Bernie Sanders Super Tuesday

In my post yesterday, I acknowledged that Bernie Sanders had hit his first bump with a loss to Hillary Clinton in the So. Carolina Primary. The loss was quickly qualified somewhat and you can read about it in the above link. What's important is that it is only a bump, and just another reason for you Progressives to come out and work that much harder for the Bern. Today is Super Tuesday and eleven states are in play. Here's the way I see it.

Based on the So. Carolina results, there are four Southern states that would be questionable due to their black population: Alabama 26.2%; Arkansas 30.9%; Georgia 30.5%; and Tennessee 16.7%. Total delegates 289. I am also dubious about Oklahoma, 42 delegates. These five states won't be a total loss and based on percentages (61 percent of voters in So, Carolina's primary identified as black) Sanders delegate count should be higher. So that leaves six states that really count.

In the remaining six states Bernie will compete for the Hispanic vote and the younger vote (age 18 to 44). Bernie carries the younger vote hands down and a recent study found the Latinos were slipping away from Clinton. In the Nevada Caucus the Bern took 53% of the Hispanic vote. In these six states, only two have a sizable Latino population, Colorado 20.7% and Texas 37.6%. The former younger group is 38%, the latter 38.4%, both significant amounts.

The balance of four states' younger populations is Massachusetts 36.8%, Minnesota 35.8%, Vermont 34% and Virginia 37.5%. Vermont with 26 delegates is solidly behind Sanders; Colorado with 79 delegates is about even, may be tilting toward Clinton; Massachusetts with 116 delegates in a recent poll shows Bernie with 42% of the vote, Hillary 50%, obviously needing some work; Minnesota with 93 delegates shows Clinton with a measurable lead but there are still those 35.8% younger voters to deal with.

This younger vote has come through for Bernie in Iowa and Vermont but wasn't enough in Nevada and So. Carolina. It is up to this group to come all out for Bernie Sanders today to give him a comfort level to continue the fight. It is up to you.

Should the Bern lag in some of the above, tying in others, and carrying where his strength is, beyond Super Tuesday looks encouraging. More on that tomorrow. 

Bernie Sanders Sayings

It is incomprehensible that drug companies still get away with charging Americans twice as much, or more, than citizens of Canada or Europe for the exact same drugs manufactured by the exact same companies. Bernie Sanders

Bernie Sanders really needs your support now because there's hope

Bernie Sanders took a hit in South Carolina with Hillary Clinton gleaning just over 73% of the vote to Bernie's 26%. But with significant qualification. 61 percent of voters in So, Carolina's primary identified as black, with only about 35 percent saying they were white; Almost 47% of So.Carolina's white population is older, a group which identifies with Clinton. And although Bernie captured the younger vote, even with blacks, the numbers just weren't there.

No excuses...we had all hoped and somewhat expected better for Sanders but it just didn't happen. So where do we go from here? Naysayers like Nate Silver's 538 are saying that So. Carolina is the beginning of the end for the Bern but he's never given him a chance from the beginning and look where the candidate has come from there. The delegate momentum in heavily on Hillary's side 544 to 85, most of which are super delegates.

If you count just pledged delegates, It's Sanders 65, Clinton 91, a reasonable margin considering the odds against Bernie. But let me explain the agenda behind super delegates that could be trouble for the Bern in the long haul. They can support whomever they want to and it is expected a number of them will simply follow party lines. Unless some of them switch their support before the convention, and they can because the commitment is not binding.

So it is yet again too early for the naysayers, as it has been now several times. In the last RealClearPolitics combined national polls for Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, it was Bernie 42.2%, Hillary 47.2%, a gap of only 5%. And this included the Fox conservative poll. The Bern has shocked the media enough times already that they should have learned by now. But like the Fiddler on the Roof, it's "tradition." Tomorrow, what's ahead.

African-Americans should think twice before voting for Hillary Clinton-2

Bernie Sanders involved in civil rights in early years

In Michelle Alexander's The Nation article she said, They {the Clintons didn't take extreme political risks defending blacks, didn't fight right-wing demagoguery about the black communities, did not give black communities the hope they needed after industrialization devastation of their neighborhoods. In fact, the writer claims, they did just the opposite. And then I proceeded to separate Hillary from Bill's deeds...sort of.

But the connection continues. "...Clinton declared that 'the era of big government is over' and immediately sought to prove it by dismantling the federal welfare system known as Aid to Families With Dependent Children (AFDC). Hillary Clinton supported this move and continued to call it a success as recently as 2008. Clinton said in one of the Democratic debates, “The economy does better when you have a Democrat in the White House.”

The above was said in reference to her husband’s record of lifting wages and creating jobs, both of which are in question when it comes to black communities. But for years these two have have been adored by African-Americans as if all during this time no one else has championed civil rights for blacks. Bernie Sanders has been working quietly all during this period and, of course, he is Hillary Clinton's opponent for the Democratic nomination.

Here are the Bern's accomplishments: In 1962 as a student at the University of Chicago, he was arrested for desegregation; He participated in the March on Washington;  Achieved high ratings from leading Civil Rights Organizations; Endorsed Jesse Jackson the first competitive black candidate for the Democratic nomination for the presidency; Strongly condemned police violence over the past year. There's much more and you can see it in the above link.

The point here is that Bernie Sanders doesn't just talk the talk, but he goes into the street to back up his words. That's why he deserves the nomination over Hillary Clinton.

Bernie Sanders Sayings

A growing number of communities do not trust the police. Law enforcement officers have become disconnected from the communities they are sworn to protect. Violence and brutality of any kind, particularly at the hands of the police meant to protect and serve our communities, is unacceptable and must not be tolerated. We need a societal transformation to make it clear that black lives matter and racism will not be accepted in a civilized country.

African-Americans should think twice before voting for Hillary Clinton

Rosa Parks famous bus ride

In The Nation, Michelle Alexander, an African American journalist, writes: "The Clinton's legacy has been the impoverishment of black America--so why are we still voting for them?" The article comes at a time when Hillary is using black Americans as her "firewall" again opponent Bernie Sanders, who also is proud of his civil rights background. And the South Carolina Primary February 27, will be the first battleground to test the mettle of both candidates before blacks.

"What have the Clintons done to earn such devotion?, Alexander asks. Her answer...Not take extreme political risks defending blacks, not fight right-wing demagoguery about the black communities, not give black communities the hope they needed after industrialization devastation of their neighborhoods. In fact, the writer claims, they did just the opposite. It is true Clinton should not be held accountable for what her husband's administration did. Or should she be?

Hillary Clinton supported Bill Clinton's 1994 crime bill using, "...racially coded rhetoric to cast black children as animals. 'They are not just gangs of kids anymore,' she said. 'They are often the kinds of kids that are called ‘super-predators.’ No conscience, no empathy. We can talk about why they ended up that way, but first we have to bring them to heel.'” This kind of discourse is a far cry from what she is saying in South Carolina today.

And while on the recent campaign trail, "...she continues to invoke the economy and country that Bill Clinton left behind as a legacy she would continue."

Alexander goes on, "When Clinton left office in 2001, the true jobless rate for young, non-college-educated black men (including those behind bars) was 42 percent. This figure was never reported. Instead, the media claimed that unemployment rates for African Americans had fallen to record lows, neglecting to mention that this miracle was possible only because incarceration rates were now at record highs." Likely because of the 1994 crime bill Hillary supported.

More on this tomorrow, including Bernie Sanders record on civil rights.

Bernie Sanders Sayings

The cost of college education today is so high that many young people are giving up their dream of going to college, while many others are graduating deeply in debt.