Isn’t it obvious by now? Black votes matter

Also posted in GD P.


CHARLESTON, S.C. — African-Americans in the South can't get a break when it comes to voting, as history can't deny.

After all they've endured through slavery, Jim Crow and the fight for civil rights, their voices are still treated dismissively by tone-deaf politicians who would ask for their votes.

If you're thinking Bernie Sanders, you're partly right.

Earlier this month, having lost massively to Hillary Clinton across the Southeast, Sanders commented that the bevy of early Southern primaries “distorts reality.” In other comments soon thereafter, perhaps covering for what was obviously a lapse in political acumen, he clarified that those early states are the most conservative in the country.

Not really. And not really.

While some segments of the South are undeniably conservative, Dixie is also home to a large and reliably Democratic cohort — African-Americans. Many of the most liberal people serving in today's Congress were elected by Southerners, and especially black Southerners. The reality is that Sanders failed to earn their votes in part by treating the South as a lost cause.

Many took Sanders' remarks as insinuating that the black vote isn't all that important. Adding to the insult, actor Tim Robbins, a Sanders surrogate, said that Clinton's win in South Carolina, where more than half of Democratic voters are African-American, was “about as significant” as winning Guam.

Not cool, Mr. Robbins, but you were great in “The Shawshank Redemption.”

The gentleman from Vermont (black population: 1 percent) and the gentleman from Hollywood failed to charm Southern Democratic leaders, who recently responded with a letter condemning Sanders' remarks. The signatories, including the Democratic Party chairs of South Carolina (an African-American), Louisiana, Florida, Georgia and Mississippi, expressed concern that Sanders' characterization of the South minimized “the importance of the voices of a core constituency for our party.”

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20160425/OPINION04/160429628/Isn't-it-obvious-by-now-Black-votes-matter--