A statement about some of my recent posts:

[Ken Burch]

I posted several things recently about a poster who has now been banned. I won't use his name here.

There have been accusations that I was grave-dancing and that it was unfair for me to comment about someone who couldn't respond. There have also been claims that some here wonder what my own loyalties are.

To the second question, I'll say this:

My loyalty, more than anything else, is to Bernie's campaign and the long-term movement for social and economic change this campaign wishes to leave in its wake.

One way I try to show my loyalty is to speak out when I see that campaign and people who support it doing things that are harmful to our objectives.

In the name of this loyalty, I spoke intemperately about a person.

I have no personal dislike of the person, and wish him well. It was not my wish to see him banned and take no pleasure or satisfaction in his banning; instead, I desperately wanted him to stop posting things that did our efforts damage. For whatever reasons he didn't.

We need to keep working to elect Bernie and to build this great people's movement. We need to make it more inclusive. And we need to learn from our mistakes.

The biggest single mistake has been in our approach to African American voters. If we had got that right, we would be leading in the race for the Democratic nomination right now.

That was why I posted what I posted. Not out of any joy in anyone's banning, not out of disloyalty to the campaign or out of malice towards anyone here.

It was just about trying to post honestly about what our problems were and are.

If there was any other way to express what I was trying to express, please offer feedback here.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. You have expressed these great ideas beautifully, my dear Ken Burch.

I, for one, thank you.

[ALBliberal]

2. What would you have suggested our approach be to AA voters?

I'm just curious because it seemed to me that Bernie' s outreach to AAs was thoughtful and exhaustive. I have no idea how this relates to the banned poster and I'm not asking the question in regard to his/her banning. I just wonder what your opinion is. What should the campaign have done differently to woo AA voters?

[Ken Burch]

5. 1) To have had the criminal justice reform/racial justice planks on the webside AT THE START

It took two months to get those out, and by then the door was largely closed.

2) Making a condemnation of institutional racism a standard part of the stump speech from the outset.

3) A much greater effort on the part of the Sanders campaign to police our social media presence and to distance the campaign from the more toxic posts made by some in support of the campaign-I'm convinced that a lot of the posts in question were made by trolls recruited by David Brock or perhaps by the Republicans.

4) A public statement by Bernie early on in the race(as he made later) making it clear that the voices of offensive "pro-Sanders" posters did not reflect the campaign and that he condemns those posts.


Those four things, if they had been in place at the launch of the campaign, would have put us in a much stronger position than we are now on this issue and this in the race in general.

Bernie has done a wonderful job as a candidate in many, many respects, but this is the major area we need to improve on.

I tried to contact the national campaign with the concerns in the first month, but at that point they were inaccessible.

[ALBliberal]

9. Sounds like you are saying the campaign was too reactionary in forming policies. And even though the

Policies formulated and adopted were attractive to the AA electorate in their final form there was a certain feeling of making it up as we went along. I agree.

I truly believe the campaign never imagined it would get this far. They have made gigantic strides and the clock and calendar have not been on their side.

[Ken Burch]

13. Black Lives Matters had been active for awhile before Bernie entered the race.

And the issue of police killings of blacks had been in public consciousness for awhile before BLM emerged. And HRC had been making a speeches on race for several months before Bernie entered the race(granted, her actual record on racial justice issues is mixed-to-problematic at best). This was out there and it was being discussed across the country and throughout social media.

So our opponents were able to create the false impression that either Bernie didn't care enough about race or that he believed that achieving economic justice would somehow take care of racism all by itself. We have been hammered on this endlessly.



So yes, I'm saying the campaign should have anticipated that this would be a set of issues they would have to address from the start.

I have sometimes wondered if there were people in the higher levels of the campaign who were resisting addressing race, in the belief that to do so would somehow harm the campaign's efforts to reach working-class white voters. Hopefully, that wasn't the case.

[Chitown Kev]

18. Allow me to add one other thing here

I have sometimes wondered if there were people in the higher levels of the campaign who were resisting addressing race, in the belief that to do so would somehow harm the campaign's efforts to reach working-class white voters. Hopefully, that wasn't the case.

