Bernie Sanders discovered yesterday that a white male nominee is a problem for a huge chunk of the Democrats’ base
Intersectionality is the Achilles Heel of Democrats in 2020. Assembling a collection of grievance-based identity groups works well for the Democrats, until it doesn’t. And with President Trump driving a substantial number of Democrats into clinical derangement, the angry, angry ethno-sexual-economic group partisans are fed up with waiting for their turn. Bernie’s own partisans feel, with considerable justification, that they were robbed of the nomination in 2016, and with Bernie turning 79 years old by Election Day, they can’t wait for another election cycle to receive their vision of “justice.”
But the problem is that other angry Democrat constituent groups have had their fill of white males stepping into positions of power. Do you think black voters will turn out at a higher rate than whites and vote above 90% for the Democrat if an elderly Jewish-heritage guy is on the ticket instead of an African-American?
That anger boiled over yesterday at the “She the People Forum” in Houston yesterday. When questioned on matters of race and gender, Bernie discovered to his enormous frustration that the old bromides (such as the classic “I marched with Martin Luther King”) no longer cut the mustard in the era of TDS.
Twitter video screen grab(cropped)
Greg Re of Fox News has a good account of the ordeal Sanders experienced, and the frustration he showed.
Three highlights are captured in video in tweets from Chris Evans:
Bernie Sanders was asked by a woman of color in the audience what he would do about the rise of white supremacist violence as President.
— chris evans (@notcapnamerica) April 24, 2019
Instead he started talking about minimum wage and Medicare For All.
The audience claps when the moderator clocks him.
Yikes. pic.twitter.com/alhnwyfoPP
Bernie Sanders was asked by a woman of color in the audience what he would do about the rise of white supremacist violence as President.
— chris evans (@notcapnamerica) April 24, 2019
Instead he started talking about minimum wage and Medicare For All.
The audience claps when the moderator clocks him.
Yikes. pic.twitter.com/alhnwyfoPP
Dead
— Tormund XtopHodor, First of His Name (@tommyxtopher) April 24, 2019
Joy: Yeah, And for black women specifically?
Bernie: I’m sorry?
Joy: For black women specifically.
Bernie: Black women will be an integral part of what our campaign, and what are administration is about. Okay? And that means…
Amy Allison: Were you finished with your..? pic.twitter.com/UUSS5udfYr
This sort of confrontation will happen over and over again. Extreme frustration over Trump’s election and his successes (especially the economy, which invalidates leftist economic policies) have driven the radicalization of the Democratic Party. Because the Democrats have chosen angry ethno-sexual-economic identity groups as the engine of their appeal, the radicalization inevitably leads to internal conflict.
The dynamic is baked in.
Among his other talents, President Trump is a master troll. I expect him to exacerbate these tensions in a variety of ways.