There’s Nothing "Transformative" About Bernie Sanders (He’s Just Not Hillary)

Glen Ford, BAR executive editor

18 Feb 2016

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At most he's not Hillary. and at least he's not Hillary. but his plan B IS Hillary

Bernie Sanders’ domestic policies more clearly match Black America’s left-leaning politics – but they will still reject him in favor of Hillary Clinton, who Blacks think has a better chance against the Republicans. At any rate, Sanders is no prize. He is "incapable of challenging his own party and president on domestic economic policy, and has no substantive objections to Obama or Clinton on foreign policy."

“Sanders cannot divorce himself from – or even cease praising – the president and the party that has been a full partner in creating the economic devastation he so dutifully cites at every campaign stop.”

Black America, the most left-leaning constituency in the United States on issues of social and economic justice and peace, will ensure that corporate mercenary and pathological warlord Hilllary Clinton wins the Democratic presidential nomination. The ax will fall in the South Carolina Democratic primary on the last Saturday of this month, when Blacks overwhelmingly reject the appeals of self-identified “democratic socialist” Bernie Sanders, a candidate whose positions on domestic issues are much closer to their own. A CNN poll shows Clinton leading Sanders 65 to 28 percent, although the Vermont Senator will doubtless close the gap a bit over the next ten days. White Democrats, a minority of the state Party, break 54% for Sanders, bringing his current share of the primary vote to 38 percent.

The statistic that is key to understanding the great paradox is that 75 percent of Black voters view Clinton as having a better chance to defeat the Republicans in November. In the context of the U.S. duopoly system, that’s all Black folks need to know, or think they know, to make a decision in national elections. For Blacks, the Democratic Party’s purpose is to beat back the existential threat posed by the Republicans, the White Man’s Party, whose organizing principle is white supremacy. (See “Throw Off the Dead Weight of the Democratic Party,” BAR, February 10, 2016.) All else is considered secondary, or irrelevant.

“The party’s rich masters know full well that Blacks seek protection, not accountability, from the Democrats.”

This overarching imperative to support the party that is thought to keep the ever-resurgent Confederate barbarians outside the White House gates enfeebles Black voters, even when they are most strategically placed to affect significant electoral change. Although Blacks make up about a quarter of the Democratic Party, their actual influence within the party structure is minimal – profoundly self-limiting – because they perceive themselves as having nowhere else to go. The party’s rich masters know full well that Blacks seek protection, not accountability, from the Democrats, and will therefore subordinate their own progressive politics to the electoral needs of the party. They support a winner, rather than a torch-bearer or co-struggler. White Democrats are demonstrably not so constrained, which is why we see the maddening paradox in the current landscape in which young whites support Sanders, the less onerous Democrat, while Blacks stick like glue to the most heavily capitalized, right-wing of the national party (which is also why whites make up the bulk of leftist, independent party voters).

Under such circumstances, the best thing that Bernie Sanders could have done is made the case that he has a better chance of defeating the Republicans than Clinton. Some polls indicate that Sanders is, indeed, a better match against the GOP field, but Politifact.com has concluded that the evidence is ambiguous, and the Sanders camp has failed to play this card forcefully enough. Ambiguity might have been all it took to sway sufficient Black voters to the candidate whose politics more closely resembles their own, but Sander’s fate will almost surely be sealed by a Black landslide for Clinton – the purported GOP-slayer – two Saturdays from now, in South Carolina.

“The best thing that Bernie Sanders could have done is made the case that he has a better chance of defeating the Republicans than Clinton.”

Given the warped relationship of Blacks to the Democratic Party – a “trap within the trap” of the Rich Man’s Duopoly system – it is no wonder that the Black side of the party has become a stagnant sewage pool of corruption, a breeding ground of hustlers whose primal instinct is to attach themselves to a “winner” with deep pockets. At least 12 Black congresspersons have descended on South Carolina on Hillary Clinton’s behalf. Last week, the Congressional Black Caucus PAC endorsed Clinton. The PAC’s board, infested with corporate lobbyists, includes seven House members, including all three of the Blacks that voted for President Obama’s Trans Pacific Partnership: Eddie Bernice Johnson (TX), Gregory Meeks (NY), and Terri Sewell (AL). Sewell registered the lowest score of any member in BAR’s CBC Monitor Report Card for last year.

Clinton has shamelessly wrapped herself in the shroud of Obama’s lame duck presidency, hoping to become the third “Black” in the White House (the second in her household). In the last debate, Clinton confirmed that President Obama is just as beholden to Wall Street as she is. Candidate Obama “was the recipient of the largest number of donations ever,” said Clinton, correctly. But, “when it mattered, he stood up and took on Wall Street,” she added, lying through her teeth. Naturally, Sanders, locked tightly in his chosen party straitjacket, had no proper response, which is just one of an infinity of examples of why there can be no transformation of the Democratic Party “from below,” and why the party is incapable of challenging Wall Street. He cannot divorce himself from – or even cease praising – the president and the party that has been a full partner in creating the economic devastation he so dutifully cites at every campaign stop. This must be what one hand clapping sounds like.

“Clinton’s and Obama’s foreign policy is Sanders’ default policy.”

About 5,000 pairs of hands were clapping for Sanders at a campaign rally at predominantly Black Morehouse College, in Atlanta, Tuesday night. Chants of “Bernie! Bernie! Bernie” rang from the gymnasium rafters, as two Black politicians and Atlanta-based rapper Killer Mike sang the candidate’s praises. Sanders called for demilitarizing the police, abolishing the death penalty, and rebuilding Flint, Michigan.

In Ypsilanti, Michigan, Sanders showed 10,000 admirers that he wasn’t a “one-issue” candidate by outlining his positions on at least 20 separate issues. However, only one of them concerned foreign policy. Sanders reminded everyone that he voted against giving George Bush War Powers to invade Iraq. If the U.S. can spend all those billions on Iraq, he said, then it can invest in priorities back home. Right?

Wrong. Clinton’s and Obama’s foreign policy is Sanders’ default policy. He wants to fund his domestic revitalization and the empire, too – a political and economic impossibility and a moral abyss. Thus, we see that Sanders is incapable of challenging his own party and president on domestic economic policy, as previously discussed, and has no substantive objections to Obama or Clinton on foreign policy.

There is nothing transformative happening here, especially regarding Black politics, which is strangled and mutilated under the same duopoly system that straitjackets Sanders (if he really needs a jacket).

The action is in the streets.