#BlackVotesMatter to Hillary Clinton

While in Iowa Senator Bernie Sanders said that the tens of thousands of people who turn out to his rallies aren't "registered Democrats," just "ordinary people" — and that's one of his main advantages in the race.

A recent Gallop Poll shows only 31% of voters identify as Democrat, 25% as Republican and 41% as Independent. And that can probably help explain why the Iowa Secretary of State reports both Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump are ahead in the polls after 3 days at the Iowa State Fair:

DEMS-@BernieSanders 53%
@HillaryClinton 41%

GOP-@realDonaldTrump 27%
@RealBenCarson 18%

As the Huffington Post points out: Donald Trump's antics provided a sharp contrast to Bernie Sanders, who has made income inequality a pillar of his campaign. Sanders walked the [Iowa State Fair] grounds accompanied by hundreds of supporters chanting, "We love you, Bernie!" Despite their differences, Trump and Sanders share at least one thing in common: both are hot with potential voters.

And the establishment Democratic and Republican Party Machines (and their corporate media outlets) aren't very happy about that — they aren't happy that the American people have realized their failures and aren't favoring their selected candidates, but are bucking the corrupt political system and favoring people like Sanders and Trump. Maybe because the PEOPLE want a real political revolution, and not the same old elitists in both political parties promising "hope and change" while still screwing everybody else.

So now we count on the billionaire hedge fund manager (George Soros) to use his political advocacy group #BlackLiveMatter to do everything they can to make Bernie Sanders look bad to maintain the African-American vote on behalf of Hillary Clinton — and attempt to get the black community to vote against their own best interests (by voting for Hillary rather than Bernie). Because without the black vote, Hillary doesn't stand a chance against Senator Bernie Sanders.

And if Bernie wins, George Soros could end up paying higher taxes. In an interview on Fox News with Sean Hannity, Donald Trump said some of his hedge fund friends pays "peanuts" for taxes.

Rapper Talib Kweli appeared on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher this week, where he defended shutting down Senator Bernie Sanders' rally by #BlackLivesMatter

Bill Maher: “But is he the first guy we should be attacking?”
Rapper Talib Kweli: “He might be the easiest to get to.” (Just ask Hillary)

A report by BuzzFeed revealed Sanders' campaign reached out in a note to #BlackLivesMatter to set up a meeting and apologized that "it took our campaign so long". But Sanders said the note "was sent out by a staffer, not by me, and without my knowledge" — and added he didn't think it was necessary to apologize to the protesters (After all, among all the presidential candidates, who has advocated more and longer than Bernie on behalf of the black community?)

Bernie Sanders Draws Big Crowds at Iowa State Fair: Sanders called for expanding Social Security by lifting the cap on taxable income, creating a single-payer healthcare system, and pushed back against the government's use of an unemployment rate figure that does not include those who gave up on looking for work and those who are working part time but would like to work full time: "How many of you believe that real unemployment in America is 5.3 percent?" Sanders asked the crowd. "Real employment in America is over 10 percent, not 5.3 percent."

Like others in the mainstream media, the New Yorker uses poll numbers to depict Hillary as being more popular among the establishment within the Democratic Party Machine and to describe Bernie Sanders as a "protest candidate" — and why many [mainstream media political] commentators believe the best he can do is to serve as a "stalking horse" for an established Democrat with broader appeal. But Hillary does NOT have broader appeal among most ordinary voters, like Independents.

But the corporate media — just like the GOP and corporate Democrats who supports the TPP trade agreement — all wants us to think that Bernie doesn't have a chance of winning, either the Democratic primary or the general election in 2016. When you have the corporate media controlling the information, they have a lot of power over democracy, because they don't just report the "news", they actively try to shape the political process.

Most polls show that the majority of average Americana favor Bernie Sanders policies:

• About three-quarters (74 percent) of Americans — including 84 percent of Democrats, 72 percent of independents, and 62 percent of Republicans — believe that corporations have too much influence on American life and politics today, according to a recent New York Times/CBS News poll.
• A Pew Research Center survey found that 60 percent of Americans believe that "the economic system in this country unfairly favors the wealthy."
• Another poll found that 84 percent of Americans think that money has too much influence in politics. Slightly more Americans (85 percent) want an overhaul of our campaign finance system.
• Seventy-three percent of Americans favor tougher rules for Wall Street financial companies and 58% Americans support breaking up "big banks like Citigroup."
• Sixty-nine percent of Americans — including 90 percent of Democrats, 69 percent of independents, and 45 percent of Republicans — believe that the government should help reduce the gap between the rich and everyone else.
• Eighty-two percent of Americans — including 94 percent of Democrats, 83 percent of independents, and 64 percent of Republicans — think the government should help reduce poverty.
• A recent poll by Hart Research Associates found that 75 percent of Americans (including 53 percent of Republicans) support an increase in the federal minimum wage to $12.50 an hour by 2020. Sixty-three percent support an even greater increase in the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020.

