By request...some comments from Bernie Sanders 2014 NPR Interview

[portlander23]

9. Bernie

I've been listening to Mr. Sanders on the radio for the past ten years. It's the reason why I was all-in on his campaign the moment he announced.

I can tell you that Mr. Sanders has been a very strong defender of economic justice, which is why I'm supporting him. That said, in those ten years, I can't think of a time he's spoke forcefully about racial justice. I'm not saying I know where he's at, but I can tell you it just has not been the core focus of his career the way economic justice has been.

This has all been a wake-up call to me personally. A few months ago if you asked me that if we solved economic equality, would we solve racial equality? I would have said yes. I think the What if the Religious Right allied with the Working Left? thread has basically the same point of view, and it's one of ignorance.

It's true that working class right wingers could agree with Mr. Sanders on economic justice. If he completely ignored racial justice, he could bring this group "back into the fold". I bought into that line of thinking too. That said, we can't ignore racial justice. If having a racial justice platform means we don't get those right wing voters "back", then fine.

I'm not going to tell you that Bernie is perfect, and he was always a strong voice on racial justice, and Spike Lee likes him so you should too. I'm hoping that he got the message that economic justice does not imply racial justice. I recently got the message too.