Kor posted:

I love Bernie, but man, sometimes it really is like a stereotypical folksy grandpa trying to run a campaign. I know this kind of stuff can be super kitschy just as a general rule, but c'mon dude.

Vienna Circlejerk posted:

Imagine an America where all older white men are unbelievably high, all the time. My name is Bernie Sanders.

my bony fealty posted:

If we get a video leak of Hillary Clinton calling 47% of Americans parasitic welfare leeches, then we can start legitimately comparing her corrupt plutocratic self to Mitt Romney; until then, I'm pretty unfazed by the revelation that 'wealthy powerful people do shady stuff to stay wealthy & powerful'.

Vienna Circlejerk posted:

You do know that the Clinton Foundation is a charity, right? These aren't campaign contributions or personal gifts. If the organization spends their money the way they say they do then it doesn't really matter where it comes from.

Vienna Circlejerk posted:

Big Football!

quote:

Hillary Clinton dominates among Democratic voters nationwide, with 57 percent, compared to 60 percent April 23. U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont has 15 percent with Vice President Joseph Biden at 9 percent. No other candidate tops 1 percent with 14 percent undecided.

Joementum posted:

Oh, and just to prove Democrats aren't immune to the horrible fan-made song...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfU3hI8ML30

AsInHowe posted:

Which presidential candidate authored an article on rape fantasies that started with the following?


It's Bernie!

Joementum posted:

Feather posted:

Please explain why rich blacks still face racism, then, especially and in particular from educated middle-class and rich whites.

Look, racism in America has many faces, and one of them is systemic social and cultural racism that has little to do with economic status. It can be mitigated, but not eliminated, with education. It is just plain wrong that fixing wealth inequality and other economic problems will cure racism.

computer parts posted:

Your logic is "If we solve X, we can solve Y without any extra effort".

The reality is that in order to solve X, you have to solve Y at the same time, using unique solutions for each problem.

Obdicut posted:

How? What's the mechanism of action?

Martin Luther King posted:

The problem indicates that our emphasis must be twofold: We must create full employment, or we must create incomes. People must be made consumers by one method or the other. Once they are placed in this position, we need to be concerned that the potential of the individual is not wasted. New forms of work that enhance the social good will have to be devised for those for whom traditional jobs are not available... Work of this sort could be enormously increased, and we are likely to find that the problem of housing, education, instead of preceding the elimination of poverty, will themselves be affected if poverty is first abolished. The poor, transformed into purchasers, will do a great deal on their own to alter housing decay. Negroes, who have a double disability, will have a greater effect on discrimination when they have the additional weapon of cash to use in their struggle.

Beyond these advantages, a host of positive psychological changes inevitably will result from widespread economic security. The dignity of the individual will flourish when the decisions concerning his life are in his own hands, when he has the assurance that his income is stable and certain, and when he knows that he has the means to seek self-improvement. Personal conflicts between husband, wife, and children will diminish when the unjust measurement of human worth on a scale of dollars is eliminated.

Marin Luther King posted:

want to say to you as I move to my conclusion, as we talk about "Where do we go from here?" that we must honestly face the fact that the movement must address itself to the question of restructuring the whole of American society. There are forty million poor people here, and one day we must ask the question, "Why are there forty million poor people in America?" And when you begin to ask that question, you are raising a question about the economic system, about a broader distribution of wealth. When you ask that question, you begin to question the capitalistic economy. And I'm simply saying that more and more, we've got to begin to ask questions about the whole society. We are called upon to help the discouraged beggars in life's marketplace. But one day we must come to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. It means that questions must be raised. And you see, my friends, when you deal with this you begin to ask the question, "Who owns the oil?" You begin to ask the question, "Who owns the iron ore?" You begin to ask the question, "Why is it that people have to pay water bills in a world that's two-thirds water?" These are words that must be said.


...


A nation that will keep people in slavery for 244 years will "thingify" them and make them things. And therefore, they will exploit them and poor people generally economically. And a nation that will exploit economically will have to have foreign investments and everything else, and it will have to use its military might to protect them. All of these problems are tied together. What I'm saying today is that we must go from this convention and say, "America, you must be born again!

quote:

There is another thing closely related to racism that I would like to mention as another challenge. We are challenged to rid our nation and the world of poverty. Like a monstrous octopus, poverty spreads its nagging, prehensile tentacles into hamlets and villages all over our world. Two-thirds of the people of the world go to bed hungry tonight. They are ill-housed; they are ill-nourished; they are shabbily clad. I’ve seen it in Latin America; I’ve seen it in Africa; I’ve seen this poverty in Asia...

