therealnews--2020-03-09--Lessons From Super Tuesday: Stop Ignoring Black Voters of Faith!

This is a rush transcript and may contain errors .
It will be updated .
Jacqueline Luqman : This is Jacqueline Luqman with Real News Network .
Progressives are understandably stunned after the recent Super Tuesday results .
What makes it worse is that we now have to deal with the insufferable moderate democratic operatives , surrogates talking heads and supporters gloating about the improbable comeback of Joe Biden , but I think we also have to have an honest conversation about the things Progressive ’ s need to do better and the things they need to stop doing .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ voters in the South who are people of faith .
Listen , I ’ m not making up a problem here .
I ’ ve been very active in progressive organizing online and in real life , and I am here to tell you the disdain for religion in left circles is palpable and it is a turnoff .
It is also just bad politics and it is something that the GOP has been running rings around the Democrats in for decades .
For 50 years , the GOP has been doing on-the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in churches , the very places that Democrats don ’ t want to show up in until they want black voters to check a box next to their name on Election Day .
People , and I mean Progressives and Leftists , don ’ t even understand how badly they ’ ve been outmaneuvered by the GOP in grassroots organizing .
Before the 1970s , white evangelical Christians were pretty apolitical .
They weren ’ t involved in politics much at all .
They weren ’ t preaching about saving the soul of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ They weren ’ t even preaching about abortion , gay marriage or anything else remotely political .
Then along came Jerry Falwell and his moral majority that tied Christianity , at least white fundamentalist Christianity , to the Republican Party .
Falwell ’ s moral majority opposed Jimmy Carter , who himself was an open Baptist , but his faith drove his views to be more liberal , pushing more for racial equality , well , to some degree .
We know that Carter wasn ’ t into forcing black and white people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he did say that .
But Carter was interested in fighting economic inequality and he was focusing on the advancement of human rights .
Jimmy Carter : No member can avoid , this responsibility is to review and to speak when torture or unwarranted deep privation occurs in any part of the world .
The basic thrust of human affairs points toward a more universal demand for fundamental human rights .
The United States has a historical birthright to be associated with this process .
We in the United States accept this responsibility @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sense .
Ours is a commitment and not just a political posture .
Jacqueline Luqman : The socially conservative opposition to Carter ’ s presidency manifested itself through Falwell ’ s moral majority and their opposition to Carter ’ s policies , and they threw their full support behind the fiscally and socially conservative presidency of Ronald Reagan even though Reagan ’ s moral failings were directly counter to what any Christian teachings would indicate a man of good character should be .
Reagan had been divorced .
He had terrible relationships with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like him and he didn ’ t really attend church much himself .
But the moral majority championed his presidency and his policies , and he championed them .
Driven largely by the fear that an America that really never existed was slipping away , Falwell ’ s moral majority pushed an ideology among white evangelicals that they were the last line of defense in stopping the gays , the blacks , the abortionists , the feminists , the communists , and the Leftists from turning America into something that they would not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about Christian values , not real ones .
Because again , Jimmy Carter , a professed born-again Christian who taught Sunday school , and he still does by the way , espoused more of those Christian values when he would often quote the late theologian Reinhold Neibuhr in saying that , “ The sad duty of politics is to establish justice in a sinful world.
” No , the moral majority ’ s argument was really about power and dominance .
Morality had nothing to do with it .
In fact , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ opposition to the IRS ruling against Christian fundamentalist Bob Jones University for their policy against interracial dating on campus .
Politically conservative operatives like Paul Weyrich , who are already mobilizing voter suppression and disenfranchisement efforts to sway elections for the GOP , seized on the ruling and framed the IRS revocation of the Christian schools tax-exempt status in 1971 as an attack on “ religious liberty ” .
That ’ s where that phrase came from .
Paul Weyrich : … have what I call Goo-goo Syndrome , good government .
They @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t want everybody to vote .
Elections are not won by a majority of people .
They never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now .
As a matter of fact , on the leverage in the election quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down .
Jacqueline Luqman : And politically conservative , so-called religious leaders like Jerry Falwell pick that ball up and ran with it in their churches making protecting religious liberty the rallying cry for mobilizing the silent majority of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Republicans in every election for the next 50 years , and not just national elections but local and state elections too .
Almost all of that organizing was done in churches and a lot of it was done in the South .
So the GOP has been consistently out organizing the Democratic Party using the best tactics for the worst reasons .
