Let me start this by saying that there are people on both side of the Hillary-Bernie divide that indulge in this sort of thing, but being as I’m in the tank for Bernie, I prefer to pick on those that are in the tank for Hillary. Besides, I really think I’ve managed to avoid descents into total absurdity, such as this one by D.R. Tucker, at Political Animal:
I fear Team Sanders will simply dismiss his woes with black voters as a consequence of black “loyalty” to the Clintons, despite the fact that the “loyalty” argument can’t explain why black voters ultimately supported Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic primary. (Hopefully Sanders’s supporters won’t try to blame the media again for his diversity deficit.)
via Political Animal
When I started to write this piece I had an explanation in mind for the reason “black voters ultimately supported Barack Obama”, but it has slipped my mind. I know it will come to me, as it seemed obvious right away after I read the above paragraph. It has something to do with some characteristic of Obama’s that Bernie doesn’t share. I’m sure it will likely pop into the mind of anyone who happens to read this piece, because like I said it seemed so obvious, and the only reason I’ve lost it is that I’m getting old and senile.
Political Animal is a widely read blog. Judging by the comments to the piece, its more avid readers are also old and senile, because none of them seem to have noticed the glaring problem with the paragraph I’ve quoted. As I said, both sides probably do this sort of thing, but this one is so blatantly absurd I had to highlight it.
The absurdities in the article don’t stop there, by the way. How’s this for presumption:
I’ve argued before that Sanders’s economic vision alienates African-Americans who believe well-regulated capitalism, not “democratic socialism,” can best advance their economic interests
I don’t know if Tucker is black or white, but I really question whether anyone can speak for the entire African-American community, particularly since most people, whatever their color, don’t speak or think in those terms. And what, pray tell, makes Tucker think that capitalism will be “well-regulated” under this Clinton, anymore than it was under the last one, who relieved the bankers of almost all regulation and set the table for the economic meltdown from which we have still not recovered.
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