The first Bernie controversy

One of my formerly radical friends predicted this when Bernie got in. She said since he adheres to Marxist theory, he doesn’t believe in sexism or racism — it’s all class war. (I used to believe that, too. I mostly do, I just don’t exclude racism and sexism.)

I understand what he’s saying, but that’s not how it sounds. That won’t stop the mediafrom piling on:

On African American support for Democrats

Well, here’s what you got. What you got is an African-American president, and the African-American community is very, very proud that this country has overcome racism and voted for him for president. And that’s kind of natural. You’ve got a situation where the Republican Party has been strongly anti-immigration, and you’ve got a Hispanic community which is looking to the Democrats for help.

But that’s not important. You should not be basing your politics based on your color. What you should be basing your politics on is, how is your family doing? … In the last election, in state after state, you had an abysmally low vote for the Democrats among white, working-class people. And I think the reason for that is that the Democrats have not made it clear that they are prepared to stand with the working-class people of this country, take on the big money interests. I think the key issue that we have to focus on, and I know people are uncomfortable about talking about it, is the role of the billionaire class in American society.

By the way? Don’t go jumping to conclusions. The only person who benefits from going negative this early is Martin O’Malley, who’s struggling to get on the radar. He’s the only one desperate enough to take a shot at Bernie.

Or: This blogger just dug it up by him or herself. A lot of black voters are very hostile to Bernie, and this is how it plays out.