But largely ambivalent to people of faith , Democrats have notoriously stayed away from faith communities , especially black faith communities , until campaign season when they show up to sit @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the congregation to vote for them , sitting there clapping out a sink to gospel songs they don ’ t even know the words to .
We see you all .
You don ’ t know those words .
But even worse , Progressives don ’ t seem to even bother , too often being openly hostile to people of faith , writing them all off as ignorant believers of an invisible sky God , so they don ’ t take those people seriously and they don ’ t reach out to them @ @ @ @ @ @ @ some of this hostility personally in talking with my Progressive and Leftist comrades .
And I got to tell you all , if you want black people to vote for Progressive politicians , you have to stop disparaging and disregarding black people of faith .
But the other thing that I see as a serious problem that the Progressive Left has to stop doing if it wants to win black support is that you have to let go of this , “ It ’ s class , not race ” argument .
You @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for your candidates if you keep telling them that the issues that they live in their everyday lives , that make their everyday lives harder do not matter .
This is especially true with our elders who have lived through the open brutality of Jim Crow and the decades of grudging integration and the hostile resentment of white people that followed .
You can not tell older black people that the racism they faced all their lives does not matter and that they have to be satisfied with policies that do not address @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of it .
Every time you tell those it ’ s class , not race , you ’ re telling them to get over their experiences with racism but in a nice progressive way .
Honestly , this is no better than what the GOP says and does .
And that ’ s not to say that Biden or any other centrist Democrat is actually going to have any real policies to address those issues , but at the very least , they acknowledge that race is an issue .
They acknowledge that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you have to at least do that .
And actually , you have to do more .
And young folks , if you ’ re excited about your candidate , you ’ ve got to leave the rallies and online discussions , and stand in those long lines and put up with the chicanery of the Democratic Party and the shenanigans of the media , and put your enthusiasm and excitement on the ground .
You got to do more than argue with people on Twitter about ideology .
You ’ ve got @ @ @ @ @ @ @ real life .
That is what organizing is , Progressives and Leftists , and that is how a real revolution is built .

Super Tuesday stunned progressives, but sustained grassroots organizing in Southern Black communities might have produced better results. Progressive outreach has made the mistakes of avoiding people of faith and ignoring race for years.
Story Transcript
This is a rush transcript and may contain errors. It will be updated.
Jacqueline Luqman: This is Jacqueline Luqman with Real News Network. Progressives are understandably stunned after the recent Super Tuesday results. What makes it worse is that we now have to deal with the insufferable moderate democratic operatives, surrogates talking heads and supporters gloating about the improbable comeback of Joe Biden, but I think we also have to have an honest conversation about the things Progressive’s need to do better and the things they need to stop doing.
Progressives, you cannot discount black voters in the South who are people of faith. Listen, I’m not making up a problem here. I’ve been very active in progressive organizing online and in real life, and I am here to tell you the disdain for religion in left circles is palpable and it is a turnoff. It is also just bad politics and it is something that the GOP has been running rings around the Democrats in for decades.
For 50 years, the GOP has been doing on-the ground grassroots organizing of the worst kind in churches, the very places that Democrats don’t want to show up in until they want black voters to check a box next to their name on Election Day. People, and I mean Progressives and Leftists, don’t even understand how badly they’ve been outmaneuvered by the GOP in grassroots organizing.
Before the 1970s, white evangelical Christians were pretty apolitical. They weren’t involved in politics much at all. They weren’t preaching about saving the soul of America from most of their pulpits. They weren’t even preaching about abortion, gay marriage or anything else remotely political. Then along came Jerry Falwell and his moral majority that tied Christianity, at least white fundamentalist Christianity, to the Republican Party. Falwell’s moral majority opposed Jimmy Carter, who himself was an open Baptist, but his faith drove his views to be more liberal, pushing more for racial equality, well, to some degree. We know that Carter wasn’t into forcing black and white people to live in the same neighborhoods, he did say that. But Carter was interested in fighting economic inequality and he was focusing on the advancement of human rights.
Jimmy Carter: No member can avoid, this responsibility is to review and to speak when torture or unwarranted deep privation occurs in any part of the world. The basic thrust of human affairs points toward a more universal demand for fundamental human rights. The United States has a historical birthright to be associated with this process. We in the United States accept this responsibility in the fullest and the most constructive sense. Ours is a commitment and not just a political posture.
