It seems to me that one reason so
many Democrats resent Sanders is because he reminds them of what the party was,
and abandoned in the 1990s, to gain votes in conservative states, especially in
the South.
From the early 1990s to 2016, the
Democratic Party was dominated by its conservative wing. They supported and
passed a series of tight-fisted laws: the Clinton tax increase, which cost the
party the House; welfare and Medicaid reform; the Clinton health plan, followed
by the PPACA. At the same time, we heard racist rhetoric from the party
leaders: “Sister Soljah,” “superpredators,” and so on. These reassured white
racists that African-Americans would be kept from rising against their
oppressors.
I wonder how much of the
tight-fisted conservative policies were also covert appeals to racists. How
much of the conservative faction of the Democratic Party is racist? Some,
surely. Most?
Scratch economic conservatism,
find racism (and sexism, but I’m writing about racism.) Policies which keep
property relations as they stand, dominated by a wealthy white minority, those policies
are racist, even if they do not incorporate explicit bigotry. The bigotry may
be there, but it only becomes visible when attacked or when some demagogue like
Donald Trump makes a direct appeal to it.
I don’t believe we can address
racism without addressing disparities of wealth. Do we grant people of color full
civil rights and still keep them dirt poor?
Which brings us back to Sanders. Sanders
critique of class divisions is profoundly anti-racist – addressing class will,
necessarily, raise up African-Americans. The objection from some
African-Americans is that that is not enough, that one must first have basic
rights. But Sanders stands for those as well: the young man who marched against
housing discrimination in Mayor Daley’s Chicago (a very brave thing indeed),
the only light-skinned man who stood with the Congressional Black Caucus when
the Democratic leadership turned conservative in the 1990s, the first 2016
Democratic Presidential candidate to say “black lives matter” supports civil
rights for African-Americans.
I think Sanders is so hated
because, just by being who he is, he shames them. Sure, there’s other reasons.
There’s people who say he cost Hillary Clinton the Presidency. I don’t agree,
but I can understand that. But in the end, Sanders has stood against poverty
and racism for his entire career and stands in reproach to people who have not.
That is why there are so many attempts to make him out to be a racist, because
if he is one, there is no need to listen to him, and his conservative opponents
need not be ashamed. I regard such attacks as as valid as the attacks on
Hillary Clinton as a cruel entitled masculine woman: these attacks relieve the
attackers of the need to consider Clinton as a strong, competent leader, and
reassure them that they need not be ashamed for their own weakness.
So let us treat Sanders with
respect and listen to him. I doubt he could be elected to the Presidency and he
is an old man who may lack the stamina to cope with the stresses of the office,
but we should at least treat him decently. He’s been fighting the good fight
for most of his life and he deserves respect for that.
