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Topic subjectRE: The white vote hasn't gone for the Democratic Party since the Civil Rights
Topic URLhttp://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=4&topic_id=13403769&mesg_id=13404020
13404020, RE: The white vote hasn't gone for the Democratic Party since the Civil Rights
Posted by reaction, Fri Sep-18-20 10:29 AM
OK, but we're talking about improving the material conditions of people and especially black people and Obama didn't do that.
He was probably the best president since Jimmy Carter but that's a low bar. You're putting words in my mouth saying I blame the black vote for Bernie's loss, if you read the article I posted it actually made it clear that the white suburban vote is what killed the campaign and that if you account for age then most of the effects of race on voting for Bernie go away.

I'm hugely anti-fascist, if Bernie would have been nominated in 2016 which I worked for the whole Trump era wouldn't have happened.

Let's focus on your article though to refute your dismissal of disproportionality.

"A fraying public health infrastructure, inadequate medical supplies, an employer-based health insurance system perversely unsuited to the moment—these and other afflictions are surely contributing to the death toll. Even inequality is meted out unequally. Low-wage workers and their families, disproportionately people of color, suffer from far higher rates of asthma, hypertension, diabetes, and other COVID-19 comorbidities; yet they are also far less likely to have health insurance, and far more likely to work in “essential” industries with the highest rates of coronavirus exposure and transmission. It is no surprise then, according to the CDC, that COVID-19 inflicts “a disproportionate burden of illness and death among racial and ethnic minority groups.”"

It would be disingenous to say Bernie wasn't the biggest proponent of Medicare for All in the modern era which directly addresses this.

"and it is impossible to deny the many ways in which our extreme inequality—an exceptionally American affliction—has made the virus more deadly and its economic consequences more dire than in any other advanced nation."

I'm just a dumb Canadian though.

"By this measure we can see that in real dollars, women and nonwhites have actually lost more income to rising inequality than white men, because starting from their disadvantaged positions in 1975, they had far more to potentially gain."

It would be disingenous to say Bernie wasn't the biggest proponent of income redistribution through fairer taxing and increasing the minimum wage and putting a cap on credit card interest rates and postal banking in the modern era which directly addresses this.

"—for not only have workers without a degree secured none of the gains from four decades of economic growth, below the 50th percentile they’ve actually seen their real incomes decline. College educated workers are doing better."

It would be disingenous to say Bernie wasn't the biggest proponent of free college and trade school and the elimination of student debt in the modern era which directly addresses this. From this article by the brilliant Briahna Joy Gray "Although there is a black-white college graduation gap, black Americans actually apply to and enroll in college at higher rates than white Americans. Why don’t we matriculate? An inability to pay ranks high among the reasons. And black students carry a disproportionate amount of scholastic debt — more than any other group." https://theintercept.com/2018/08/26/beware-the-race-reductionist/


"This is an America in which 47 percent of renters are cost burdened, in which 40 percent of households can’t cover a $400 emergency expense, in which half of Americans over age 55 have no retirement savings at all."

Not only does this sound like a direct excerpt from a Bernie speech but he had policies to have a national rent freeze, to end homelessness and to increase Social Security.

"This is an America in which 28 million have no health insurance, and in which 44 million underinsured Americans can’t afford the deductibles or copays to use the insurance they have."

Straight from his speeches again.

"No, this upward redistribution of income, wealth, and power wasn’t inevitable; it was a choice—a direct result of the trickle-down policies we chose to implement since 1975."

People chose to vote in those politicians which did this and people had a chance to change that in 2016 and 2020, is that a win for the people or a win for the elites?

"We chose to cut taxes on billionaires and to deregulate the financial industry. We chose to allow CEOs to manipulate share prices through stock buybacks, and to lavishly reward themselves with the proceeds."

Obama made Bush's tax cuts permanent and had Citigroup pick his cabinet and Bernie has a bill to stop stock buybacks.

"We chose to erode the minimum wage and the overtime threshold and the bargaining power of labor. For four decades, we chose to elect political leaders who put the material interests of the rich and powerful above those of the American people."

And "we" did it again. It would be disingenous to say Bernie wasn't the biggest proponent of $15 hour min wage and the fiercest advocate for unions in the modern era which directly addresses this. Again I make Bernie's movement sound special because it was. There's a reason that there was so much excitement around him because he offered a new vision, or actually an old vision of FDR and the New Deal (minus the obvious racial problems it entailed) that this article pined for. It was a missed opportunity of epic proportions to improve the material conditions of so many and I hope I don't have to wait another lifetime for a chance to see it happen again.