2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: POC aren't buying the "Bernie's been fighting for you all his life so you should vote for him" claim [View all]noretreatnosurrender
(1,890 posts)In my view you can't blame any voter for not voting for a candidate. If the candidate didn't get their vote it's the candidate's fault not the voter. In 2000 there were a lot of people on DU who blamed Nader and people who voted for him for causing Al Gore to lose. They acted like they owned those voters (sound familiar?). I heard many arguments that if Nader wasn't in the race those voters would have voted for Gore, like they actually knew for certain how other people would vote. It was insulting. Gore (the candidate I supported) should have worked harder for those votes if he wanted them but he didn't. In Gore's case it wasn't detrimental to his campaign because in my opinion Gore actually got the most votes in 2000 any way. He only lost because the election was stolen but that's another issue.
The point I'm trying to make is stop blaming voters for not being inspired by the candidate that inspires you. You can't force someone to be inspired and talking down to them is a surefire way to turn them off. Do I want my candidate to inspire the black community - HELL YES but if he can't I won't blame those voters. Is it possible for Bernie to win a larger share of the black vote going forward? Is it possible for him to communicate better with the black community and earn their trust? I hope so because I want to be fighting side by side with my black brothers and sisters to achieve a better world for all of us. The bottom line for this Sanders supporter is that without more support from the black community we will never achieve what this movement is about.