“Bernie Sanders’ Worse-than-Expected Performance in New York.”
That’s what most people would say, given than Hillary Clinton won the state by 16% votes two days ago: Hillary 58% vs Bernie 42%. It is disappointing for us who keep supporting Bernie.
But was it as miserable as the New York Times, CNN, MSNBC and other such “liberal” media want us to accept, and take it as an end for the Sanders candidacy? No, I’m not talking about the number of delegates each of them got out of NY primaries. I’m talking about a much more reassuring aspect of this election, both in NY, and across the U.S.
Perhaps across the world, because I see similar scenarios.
If you look at the NY results map, the entire state except for New York City and surrounding areas practically voted for Bernie Sanders. Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse — three cities with a relatively higher diverse population (African-Americans and Latinos in particular) gave Hillary a very small margin of win: in Buffalo, it was 0.6%. In other NY cities, including state capital of Albany (where we lived for years), Sanders won decisively.
It is very clear from the map, therefore, that primarily New York City handed Hillary Clinton the victory she needed so desperately, especially after losing seven out of eight primaries and caucuses before NY. And in my opinion, she won so big in NYC mainly because the African-American and Latino votes went in her favor. And some other factors too, which I tried to explain in my blog post yesterday at https://onefinalblog.wordpress.com/…/why-hillary-won-in-ne…/.
Again, to put my African-American and Latino friends, students and colleagues at ease, I am not in the business of blaming you. I am not blaming anyone: whites, blacks, browns, LGBT, religious institutions, young or old voters, men or women. If there is anyone to blame, I blame the big DNC bosses and corporate America who played a very major role to make sure Hillary was elected in NY with a big margin. Their money, their media, and their mafia made it happen. Sure, I am disappointed. But I am not surprised with the outcome at all.
I do hope Bernie Sanders will press on, because as they say, “It ain’t over ’til it’s over.” My years of political activism tells me 2016 is going to bring in a lot of unprecedented drama — both on the Democratic and Republican sides. Even New York Times and CNN won’t be able to hide it.
So, what was so reassuring about Bernie’s NY defeat? Here’s some bullet points for those who are interested to look indepth.
1. Massive Bernie victories across the rural, traditionally conservative areas. — Unbelievable! Why did these rural and small-town Democrats voted for a media-declared “socialist with radical ideas?” Normally, one would think they would go with a big-name candidate (a state senator, a former Secretary of State, a board member at Wal-Mart, a high-paid speaker at Goldman Sachs and Verizon, and that too, with a very big husband — no pun intended), as opposed to an unknown outsider.
2. The reason they voted for Bernie was that they are much more informed and politically savvy than we the elite New Yorkers want to give them credit for. They know what’s going on both in the U.S. and around the world, in the name of a globalized economy. They do their own research well. They know what Glass-Stegall Act is, what Hillary’s role was in Iraq war, and how Sweden, Germany and Japan — three rich capitalist countries — practice their capitalism, and keep their inequality at a minimum. They know how women and labor unions play a major role in the society in Denmark and Finland.
3. Climate change and global warming are critical issues they considered before they voted. Just the same way they had voted for a totally unknownZephyr Teachout recently against a very powerful, union-busting, pro-1% governor Andrew Cuomo. In fact, Bernie got even more votes in many more areas than Zephyr got against Cuomo. But the pattern was similar.
4. The vast swath of NY state knows about the disastrous impacts of fracking, and Hillary’s close association with fracking industries. They know she has been a prime spokesperson for fracking, as well as Exxon, both in the U.S. and around the world. They know until recently, she was ambivalent about the Keystone XL pipeline, a project Obama stopped after national and international outrage, leading to the Paris Climate Summit in late 2015.
5. Upstate and rural NY showed a similar voting pattern that we’ve seen in favor of Bernie Sanders in some other states such as Kansas, Missouri (now a Bernie-win state), Oklahoma, Colorado…states that one would think were sure Hillary wins. Oklahoma, such a Deep South state with a huge number of rural, conservative voters? Kansas? Colorado? We the New York city snobs often discount rural, conservative America to be pro-establishment and uninformed. That shows how stupid and detached we are.
6. Again, in states where Clinton won, or even Sanders won so far, the African-American votes went strongly in favor of Clinton. Look at this map athttps://www.washingtonpost.com/…/bernie-sanderss-black-vot…/. Why? Again, without ever blaming the black voters, it is perhaps because of two important reasons: (a) the Clintons’ name recognition vis-a-vis Bernie’s relatively unknown face (thanks to media again); and (b) from my personal experience to work with black and immigrant communities, very few of them ever heard of Bill’s crime bill that put more blacks in jail and militarized America’s police force, or his immigration law that opened the floodgate of family-breaking deportation, a trend that goes on until today, through Bush and Obama administrations. And of course, on information that most ordinary people get through CNN, NBC or Fox, there is hardly ever any mention of Hillary’s close association with the private prison industry, Monsanto, Exxon, Verizon, or Wal-Mart.
People simply do not know.
7. So, the reassuring thing is that perhaps for the first time in modern, post-Reagan U.S. history, a pro-99% political force is building where both progressives (the so-called “left”) and conservatives (the so-called “right”) are coming together, and making decisions in the same direction — not for the status quo, but for a futuristic change. In my opinion, this trend will continue, and gain momentum. The young generation America is rising in lightening speed, and nobody can stop them. They have knowledge, and they are not afraid to speak up against media’s and establishment politicians’ lies.
I have often talked about this urgency and pragmatism of this moderate and nonviolent bridge building, and wrote a peer-reviewed paper that was published in an international journal. I am willing to revise and expand the thoughts, if and when I find a platform to do it.
I am firmly convinced, more so than ever before, that such a broad coalition of the ordinary, working men, women and families will make the 99% victorious in the coming days. Bernie Sanders may or may not be the president, but this nonviolent, democratic revolution will happen. In fact, it is happening right now.
I can hear its footsteps.
Sincerely,
Partha Banerjee
Brooklyn, NY
Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partha_Banerjee
Twitter @TeachActivist
Humanity College 