Issac Bailey has a more than terrific post up at Politico, pointing out what I (very briefly) noted, that the whiter the state, the better Bernie Sanders did.
Actually, Bernie did a terrific job uniting both white working-class voters, by promising to basically end imports, as well as white college kids, by promising to cancel their college debt and give them all terrific jobs saving Mother Earth. Usually, environmentalists and working class voters are on a collision course, because making Mother Earth “pristine” again means ending extractive energy, which means making energy more expensive, which costs jobs and lowers the standard of living. But by making foreigners and the forces of global capitalism the bad guy, Bernie managed to pull together two groups that have in fact disparate interests and goals.
But, as Bailey discusses in fascinating detail, Bernie couldn’t pick up the masses of black and Hispanic voters, although he did score a handful of black paleolibs like Cornel West and Spike Lee, who hate the neoliberalism of the Clintons and Obama. As Bailey says, black and Hispanic voters are used to half a loaf politics, where you give a little to get a little. They instinctively reject the shoot the moon liberalism of, well, spoiled, lazy, pampered white kids who want the world to wipe their noses for them! And who can damn well stay off my lawn!1
- If I had one. ↩︎