Recently in the Huffington Post:

No politician has captured the spirit of OWS [Occupy Wall Street] as well as Bernie Sanders. Indeed, the Sanders surge — inspired by his relentless attacks on the political influence of the "billionaire class" and Wall Street banks, widening inequality, the declining living standards of the middle class, persistent poverty, and the rising cost of higher education — is the political expression of the OWS movement. He's called for raising the federal minimum wage to $15, breaking up big banks, providing tuition-free higher education, and nominating Supreme Court justices who will overturn the Citizens United ruling that equates money with free speech. Whether or not he captures the Democratic nomination, his campaign's growing momentum has already shifted the public debate, pushing other candidates, including Hillary Clinton, to adopt more progressive positions. Sanders' call for a "grassroots political revolution" has inspired tens of thousands of Americans, including many young people, to participate in electoral politics, some for the first time.

Bernie Sanders was taken aback by the criticism and the tactics of #BlackLivesMatter for disrupting his rallies. Some of his supporters were angry that they would attack and embarrass the Democrats' most progressive candidate [Hillary is not "progressive", but "Third Way"] — especially since Bernie's economic policy agenda would disproportionately help African-Americans. So why were they not focusing their anger on the Republican candidates — or for that matter, on Hillary Clinton? In effect, it seems as though the BLM activists were holding Sanders to a higher standard and expected more of him. And they also knew that disrupting Sanders rallies would generate lots of media publicity for BLM.

The BLM's attack on Sanders have split progressives. Many progressive activists cheered the BLM's protest, some supported their message but not their disruptive tactics, while others criticized them for going after Sanders rather than targeting more conservative candidates — or Hillary.

Sanders began his activist career in the 1960s civil rights movement when was arrested for demonstrating against segregated public schools in Chicago. From the very start of his campaign, he has focused attention on the shockingly high unemployment rate among black youth. He hired an African American woman, Symone Sanders, the national youth chair of the Coalition on Juvenile Justice - as his press secretary. His most recent stump speeches at huge rallies in Portland, Oakland, and Los Angeles have included specific references to police misconduct, mass incarceration, the GOP's efforts to suppress voting rights, and "institutional racism." His comments about racism have gotten some of the loudest and most sustained cheers from the crowd at these rallies. Whether Sanders' increasing emphasis on racial issues will attract more African-American voters and help him win his party's nomination isn't clear.

Bernie would do more — has done more — than Hillary on issues that benefits the black community; whereas Hillary has only been condescending and pandering for the black vote to win elections. But Bernie Sanders is echoing Martin Luther King's concerns with both racial and economic justice, who asked: "What good is having the right to sit at a lunch counter if you can't afford to buy a hamburger?"

Below is a comment I received from a reader on another post I did on this subject:

A few things some people seem to be missing:

1) BLM activists (and the people at Seattle were indeed BLM) are targeting Bernie Sanders and sparing Hillary Clinton. How convenient for her. The Clinton campaign sees Sanders presenting more of a challenge than anybody anticipated. And they know the key to stopping him from doing what Obama did in 2008 is to prevent him from pulling substantial black voter support away from Clinton.

2) The behavior of BLM activists towards Bernie Sanders and his supporters is unremittingly hostile. Charging the stage and SCREAMING in Bernie's face. Hurling racial epithets at his supporters. There is no effort to start a dialogue. Just scream and hurl insults and otherwise shut it down. Meanwhile, BLM activists have a respectful private meeting with Clinton, then bestow effusive praise for her on social media.

3) BLM co-founder Alicia Garza comes on TV and assures Chris Hayes they will be targeting all of the candidates. Anybody with a brain knows that isn't happening. But Hayes accepts it uncritically and so Garza manages a little damage control after the fiasco in Seattle.

4) BLM will not be targeting Republican candidates. They probably will not bother with Chaffee or Webb. Maybe O'Malley again. For sure Sanders again. Because their purpose in attacking Sanders is not to get him to take their concerns seriously -- which is already the case, anyway -- or to engage in coalition-building with white progressives, whom they consider "white supremacy liberals," it is to try and prevent black support from moving from Clinton to Sanders. Maybe they'll even discuss their progress at BLM's next cozy sitdown with Hillary Clinton.

5) Why would the BLM leadership do that? Ask George Soros, the Wall Street billionaire who has donated millions to the Clinton campaign, and donated millions to BLM. I would bet the BLM leadership will be getting more from Soros in appreciation for their efforts in trying to insure Clinton's nomination. He may be liberal, but he's also a Wall Street wheeler-dealer, and very much wants Clinton, not Sanders, to be the Democratic nominee.

6) Does BLM support Clinton? Frankly, I doubt they care about any of these candidates. Or the campaign, for that matter. Read Garza's writings. She is an extremist. She expresses no interest in working with white progressives, or Democratic politicians, but instead focuses on a black liberation movement. She probably cares not at all about the interests of some super-rich white dude. However, his money will be helpful in building BLM. She does care about that.