inroads with the minority from the earliest days. He also had the backing of celebrities like Oprah, who campaigned for him in SC. He had major endorsements (like Kennedy).

Bernie does not have the history in the minority or immigrant community, he doesn't have the publicity of big time celebs, and he doesn't have the endorsements.

Without something to hang his hat on, there's not much chance he can win a general election.

He will kick a$$ in the general.

That's the reason why Latinos support her so strongly, and will continue to do so.

Almost like it kinda hurts the claim that she's always been great for minorities...

For obvious reasons, no one can claim support from minorities that would supersede Obama. At this time, women and immigrants know that Hillary is their champion.

The reason that Reverend Pinckney was campaigning with Hillary the day he was killed in Charleston is because minorities, with the support to Obama, will support Hillary. Bernie can visit SC (I grew up in SC attending a church right down the street from Emmanuel AME), and Bernie is not on the Southern Christian radar. He can visit Democratic party meetings in Columbia, but he has not been in those churches in SC, AK, or other places where the black voters reside.

Short of another minority candidate, Hillary is well-known and the candidate of choice to their community. They identify with her protestant Christian background, work with children, and Clinton foundation work in countries that are mostly minority. I dare say that no Democrat today could preach like Obama did yesterday, but Hillary does a fair job on occasion.

Bernie simply doesn't have the record with minority or immigrants to win those segments of the voters. Bernie doesn't have the time and money to campaign in those communities.

The Bernie supporters won't change anything by continuing attacks and bashing of Hillary. I don't start threads trashing Bernie and his background - even though it would not be difficult - simply because I know that the GOP will eventually do that if Bernie ever gets any real traction. The only use is that it helps Hillary's campaign (assuming anyone is paying attention), to see where the issues are and develop a strategy to deal with criticisms.

nt

being there when one was not acquainted with anyone who was killed, or having no part to play, would be political grandstanding.

I will go ahead and say that if Bernie was seen there, he would have been accused of trying to make political points.
So, some people watched, and spoke of Obama's eulogy, some spoke of the music, you just looked to see if you could take a slap at Bernie. This was not an occasion for Bernie to intrude on, IMO.

This was SCOTUS' day, LGBT folks' day, and Obama's day. Bernie made a statement about SCOTUS' decision - this was something he believed in many many years ago, not just when it was politically expedient.

congrats

Last sentence of the NYT article: "David Axelrod, formerly Mr. Obama’s chief strategist, noted that insurgent Democrats like Gary Hart and Mr. Dean who were able to win over many white voters fell short because they could not attract blacks."

Those are the Democrats who elected Obama twice, along with Hispanics and Asian-Americans, and TPP Bernie hasn't exactly been pandering to the base.

It is not that he cannot attract black and minority voters.

It is that his lack of exposure (relative to HRC) has not afforded him with the opportunity to attract black and minority voters.

I know it's subtle, but I think you can probably grasp the difference if you think about it.

and b) give up demagoguing on TPP, and that's his campaign calling card, he's not going to attract any demographic he's not already attracting. Call it Cornell West syndrome, but if he makes a profession out of trashing Obama and his policies, he can't expect Obama's supporters to turn around and support him. And if you don't think Bernie's been trashing Obama six ways to Sunday you're probably not going to understand what I just explained.

Most are already happy with Hillary and when they hear or see Bernie they will probably just think... oh that's just that old white socialist guy from Vermont... and wont even listen to what he has to say.

Primary voter turnout is typically low. Those who are expecting Hillary to coast by on that I think will be surprised. More informed people vote in the primary, in every subgroup.

Just people who are very tuned in to politics and the Democratic primaries, they know more about Bernie.

Most Americans haven't really tuned in yet. I think that applies to all races.