As I noticed these things, something within me cried out, "Can we in America stand idly by and not be concerned?" And an answer came: "Oh no!" Because the destiny of the United States is tied up with the destiny of India and every other nation. And I started thinking of the fact that we spend in America millions of dollars a day to store surplus food, and I said to myself, "I know where we can store that food free of charge—in the wrinkled stomachs of millions of God’s children all over the world who go to bed hungry at night." And maybe we spend far too much of our national budget establishing military bases around the world rather than bases of genuine concern and understanding.

Not only do we see poverty abroad, I would remind you that in our own nation there are about forty million people who are poverty-stricken. I have seen them here and there. I have seen them in the ghettos of the North; I have seen them in the rural areas of the South; I have seen them in Appalachia. I have just been in the process of touring many areas of our country and I must confess that in some situations I have literally found myself crying...

This is America’s opportunity to help bridge the gulf between the haves and the have-nots. The question is whether America will do it. There is nothing new about poverty. What is new is that we now have the techniques and the resources to get rid of poverty. The real question is whether we have the will.

In a few weeks some of us are coming to Washington to see if the will is still alive or if it is alive in this nation. We are coming to Washington in a Poor People’s Campaign. Yes, we are going to bring the tired, the poor, the huddled masses. We are going to bring those who have known long years of hurt and neglect. We are going to bring those who have come to feel that life is a long and desolate corridor with no exit signs. We are going to bring children and adults and old people, people who have never seen a doctor or a dentist in their lives.

computer parts posted:

None of Bernie's critics (here) disagrees that race & class are intertwined. Indeed, the main criticism is that Bernie doesn't seem to think they are intertwined, otherwise he would have mentioned race in some context.

quote:

The New York Times and other media have focused enormous attention on the tragedy in Ferguson, Mo., where an unarmed black youth was shot and killed by a police officer. Unfortunately, there has been very little discussion about the economic and social tragedy that has befallen an entire generation of young black men.

Today, more than 5.5 million young Americans have either dropped out of high school or graduated from high school and have no jobs. Today, while youth unemployment is 20 percent, African-American youth unemployment is 35 percent, and in the St. Louis area, it is even higher than that.

Incredibly, there are estimates that if present trends continue, one of every three black American men born today can expect to go to prison in his lifetime.

If there is anything that we can learn from the Ferguson tragedy, it should be a recognition that we need to address the extraordinary crises facing black youths. That means, among other things, a major jobs program, job training and vastly improved educational opportunities.

BERNARD SANDERS
U.S. Senator from Vermont
Burlington, Vt., Aug. 20, 2014

computer parts posted:

That article literally goes from "this is a tragedy, but the real tragedy is unemployment."

Like yeah, if black kids were educated more then cops wouldn't shoot them.

computer parts posted:

Because if only that black kid had a job, police brutality would have ended.

Obdicut posted:

I know a lot about the history of slavery in America.


Again, i know a lot about the history of slavery in America. That's why I said it works against your point. Blacks were put into servitude through racism, not through economic equality. Post-freedom, they were kept in penury and destitution through racism--economic inequality in the black community was caused by economic inequality. Economic inequality was not the cause of racism.

Does this help you understand?

quote:

Wisconsin Democrats might not be ready for Hillary Clinton, as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) finished just 8 percentage points behind Clinton in a new Badger State straw poll.

Clinton finished with 49 percent support among those who voted at the state party convention; Sanders finished in second place with 41 percent. Vice President Biden and former Gov. Martin O'Malley (Md.) tied at third with 3 percent. Former Sen. Jim Webb (Va.) followed with under 2 percent, and former Gov. Lincoln Chafee (R.I.) closed out the poll with 1 percent.

The surprise showing is a boost for Sanders, who regularly polls about 40 percentage points behind Clinton in national poll and rarely finishes within striking distance of the former secretary of State. It's the closest he's come to toppling Clinton at the polls, outside of a 9-percentage-point margin in a Gravis Marketing poll of Washington state voters.

Tatum Girlparts posted:

You should for sure embrace this and never get over the fact that many black people disagree with Bernie that racial equality will come with economic equality so we need to focus on that. You 100% don't sound like a bitter manbaby who is legitimately upset that 'the blacks' aren't just doing as his group wants.

Great_Gerbil posted:

Seriously, guys. The PPACA isn't perfect but it's the greatest progressive achievement of most of our lifetimes. Own it.

Obdicut posted:

See above: it was not a Republican proposal.

whydirt posted:

Anyone who think that Jeb's first name is the anchor around his campaign might want to take a step back and think for a moment.