Bernie and African American voters.
Yes. He has the best policy platform for African Americans. He has the best policy platform for Americans, period.
Yes. He has the best civil rights record among all white congress members. He's been there from day one when it comes to racial justice.
He is more likely to be proactive in pursuing criminal justice reform because he's not beholden to private prison industry, unlike his opponent. He's credible when he says he'll do his best to combat institutional racism.
And he's a secular humanist Jew from rural state of Vermont with significantly lower name recognition.
He will get votes from some African Americans. Perhaps not as many votes as we hope he would get. But I don't buy into the notion that African American voters should all vote alike. They decide the way they vote, and I don't have problem with that. And Bernie doesn't have problem with that.
This is how I feel about Bernie's approach to African American voters.
I'm proud that he has so adamantly abstained from pandering and exploiting tragedies.
I'm proud that he's met and consoled Sandra Bland's mother and didn't ask for endorsement, interview, or a photo-op. "We are broken, and this exposed us" -His raw words brought tears to my eyes.
I'm proud that while meeting the families from Flint, Michigan, he's shut press out of the room. While speaking in his Michigan rally after the meeting, he's made sure to his supporters that he doesn't wanna politicize the crisis in his favor. And I appreciated that.
I'm proud that he's the only presidential candidate who bothered to show up where Freddie Gray has died of broken spine.
I'm glad that Bernie and his campaign didn't ask grief-stricken family members of police brutality victims to come out and campaign for him. I'm glad that Bernie campaign has taken care to let Erica Garner's voice heard in the way that she wanted to be heard.
I'm glad that my candidate doesn't view African Americans as a useful voting bloc. I'm glad that he didn't alter his views of President Obama's legacy out of cynical calculation, while his opponent is using President Obama to justify her Wall Street ties.
His campaign will have to work harder on this particular matter, for sure. But overall, I'm proud of his honorable tactics. And I hope he doesn't trade his principles for power (and I don't think he will).
Whatever happens with this primary -whether he wins or not-, I know he'll continue to do everything he can to better the lives of Americans of all colors. And that matters to me.
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Indeed.
This is beautifully written. 
Keep in mind that Hillary won in Nevada in 2008, and yet Obama became the President.
Hillary had a 12 point lead last Saturday, yet she only won in Nevada by 4 points.
It's also true that Bernie has almost as many delegates as Hillary has at this point in time.
So, for anyone to start claiming that Bernie doesn't have momentum is false.
"He wasn't supposed to get this far" was what someone else said, and I believe they are absolutely correct about that.
The establishment didn't see him coming, and now they are shaking in their boots.
But I doubt he's gonna change who he is for the sake of winning. Pandering doesn't suit him.
He hasn't changed for over 30 years since he first took public office. Why would he change now?
I think that's the thing about Bernie. People respect him because he says what he means, and means what he says. But also, nobody's gonna get him to say what he doesn't mean.
I'm all for the improvement in strategies, as long as he sticks to "serious approach" with "serious issues."
And I'm pretty sure he's within the margin of error in Virginia and other states. But yeah, hopefully he will do better among AA voters in those states.
Welcome to DU!
Ultimately a movement doesn't run aground on difficulties. It usually comes into existence because of difficulties. Those of us who can remember the months since Sanders announced may seem naively optimistic but look at where we are. With virtually no media coverage and repeated attacks from all sides the campaign is tied with ELECTED delegates and actually won a contest. This when the campaign got no support from anyone but progressives and rank-and-file voters.
So we're tied and, of course, the pollsters (and the HRC campaign) all proclaim that a monolithic bloc of AA voters is going to march to the ballot boxes in favor of Hillary. That may be so but as the President showed eight years ago, you can lose lots and still win.
Sanders' campaign has a widespread base of volunteers and an almost endless supply of voter donations. We will be at Philadelphia no matter what.
See you then 
Nihao Ma!
And I'll take it. Heard it on the news.
The RNC is going to be airing ads in SC showing Hillary & Bill's comments about then Senator Obama during the 2008 race including an interview she had with Tim Russert. Ya remember Tim, the host of MTP that actually held people accountable for their words (unlike say anything you want to Chuck & he won't care).
Since Bernie and his campaign won't go there, I actually find this as good news.
It might help me from becoming bald from scratching my head on why the AA community supports that woman. 
