Al Sharpton criticizes 'progressives' - says they have an ivory tower view of the black vote

[wyldwolf]

On this morning's Morning Joe, Al Sharpton stopped just short of castigating 'progressives,' saying "these so-called progressives candidates have an ivory tower view of the black vote."

He also agreed with Scarborough, stating many black voters are small 'c' conservatives that have little in common with the progressive wing of the party and their loyalty to Biden is indicative of their loyalty to Obama and that by voting for Biden, they'll stop Trump from completely rolling back Obama's record.

Also included in the discussion: Biden's strength withe party's most reliable voting blocks - African-Americans and people over 50.

New Hampshire and Iowa, while still extremely important, will not be the bellwether South Carolina will.

Certain this conversation will be replayed throughout the day and repeated on social media.

[Dorn]

1. Sorry, there is not a "Black Vote". There are blacks who vote

and there are whites, Indians, and Chinese, youth, and Polish who vote.

[wyldwolf]

3. sorry you feel the need to split hairs and play a semantics game

The OP stands. And the black vote exists.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/17/opinion/pete-buttigieg-black-vote.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/22/us/politics/black-voters-south-carolina-democrats-primary.html

http://umich.edu/~lawrace/votetour2.htm

...and about 700,000 other search results vs. Dorn who says "nyuh uh!"

[JI7]

4. come on, we know what the OP means.

[Amimnoch]

16. Hmm.. Article talks about that "ivory tower view"..

Was it your intent to prove Rev. Sharpton's point?

[ismnotwasm]

27. Holy Shit.

[SouthernProgressive]

34. Didn't take long to prove his point.

Well done.

[Cha]

2. Thanks for this report

about Sharpton on MJ's Wyldwolf.

We'll see!

[BeyondGeography]

5. Not so simple this year

Black voters have routinely sided with establishment candidates vs insurgents. Whether that produces a good outcome in the GE is another question. Biden eg is the weakest establishment candidate we’ve had in a very long time. In the first six weeks or so of his campaign he has already lost half his support and 3/4 of voters are looking elsewhere for now. At this point in 2015, HRC claimed 50-60 percent of the vote. If Biden doesn’t hold up in IA, NH and NV, black voters will start looking elsewhere in SC.

[oldsoftie]

9. Or they'll do what so many did in '16; stay home because they're uninspired.

Just like many white, hispanic, etc, voters did

[Demsrule86]

10. They like Biden despite the many attacks...and he inspires them and me as well...he is

the most electable candidate we have.

[watoos]

12. On paper,

his performances need to match the narrative that is out there. He had a terrible debate.

And if the argument about Biden being the most electable is coming from polling, good luck with that. I have zero faith in polls, especially early polling.

[zaj]

19. I disagree he's a weak candidate, but I are that he looked bad...

... in the debate.

There are 20+ candidates this year Every one is "weak" compared to any year where there were only 2 candidates.

Hi didn't look sharp in the debate. I do think that he and Kamala Harris are the likely ticket... or Warren and Beto/Buttigieg.

[Demsrule86]

20. One debate will not make or break a candidate...and I regard the Harris thing

as a set up...personally I didn't think he did badly and it was not until the pile on by the media that people jumped on that...he will be fine and prepared for such things next time...My belief in Biden comes from the map- I look at candidates that can win the rust belt...I live in Ohio and have lived all over including other rust belt states...Wisconsin in fact so I know what plays in this area...Biden can win. The only other candidate who would have any chance is Beto or Ryan and neither will win the primary...Biden can win the rust belt.

Also, Warren will not be the nominee if the South Carolina polls is accurate...she is polling very badly with the AA community. It is early but I am more and more convince Joe will be the nominee maybe as early as super Tuesday. Hell, South Carolina might make him the nominee.

[JI7]

6. Obama had to work very hard to win over black voters, especially in the South

if he had not done that hard work his Iowa win would not have helped him win later on. but it was his combination of focusing on the black vote early on and working hard for it and the Iowa win which helped him later on.

the same will be true this time around .

[ucrdem]

7. I think Biden is working hard to keep those voters.

His apology speech on Saturday is one sign of that. I think we all know that wasn't really necessary but he did it anyway.

p.s. and he's taking some heat for it in the RW press, but these days that's just about all of them. Incidentally when did Larry O'Donnell turn into a Biden basher??