Jacqueline Luqman: The socially conservative opposition to Carter’s presidency manifested itself through Falwell’s moral majority and their opposition to Carter’s policies, and they threw their full support behind the fiscally and socially conservative presidency of Ronald Reagan even though Reagan’s moral failings were directly counter to what any Christian teachings would indicate a man of good character should be. Reagan had been divorced. He had terrible relationships with his children, they really did not like him and he didn’t really attend church much himself. But the moral majority championed his presidency and his policies, and he championed them.
Driven largely by the fear that an America that really never existed was slipping away, Falwell’s moral majority pushed an ideology among white evangelicals that they were the last line of defense in stopping the gays, the blacks, the abortionists, the feminists, the communists, and the Leftists from turning America into something that they would not recognize. Their argument was never really about Christian values, not real ones. Because again, Jimmy Carter, a professed born-again Christian who taught Sunday school, and he still does by the way, espoused more of those Christian values when he would often quote the late theologian Reinhold Neibuhr in saying that, “The sad duty of politics is to establish justice in a sinful world.”
No, the moral majority’s argument was really about power and dominance. Morality had nothing to do with it. In fact, the moral majority movement really arose out of opposition to the IRS ruling against Christian fundamentalist Bob Jones University for their policy against interracial dating on campus. Politically conservative operatives like Paul Weyrich, who are already mobilizing voter suppression and disenfranchisement efforts to sway elections for the GOP, seized on the ruling and framed the IRS revocation of the Christian schools tax-exempt status in 1971 as an attack on “religious liberty”. That’s where that phrase came from.
Paul Weyrich: … have what I call Goo-goo Syndrome, good government. They want everybody to vote. I don’t want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of people. They never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. As a matter of fact, on the leverage in the election quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.
Jacqueline Luqman: And politically conservative, so-called religious leaders like Jerry Falwell pick that ball up and ran with it in their churches making protecting religious liberty the rallying cry for mobilizing the silent majority of white evangelical Christians to vote for conservative Republicans in every election for the next 50 years, and not just national elections but local and state elections too. Almost all of that organizing was done in churches and a lot of it was done in the South.
So the GOP has been consistently out organizing the Democratic Party using the best tactics for the worst reasons. But largely ambivalent to people of faith, Democrats have notoriously stayed away from faith communities, especially black faith communities, until campaign season when they show up to sit in someone’s pulpit and ask the congregation to vote for them, sitting there clapping out a sink to gospel songs they don’t even know the words to. We see you all. You don’t know those words.
But even worse, Progressives don’t seem to even bother, too often being openly hostile to people of faith, writing them all off as ignorant believers of an invisible sky God, so they don’t take those people seriously and they don’t reach out to them at all. I’ve experienced some of this hostility personally in talking with my Progressive and Leftist comrades. And I got to tell you all, if you want black people to vote for Progressive politicians, you have to stop disparaging and disregarding black people of faith.
But the other thing that I see as a serious problem that the Progressive Left has to stop doing if it wants to win black support is that you have to let go of this, “It’s class, not race” argument. You cannot get black people to vote for your candidates if you keep telling them that the issues that they live in their everyday lives, that make their everyday lives harder do not matter. This is especially true with our elders who have lived through the open brutality of Jim Crow and the decades of grudging integration and the hostile resentment of white people that followed. You cannot tell older black people that the racism they faced all their lives does not matter and that they have to be satisfied with policies that do not address the harm they’ve experienced because of it.
Every time you tell those it’s class, not race, you’re telling them to get over their experiences with racism but in a nice progressive way. Honestly, this is no better than what the GOP says and does. And that’s not to say that Biden or any other centrist Democrat is actually going to have any real policies to address those issues, but at the very least, they acknowledge that race is an issue. They acknowledge that racism is an issue. Progressives, you have to at least do that. And actually, you have to do more.
And young folks, if you’re excited about your candidate, you’ve got to leave the rallies and online discussions, and stand in those long lines and put up with the chicanery of the Democratic Party and the shenanigans of the media, and put your enthusiasm and excitement on the ground. You got to do more than argue with people on Twitter about ideology. You’ve got to make your case to people in real life. That is what organizing is, Progressives and Leftists, and that is how a real revolution is built.
Production: Jacqueline Luqman
Post-Production: Oscar León, Taylor Hebden
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therealnews--2020-03-09--Want to Build Class Solidarity? Learn to Talk About Race

This is a rush transcript and may contain errors .
It will be updated .
Kim Brown : Welcome to the Real News .
