Let's try this again. Re: "...the Democrats' Racial Rift"

[Starry Messenger]

12. Rep. Keith Ellison was one of the first to sound the alarm that Trump could be the GOP nom

He was on a George S.'s show, and two white liberal people laughed their asses off at his now proven-correct assessment that white Americans are just scary-racist enough to make that a reality. Ellison has history on his side and knew the score.

Minority voters have been watching in horror as millions of Republican voters choose Trump either because of, or despite, his open bigotry. The Sanders supporters who toy with the idea of shunning Clinton in November and allowing Trump to become president to force a revolution that Sanders couldn’t deliver are playing with fire. To minority voters, Trump’s candidacy feels like an existential threat. It’s one thing for Republicans to either ignore or embrace his racism; the party already seems unwilling or incapable of making the kinds of adjustments it must to attract more non-white voters. It’s quite another for white Democrats to not appreciate how liberal minorities feel about the possibility of a Trump presidency and what that would say about the state of racial progress in America. It would be a slap in the face, the latest sign that a kind of white privilege—throwing a temper tantrum because they don’t get their way despite how much it hurts people of color—is deeply rooted within liberal, Democratic ranks as well.

Fortunately I think the Bernie supporters who won't work against Trump, or even plan to vote for him, will be very small.

But I think it is true that voters of color perceived early on the existential threat that Trump poses--being able to yawn him off as some chimera of the "Powers That Be" isn't an indulgence that many can afford. It's also why women, LGBT, and other minorities banded together with people of color (who also include all of the other groups mentioned) to create a force to defeat him.

That force manifested itself in its vote for one candidate, and not for another. Different conditions might have created more of a space for a Sanders or Sanders-type candidate to gain more traction--it just wasn't going to be this election.