Why Blacks Should Vote for Bernie Sanders

* Note: This is a follow up to my post: Most African-Americans prefer Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton (but many just don't know it yet because they have yet to know Bernie Sanders, whereas, Hillary is world famous.)

Michelle Alexander (author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Color Blindness) recently wrote an article called Why Hillary Clinton Doesn’t Deserve the Black Vote: "From the crime bill to welfare reform, policies Bill Clinton enacted—and Hillary Clinton supported—decimated black America."

I would add that, they decimated the white working-class of America as well, such as with Bill Clinton's horrible trade deals that offshored so many good-paying jobs that also drove the decline in our labor unions.

In her article at The Nation, Michelle Alexander doesn't endorse Bernie Sanders, but she does says he's the "lesser of two evils" when it's between he and Hillary. She also writes:

"...The biggest problem with Bernie is that he’s running as a Democrat — as a member of a political party that not only capitulated to right-wing demagoguery but is now owned and controlled by a relatively small number of millionaires and billionaires. Yes, Sanders has raised millions from small donors, but should he become president, he would also become part of what he has otherwise derided as “the establishment.” Even if Bernie’s racial-justice views evolve, I hold little hope that a political revolution will occur within the Democratic Party without a sustained outside movement forcing truly transformational change. I am inclined to believe that it would be easier to build a new party than to save the Democratic Party from itself..."

She also goes on to say:

"The game of lesser evils makes for great entertainment and can now be viewed 24 hours a day on cable-news networks. Hillary believes that she can win this game in 2016 because this time she’s got us, the black vote, in her back pocket — her lucky card. She may be surprised to discover that the younger generation no longer wants to play her game . . . Hopefully, one day, we’ll muster the courage to join together in a revolutionary movement with people of all colors who believe that basic human rights and economic, racial, and gender justice are not unreasonable, pie-in-the-sky goals. After decades of getting played, the sleeping giant just might wake up, stretch its limbs, and tell both parties: Game over. Move aside. It’s time to reshuffle this deck."

So if you're going to vote for "the lesser of two evils", then please vote for Bernie (who I believe doesn't have an evil bone is his body). And he is the nearest thing we have to a 3rd party candidate that Michelle speaks of. If anything at all, Bernie Sanders will have the bully pulpit to move all these issues front and center — and they won't just be swept under the rug again until the next election.

Hillary, on the other hand, will just give us more of the same — and white folks want change too.