>Bernie was comfortable around black people (potentially
>debatable) but homie wasn't all up in the church shucking and
>jiving with auntie and grandma to get that black vote.

and honestly, the "all up in the church shucking and jiving" didn't work with Andrew Yang (who actually did do that).

Biden didn't do shit but say, "I'm Obama's best friend" more or less before the pandemic hit and Trump (expectedly) tanked it.

Kamala had laughably low support in polls among black voters, but here she is.

The United States has a "white voter" problem.
In the Southern states, usually a non-factor in the electoral college-hacked general election map, the decision of who to back (especially in a fucked up election like this) is heavily predicated on what white voters (in a handful of states) will do. Black voters (self included) KNOW what white voters will do if you let them, even more than the Democratic Party appears to do. Thus, someone like Bernie Sanders, who campaigns in a similar vein as Obama '08, at an even more dire time, is seen as too risky. Obama himself was thought to be a long shot and very risky for many of these same voters, UNTIL Iowa went heavily for Obama. The general public has mostly memory-holed this fact, but I think people in the Democratic Party brass, who wanted anyone but a serious left-leaning populist, did not. I'll come back to that.

It also has a "Black respectability politics elite" problem. Jim Clyburn has that decorative title in the House of Representatives, but tells people that things "aren't free". John Lewis (RIP) did the same. At a time when Black people are at their most vulnerable and MURRICA is MURRICA-ing at their most MURRICA in centuries. Clyburn is seen as a "kingmaker" in this regard largely because of the role he played in reassuring black voters (the majority of South Carolina Democratic voters) in 2008 that Obama was a safe bet. In real time, that looked like a bold move, bucking the Clintonites, who (unfortunately) to this day, have a stranglehold on the upper rung of the party.

In retrospect, when you look at the combination of voters in the early primaries (in particular, the Iowa caucus) going with Obama, and then Clyburn backing him in South Carolina, it looks less to me like a coincidence, when you look at those same two states in 2020.

In 2020, Bernie won (in delegates) Iowa. But that's not what the corporate media reported. A wholly unnecessary counting app, developed only to make some money from some contractors in the state party, spiked the ball in behalf of Buttigieg. Biden, the Centrist choice TANKED that state, and several others before South Carolina came along. All the while, people (including those on this very site) were whining about how "these white states shouldn't go first", and instead of suggesting that everyone go at the same time, they suggest putting states that (under current electoral college paradigm) mean absolute jack shit in the general election for a Democrat, should be given precedence, ostensibly because most of the voters in those states are Black (so they say).

Bullshit. Knowing that many black voters in those states, who tend to vote Democratic, will hedge toward the centrist candidate thinking that's what white people in "swing" states will do, centrist candidates use those states as a firewall, while offering nothing in return.

It would have been nice to see Bernie upend that bullshit, but out of all the candidates IMO, he had /the most/ outreach with working class Black people in the swing states. Latinos in many states also.



In 2016, in the states that REALLY matter (under the electoral college), Black votes DROPPED precipitously. Having even a fraction of the 2012 votes in Wisconsin would have blocked Trump. In Pennsylvania and Michigan as well.

This is going to be the song and dance until Black people are free from the prison of what "white voters in swing states will do". All of us are in a similar prison during the pandemic. Unable to do shit because of what (a larger number) of white people are doing, never mind the elected officials and the ruling class ghouls who enrich them.

2008 was an exception on paper. Especially compared to hawkish Hillary, Obama looked very much the progressive. He was rewarded for his campaigning with votes. But the people mostly got symbolism, rather than tough, partisan governing we'd expect from a Democrat in charge.

I don't think we will know what would have happened in a non-COVID situation.

I know for certain that the chances of Trump being reelected would have been higher in a non-COVID scenario. And the "Third Way" so-called "liberal" Democrats, with their continual privileging of a thimble full of white Republican-to-Democrat voters instead of rallying their base to action and adding to those numbers.... are committed to losing.

TL/DR:

Bernie was fine with black voters, just not enough to get over the firewall centrist Democrats use to justify their taking Black voters for granted.

Y'all can blah blah blah about the primary turnout. COVID. Trump. White panic. I'm right. Y'all are wrong. Y'all know it, too.