[Demsrule86]

21. I have turned off MSNBC because their coverage was awful...today on Morning Joe,

I heard the first positive coverage for Biden in a while ...and Reverend Al called out progressives...which was surprising. I was driving and changed the radio station and heard it...I had not been listening, I was so angry at the coverage...particularly appalling after the CNN interview.

[StarfishSaver]

8. Black voters are very sophisticated

Much more so than many other Democrats give us credit for.

[Blue_true]

38. I believe that Black voters are by far the most sophisticated voters.

They act on smelling bullshit, unlike a lot of other groups, and their votes closely parallel what is best for them as individuals and for the larger country. I have not seen any other group put of a track record like that, the worst group by far is White women.

[Vegas Roller]

11. K&R

That is exactly the perception of most AA voters I have spoken to.

All the smears directed at Biden remind them of the smears directed at Obama and their disdain for the White progressives of the North deepens.

[Demsrule86]

22. The disdain you describe is in the Mid West also.

[NYMinute]

13. Recommend nt

[Lucky Luciano]

14. Conservatives get what they deserve.

[Eric J in MN]

15. Did Sharpton name 'so-called progressives candidates'? NT

NT

[wyldwolf]

25. He did not.

The conversation, though, was in the context of Harris / Warren / Sanders

[djacq]

17. Wife and I are both mid 50s... Harris is still our #1

Both our adult son and daughter (mid 20s) #1 pick is Warren, which is our #2.

This African American family is very knowledgeable about the candidates.

[helpisontheway]

18. Great your son and daughter are already involved..My

18 year old is very excited to vote. He watched the debates. However, he has not picked a candidate. All my 21 year old talks about is Andrew Yang. 🙄 Guess he is popular on campus. Nothing wrong with that but he will not discuss other candidates. My 25 year old is still undecided. I’m just happy that they are at least paying attention and that they will vote. One thing that they agree on is that they want Trump to be a one term president.

[Honeycombe8]

23. I've pointed this out before. It's the "r" factor (religion)

The AA community has a higher percentage of religious people than the other demographic groups in the Democratic Party. That's not ALL they are about, obviously. But it means they have issues with voting for certain things that other Democrats do not, like gay marriage, transgender rights, later term abortion, etc.

I think it's social moderation, not economic. The AA community is, IMO, progressive in the economic policies it will vote for. Other demographics are just the opposite, like older middle class Democrats who are, I think, moderate in their economic beliefs, but progressive in the social area.

But not everyone fits neatly into a box.

[The Mouth]

31. Good analysis

There are limits to your observation (e.g. Saunders is an economic progressive who polls terribly in the AA community) but otherwise fits my observations.

[flamingdem]

24. Good on Rev Al

The media has been having too much fun piling on Biden who is our most electable and experienced candidate.

[emmaverybo]

29. +1

[Me.]

26. +1

[KPN]

28. He/they may be right. We'll see. There's a long way to go. No question the black vote will be

an important piece to ultimate victory for any of the primary candidates.

[bigtree]

30. any of the candidates would preserve Obama's gains

...and expand on them.

The issue is whether Biden is the best candidate to build on those accomplishments.

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[highplainsdem]

32. See Sharpton's Twitter account for lots of tweets with video from Morning Joe:

https://twitter.com/TheRevAl

[Celerity]

33. here is the complete video

https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/l/biden-in-lead-warren-takes-second-in-new-polling/vp-AAEefhr

[Tarheel_Dem]

35. Agreed. n/t

[5starlib]

36. Rev. Al just said in public what a lot of black people think behind closed doors...

That the candidates running for the nomination don't particularly seem 'comfortable' around black people. I use that term loosely, but you get my drift. Yes, they talk a good game. Yes, they have policy propositions. Yes, they will help black people as president...but they are not used to being around black people everyday and you can tell in their interactions. It's not natural.

One white politician that comes to mind is Mitch Landrieu. That is one white politician that can go to a black cookout and run the whole show.

[Skya Rhen]

37. As an AA, I can relate to the connection with Mitch Landrieu. Another obvious one is Joe Biden.

He is always so at ease around black people and I just love to see him do that cool handshake with the AA men...

[EffieBlack]

40. "that cool handshake with the AA men"

Umm ...

Oh, never mind.

[StarfishSaver]

39. Mitch Landrieu's white?

Well, damn!