I ’ m Kim Brown .
Outside of the elites , Americans tend to lack class solidarity .
We don ’ t see poor people rallying around the same issues to the extent that the rich elites do .
Why is that ?
Why is class not an integral discussion in our political discourse ?
Well , in his latest piece for truthdig.org journalist Chris Hedges explores this precise issue and his piece is titled Class @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you to forget .
We ’ re joined today with Pulitzer-Prize , award winning journalist , best selling author and activist Chris Hedges , who ’ s on the line from Princeton , New Jersey .
Welcome back to the Real News , Chris .
Thank you for being here .
Kim Brown : Let ’ s get into to your piece , because it ’ s laid in with a lot of foundational arguments about why the oligarchical class in the world .
But I ’ m assuming you specifically , you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ forget or would rather talk about identity politics more so than class divisions .
Can you explain that ?
Chris Hedges : Yeah , because it ’ s not a threat .
You can have your first African-American president .
He was a biracial president .
You can have your first woman president .
At least up until a couple of days ago , we could ’ ve had our first gay president , or at least openly gay president .
As long as that particular gender or race or a religious persuasion @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the system ’ s fine with it .
But the class divisions , the rise of the oligarchic state and we live in an oligarchy now , is something that the ruling elites do not want discussed .
That ’ s precisely what Bernie Sanders is discussing , which is why he is a threat .
It ’ s also ironically , what Trump is discussing .
If you listen to Trump ’ s very long-winded , self-adulatory speeches at his rallies .
Now of course , he ’ s a con artist @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
In fact , he will further consolidate oligarchy power .
But he does play , and certainly did in his attacks on NAFTA and the ruling elites in particular , the Democratic Party ruling elites who have the trade working men and women going all the way back to Clinton with NAFTA , with the 1994 Omnibus Crime Bill , which doubled our prison population , the deregulation of the FCC , which consolidated media outlets in the hands of a half dozen corporations , the destruction of Glass-Steagall , which ripped @ @ @ @ @ @ @ banks , the destruction of welfare and 70 % of the original recipients on welfare were children .
All of that was done by the Democrats .
So , and then all wholesale surveillance , imperial war , everything else .
Endless war , that ’ s been a bipartisan issue .
A class , the Democratic elite serve the oligarchy corporate elites , corporate class , the same way the Republican party does , and that ’ s what they don ’ t … They don ’ t want that curtain ripped @ @ @ @ @ @ @ think the struggles of low-income white , Americans are comparable to that of low-income black Americans ?
Chris Hedges : No .
We know statistically that people of color are economically far worse off than white Americans .
But , at the same time de-industrialization has imploded the certainly , the expectations and the financial stability of the white working class .
That ’ s a fact .
But I don ’ t think it ’ s worse .
I think the reason the white working class is more vocal , James Baldwin @ @ @ @ @ @ @ expected as the white majority more from the society .
Baldwin writes that , he writes African-Americans or are far less prone to having midlife crises because they recognize from the moment their children onward that the system ’ s gamed against them .
The white working class has , certainly before de-industrialization , before offshoring , was in a more privileged position .
That has now been taken away , and I think that that it really gets down not to a matter of disparity because people of color are living in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s the rage of the white working-class is that they feel that their birthright and their future was robbed from them .
That ’ s not wrong .
I mean that is a correct .
That ’ s correct .
We ’ ve created one industrial wasteland after another , which has turned communities .
I was in Anderson , Indiana for my last book , the old GM Center of GM manufacturing .
All those plants not only been ripped down , they ’ ve been , they ’ re big empty @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and all those jobs , good union jobs have gone to Monterey , Mexico .
So , 25,000 union workers are out of work in Anderson and Mexican workers are doing the same work for $ 3 an hour without benefits and then able to drive the trucks over the border and sell them .
Kim Brown : The argument about class as a political tool , so to speak , is something that has been employed by Bernie Sanders and the progressive arm of the Democratic Party as small/growing as it may @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the heels of Super Tuesday , where Vice-President Biden took a majority of the primary states , with Bernie Sanders picking up two states , both California and his own state of Vermont .
I ’ m looking specifically at the State of Virginia , for example , because Joe Biden didn ’ t have a lot of money invested in Virginia .
He only made one campaign stop there .
I think he only had one office open in Virginia , and yet he was able to come away with 70 % @ @ @ @ @ @ @ argument over race , so to speak , does not seem to be rounding or resounding with black voters .
