2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: The Netroots Nation videos of Bernie and Martin. [View all]JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)to hear what the candidates have to say on all issues in front of an audience that is liberal without the filter of news media. Something very important was taken from all of us by the demonstration that was too long and too loud. Black lives matter and what they were saying is important, one of the most important issues in our country right now. But the demonstration was too long, too loud and too unruly. The rest of us were cheated by the demonstrators.
I would have liked to have heard from O'Malley in particular although I am a Sanders supporter.
I thought Sanders handled the situation very wisely. He is a no nonsense guy who deserves and demands respects. I think everyone sees that. I couldn't have blamed either of the candidates if they had simply walked out. There was no attempt at dialogue on the part of the demonstrators, just screaming.
Black lives matter. And O'Malley and Sanders have good proposals for fighting the poverty and faults in our criminal justice system that breed and nurture racism.
Racism is an attitude. It can't itself be changed by politicians.
Police brutality can be dealt with as O'Malley suggested by implementing laws that require transparency in the employment records of officers and special prosecutors in cases of police brutality with funded investigators who are independent of the police department.
But racism is a matter of culture and of economics. It's the culture of white distancing from Black people and sometimes vice versa, the separation and the ignorance each about the other and the resulting stereotypes about the economic status and values of Black people that cause the racism. White people often do not really know Black people. When they do, they are not racist any more.