This week saw some interesting letters, as readers discussed black support for Joe Biden and the Democratic Party establishment’s relationship to Bernie Sanders. We share comments for “Black Voters Are Biden’s Polling Balloon. We need to bust it”and “Corporate Democrats Would Rather Lose to Trump Than Violate Pact With Rich.”
In “Black Voters Are Biden’s Polling Balloon. We need to bust it.” Bruce Dixon argues that a major reason for Biden’s lead in polls is due to black voters’ hangover warmth for Obama.
Mary Wildfire writes:
“I’ve been following you for a long time but this is my first comment. I should start by mentioning that I’m white, and live in a 99% white area of West Virginia, so I don’t understand black thinking at all.
“I have two questions—to Bruce especially, WHY? Why in hell would back people support Biden—or Clinton in 2016 (over Sanders)? I’ve never understood this.
“Which connects to my other question, about Venezuela. The media there is 90% owned and controlled by the oligarchs, just like here—so how did the Bolivarian revolution happen? I figured it was because there wasn’t much of a middle class—most of the people were poor and ready for change, and once Chavez was in power they could look out the damn window and see a medical clinic or a literacy training space—nothing on the TV could hide that reality. And they still are not fooled. Glen’s piece made a claim I’ve seen elsewhere, that they have an excellent voting system. So. In the US, we keep getting horrible candidates, and today’s post said that Biden, who I think of as a nonentity but I’ve been reading about his scurrilous history—surged immediately to the front as soon as he declared, past Sanders who has long been called the most popular candidate in America. Why? Is it possible, do you think, that just as the media regularly lies about many things (I mean of course the corporate media, usually falsely called the “mainstream media”), the pollsters are lying too, in order to engineer a surge by claiming it’s already happened? There is plenty of evidence of election rigging in the US, by a variety of visible and invisible means. So you can easily engineer the win of a chosen candidate quite regardless of public opinion, as long as you also rig the polls. Humans are herd animals—an awful lot will decide they like Biden if they think ‘everyone else does.’”
Bruce responds:
“Why would black people support Clinton or Obama? Or Biden? The reflex is to support whoever is NOT the White Man's Party, the Republicans. This is why it's really important for them to confine the choices to only two parties, both controlled by rival factions of billionaires.
“As for Venezuela, there is a longstanding nationalist and leftist tradition in the militaries of some Latin American countries. Hugo Chavez came out of the military.”
In his latest piece Glen Fordargues that “Corporate Democrats Would Rather Lose to Trump Than Violate Pact With Rich.” He focuses on the Democratic establishment’s opposition to Bernie Sanders presidential campaign.
Robert Burns writes:
“More accurately: ‘Corporate Democrats would like to lose to Trump’. The machinations of the establishment Democrats is merely a pro-wrestling charade, designed to distract us while they continue to conspire with the Republican Party to treasonously subvert our constitutional republic.”
Suzanne McDonald writes:
“A Democrat is a Democrat. No need for the adjectives ‘corporate’ and ‘establishment’ which appear to be trying to convince us there's some kind of different Democrat.”
Robert Sepi writes:
“Some young ones in the Progressive Caucus are different -- informed and courageous. They may be a little naive and hopeful, and perhaps too few, but they also could be charging into battle knowing all the risks -- we know there's danger from Pelosi and Trump toward anyone who dares look truthfully at our country and propose to do something different. They need our support, whatever we can give. Cynicism is a dead end.”
Whatever one’s position on these progressives, we should all agree cynicism is a dead end. What is needed is optimism and vigorous debates in places like this column.
Jahan Choudhryis Comments Editor for Black Agenda Report. He is an organizer with the Saturday Free School based in Philadelphia, PA.
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