Sanders Shifting His Racism Stance?

Sanders has retreated to 44 cents from his 48 cent high. Bloomberg now has the lead in Florida, and he has risen to 23 cents. These are worrying signs for Sanders that brake his momentum.

By saying “We have a racist society from top to bottom” and adding “health care, housing, criminal justice, education — you name it,” Sanders loses votes in the November contest, even if he gains votes among Democrats now; and that is by no means certain. He may even lose votes among non-white Democrats by his clumsy effort to win their votes in the South. It’s called pandering.

Sanders may have shifted his position on race relations in America. Sanders, following socialist/communist ideology, has typically associated racism with the economic results of capitalism. He has associated racism with an economic basis. His latest remark is something of a shift by speaking of a “racist society”. The emphasis moves to society, not just economics.

By this shift, Sanders now views Americans themselves as imbued with racism. It’s in their souls, not only the product of capitalist institutions. This is a Sanders version of “deplorables”. In left-wing Democrat thought, deplorables are marked by their racism. Sanders now condemns our whole society as peopled by racists and deplorables.

By this sweeping (and false) remark, Sanders tries to signal that he’d push for socialist changes in at least the 4 areas he mentioned. He doesn’t promise anything he hasn’t already promised, but he packages it as an appeal to non-whites. But by doing it that way, he alienates multi-millions of white voters in opposing parties and possibly his own.

Factually, America is not a racist society. Sanders sounds like a 1960s JFK-Lyndon Johnson retread. One Great Society was one too many. One War on Poverty was one too many.

There’s plenty of time left in the nominating process for Sanders to shoot himself in the foot, and that’s what he’s starting to do. Months-long exposure and campaigning has the effect of showing us a candidate’s insides, beliefs, level of thinking, organizational capacity, and character. Sooner or later, they reveal themselves.

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