I just checked my inbox and to my
chagrin discovered an email from Daily Kos featuring an essay by one Shaun King
entitled “Why Bernie’s fake apology to black folk really bothers me”. What bothers me is why Mr. King would take
issue with how Bernie has handled the situation. Confronted by a group of hotheads, physically
taking the podium and interrupting a few of Sander’s political rallies, a
campaign spokesman emailed the group suggesting that they send a responsible
representative to meet with Sanders in an appropriate space. This is hardly an
apology. The media, Daily Kos among
them, have responded by dismissing his “apology” as callous and insincere. Faux
News is having a field day over the developments as the right-wing echo machine
wrings its hands in glee hoping to witness an early snuffing of the only
legitimate grass-roots ‘movement’ to arise in this country since at least the
1960’s. Here was my response:
"So you are
implying that you would respect a candidate for President of the United States
that when confronted with a group of screaming hotheads immediately falls to
his knees and genuflects before them, then announces to the world that he
accepts their entire agenda?
Look these
people have no legitimate reason to be assaulting the likes of Bernie Sanders
who is the only person presently in the Presidential race who has done anything
to further the interests of those struggling in this country. The Clintons? Are you kidding me? What have
they done but savage the safety net, hanging the poor and the middle class out
to dry. The Republican field? Why did they wait until Jeb was finished
speaking before they engaged in their boorish behavior? Why don't they go to a Trump or Cruz or Paul
rally and exhibit such behavior? Is it
because they know they will get no hearing, or is it that they are afraid to do
so?
Sanders owes
this 'movement' no apology. What has
happened and is happening in America is and has long been a national disgrace,
a disgrace that Sanders has spent his entire life trying to rectify. To demand an 'apology' not only makes no
sense, but violates the sensibilities of all those who have tried and are
trying to move this country forward."
No one has responded more forcefully
than Bernie Sanders on the issues of racism, police brutality, racial profiling
and the wholesale incarceration of Blacks and Latino’s in this country. No other candidate has called for the
demilitarization of America’s police forces.
But it doesn’t matter to these people, who have been hell-bent on
gaining national attention by disrupting the candidate in this race drawing
larger crowds than all the others put together.
I suppose it’s the price one pays nowadays for taking the podium and
delivering a message that rings in our ears like the Bell of Liberty. But in attacking Bernie the forces demanding
justice risk doing material damage to the only candidate now running willing or
capable of delivering that justice.
The tactics of “Black Lives Matter”
remind me of the Teabaggers. You
remember them, shouting down town meetings, demanding to ‘take our country back’,
while carrying placards saying “Hands Off My Health Insurance”. Yes, you remember them, ‘populists’
purporting to defend the private insurance industry against encroachments by
government. Let’s keep those lifetime
limits on coverage, those pre-existing conditions, those high premiums, and
this lack of competition. All in the
name of ‘freedom’. Shills of the capitalist
cavorting as populists. The BLM ‘movement’
adopting similar tactics and attacking the likes of Bernie Sanders are likewise
demonstrating a similar political intelligence: serving only the interests of
the oppressor.
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