I believe this.

What is also true is that Donald Trump stole some of that thunder...well, by addressing race in the way that many working-class white voters wanted to hear. I believe that ~20% of Trump's voters are Democrats.

[Bread and Circus]

15. From what I've read, Clinton's AA vote has mainly been older African American women, who vote...

in large numbers.

It's a good constituency to have.

How Bernie could break through that is beyond my political observations.

[jillan]

21. She had built relationships in the south since her

Husband was governor of Arkansas. It was no doubt that she would beat an unknown senator from Vermont.

[RobertEarl]

3. Nobody is perfect

And some are too prolific

Then are are those who like to stir it up. Doing so can be dangerous and the pitfalls can be severe. But then this is just DU. But DU goes worldwide and that is kinda new, so new lines have formed and some of those lines should maybe not be crossed? But where and what are those lines? We find new ones every day.

Hey, I had Bernie supporter put me on ignore just this eve. It happens.

You, Ken, are kind of milquetoast? <grin>

[Ken Burch]

7. Well, I try to express myself in ways that aren't personally offensive.

Yes, a lot of people do like to stir things up online, but we don't really have the luxury of doing that in a campaign like this. We need to speak truthfully, passionately, but use language with care.

[RobertEarl]

12. You do good, Ken

But being more of a lightning rod may be a good avenue for you? Push the envelope a bit more? Just pick your subject matters carefully and with focus.

We need to make Bernie famous outside of DU. The campaign on DU has been successful, Now it's on to NY, Pa and the left coast.
What can we say and do?

[Hiraeth]

4. I understand but, truthfully I have found RACE to be one subject

that is not easily discussed on DU and lately, I will put feminism in that category also.

Personally, I try to stay away from both topics on DU.

Not worth it, as evidenced by what has happened and look how you are having to explain yourself.

I just refuse to twist myself in a pretzel to please people on this website.

[Ken Burch]

6. Agreed that both topics are very, very difficult. n/t.

[RobertEarl]

11. I pushed race once

And man did I get attacked!!

Read one writing here about that matter. It claimed that due to the history, the devil you know wins over the new devil.

The history of the party is that it is the lesser of two evils and so Dems do get the POC vote. We kinda thought Obama had made the whole situation better but we saw the hate rise instead of subside.

There is much to be done on that matter.

Bernie is just not well known enough and by the time he's 78 he will be. Hopefully he will get the attention he deserves over the next few weeks, and win, and become famous as all get out. However we can help that happen, is our present subject, imo.

[malokvale77]

8. Good insight.

I prefer to focus on his economic and justice platform. Those cover most everything else anyway.

I'm not all that worried about sparing the feelings of a few 1%ers.

[Hiraeth]

10. spare ribs, maybe

[Ken Burch]

14. I don't want us to spare the feelings of the 1%

The idea is to get as many allies as we can in the fight against the 1%.

And while economic justice does affect us all and would make all our lives better, we also need to make it clear that we know that, as a result of institutional bigotry, some have it worse than others, and that some will need more help as a result of the injustice of institutional bigotry than others.

It's about the concept of intersectionality...which teaches that there are a variety of forms of injustice that must be combated, that the struggles against those injustices are distinct, but that they have common points that you can organize people from diverse communities in common struggle.

[malokvale77]

19. Did you miss the part where I specifically mentioned justice.

"economic and justice platform" - maybe if I had used the plural (platforms) it would have been more clear.

Frankly, I have no interest in allying with people who do nothing more than fling poo and spew lies.

[Chitown Kev]

16. Thank you...not simply for the thoughtfulness of your OP

but for the thoughtfulness in the comment thread as well.

[Ken Burch]

17. Just trying to learn as I go.

And thanks for the thoughtfulness of your posts as well.

[jillan]

20. I don't know the story behind this but I will say

Your posts are always so thoughtful and add so much to the conversation.

I think sometimes we are our own worst critics. Whatever it was its over now. And in the end this is only an online website. Nothing more than that.