The biggest problem that Democratic 2020 presidential candidates have with selling the grandiose plans of Warren, Sanders, Buttigieg and others to black voters especially is that in practice, government programs run headlong into systemic racism and become things that work for white America, but not for the rest.
Democratic candidates have come to understand that they need policies that target racial inequities, especially to win over black voters — a vital force in the Democratic primary. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont says single-payer health insurance will close disparities like the higher infant morality rate in black families. Former Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., released his Frederick Douglass Plan, which calls for overhauling the criminal justice system, health care equity, and education funding.
In addition to her proposals for black farmers, Ms. Warren has aimed to design her health care and education plans so that they take corrective steps to address historical inequality.
Still, even as the plans add up, black voters have largely not shown enthusiasm about these candidates, and the polling numbers have barely budged. According to a recent nationwide poll of black voters from The Washington Post and Ipsos, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. holds a significant edge, with the support of nearly 50 percent of respondents. Among black voters 65 and older, poll showed Mr. Biden ahead by 60 percentage points.
Mr. Sanders had 20 percent support, driven largely by his popularity with black voters under 35 years old. Ms. Warren was third in The Post’s poll, with 9 percent.
Over the course of her campaign, at events geared toward black voters, Ms. Warren often cites policy proposals such as investment in historically black colleges and new housing in formerly redlined communities. Crowds generally respond positively.
“I want a world where the color of your skin doesn’t matter, you get the same opportunities,” Ms. Warren said at an event over the weekend hosted with groups including the Iowa chapter of the N.A.A.C.P. “We do not fix a system like this by pretending that race doesn’t matter.”
Mr. Sanders’s progress with black voters has been a mixed bag; he is beloved among younger voters and viewed with some suspicion by older ones, who largely supported Hillary Clinton in 2016 and found his insurgent campaign to be harmful to her in the general election. Late last year, Mr. Sanders replaced his South Carolina state director, a sign of the campaign’s desire to shift his strategy for winning over black voters.
Mr. Biden’s candidacy is helped by several factors, including his widespread name recognition, public proximity to former President Barack Obama, and close relationship with black community leaders dating to his years in the Senate.
But in interviews with dozens of black voters in Virginia and South Carolina, another theme emerges: Mr. Biden is also ahead because his leading rivals have yet to wrestle with how their promises of structural change must overcome historical distrust of the government in black communities.
When you ask black voters like myself why we should trust Joe Biden, it's because he spent eight years as Obama's VP. You ask me about Sanders, and I'm gonna say "the guy who spent more than 30 years in Congress and got nothing passed?" Warren at least ran for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau...and then Trump and the GOP neutered it to the point where it does nothing now precisely because it was helping black and brown folk.
Nobody in SC believe Sanders or Warren or Pete are going to get any major programs past Mitch or the Roberts Court because we all saw what happened to the ACA and to Democrats in 2010 and again when Black Lives Matter gained national attention in 2014. Affordable health care for all Americans, not just the white ones, became a massive political liability when it threatened the careers of Democratic politicians and they ran from Obama.
We know what Sanders' supporters said and did to the ACA.
We know Warren decided the ACA was bad but she would do better.
Same with Mayor Pete.
Everyone says "We can do better." Not one of them pointed out that the ACA was sabotaged again and again by Republicans and oh yeah, more than a few Democrats. Well, Joe Biden did.
It's not rocket science, guys. Joe Biden has his issues, there's a reason I did not vote for him in 2008 in the primaries, in fact several reasons, all of which are pretty terrible baggage. And he still pretends that the GOP will work with him, when they will spend every day calling him a socialist and a traitor and will sabotage him just as much as they did to Obama, if not more so.
But he is loyal to Obama, and he is loyal to the voters who put Obama in office. And frankly, the GOP will try to destroy any Democratic president, and there's no guarantee Trump will even leave office.
Right now, until somebody can make the case better than Biden that you gotta dance with the people that brung ya, he's my current choice.
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