Why do you think that is ?
Chris Hedges : Well , I ’ d be careful of that statement because , okay , the percentages of black voters , especially younger voters , which is also true often among white , younger voters , they don ’ t vote .
I mean , the largest voting block in the country , the 100 million people , don ’ t vote .
You @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which tends to skew older that does vote .
But , I ’ m not from Virginia .
I didn ’ t report there .
I ’ m not going to make suppositions about African-Americans in Virginia because frankly , I don ’ t know .
I wouldn ’ t know what I ’ m talking about .
Why did they vote for Biden ?
It ’ s a good question .
But you ’ d have to have somebody from Virginia who ’ d been out in those communities to answer it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ think part of the argument lies within this exact discussion that we ’ re having about class trumps all when it comes to identity politics .
Bernie Sanders , his message , at least when it translates to votes at the ballot box , does not seem to be resonating with the African-American electorate , particularly because of perhaps a reluctance to tie racism to the economic and housing and disproportionate health outcome plights that black Americans face .
Why is there a disconnect between saying that we are in low class or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ racial lines , but failing to acknowledge racism as systemic and how it helps to keep black Americans in the same class that they , more often than not , were born into , Chris Hedges : Racism is one of the primary weapons of an oligarchic state or the ruling elites to create racial divisions , and it ’ s protean .
I mean , racism and I mean , let ’ s look at our system of mass incarceration as the poet Yusef Komunyakaa says , “ The cell block has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the latest iteration of Neo-slavery .
So , it ’ s constantly hiding its face .
Then , what are the black codes ?
Well , they are people who are thrown into a prison system .
I teach in a prison .
94 % of them never had a trial .
They come out into the criminal cast , where because of their records , they can ’ t get work , they can ’ t get public assistance .
They become second .
They can ’ t even vote good .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The racism is an integral part of class power .
I mean , my students will sometimes say , “ Well , I never was actually insulted .
Nobody used the N word against me , et cetera.
” I ’ ll say from Camden or Patterson and I ’ ll say , “ Well , describe your schools which are overcrowded and dilapidated and dysfunctional and they don ’ t have proper lab equipment or proper computer equipment or they have police in the hallways.
” I say , “ Well @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Princeton where I live .
That ’ s racism , that ’ s institutional racism .
This whole charter school business , which also has a long history , is essentially about profiting off of a segregated , unequal system between white kids and poor kids of color.
” I ’ m not pitting identity politics against racism .
I ’ m saying , that when your focus is on identity politics and you have forgotten the primacy of economic justice , then it can become a kind of boutique activism .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ ve always felt that Bernie was racially tone-deaf .
He ’ s gotten a little better , but I fully understand why he might not connect to African-American voters .
I think he ’ s moved since 2016 but I think he knows very little about their reality and they sense that .
I don ’ t want to speak for them .
I ’ m only guessing .
Kim Brown : Well , Chris , in your piece , you also go on to look back historically and note how Franklin Roosevelt @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of a societal revolution in the 1930s , coming out of the Great Depression and the steps that he took to ensure that people were put to work , even if the largest employer was the federal government .
That infrastructure improvements and the foundations for that were laid , and out of that came the rise of the labor movement , of the labor unions .
You go on to note that in more modern times , that the elite forces have worked to destroy the working class , fight organized fight @ @ @ @ @ @ @ struggle .
How is it that we see a large group of Americans who are wholly disenfranchised financially and other ways , but we don ’ t see the class solidarity of us , versus them .
We , we tend to put these rich people on a pedestal and imagine our lives through their lives , not understanding that that is not attainable for most people .
Chris Hedges : Because that ’ s what mass culture does .
It ’ s a form of propaganda .
Those who speak about class @ @ @ @ @ @ @ etat that the United States has undergone are not given a platform on the corporate media .
I know , because I ’ m one of them .
I mean , [ Gram 00:12:19 ] , she writes about this .
Culture is a form of political control and you ’ re very right that those values are inculcated through systems of mass entertainment , through the educational system , through the new … I mean , just all the way that images and stories are disseminated on electronic screens .
So , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ somebody achieving a particular individual identity .
But , what they don ’ t want is class solidarity .
They ’ ve quite effectively , through many mechanisms , including as you mentioned , destroying labor unions .
We are now , 11 % of workers in the United States are unionized .
I think something like 7 % of those are public sector employees .
Many of them can not even strike , which is the only weapons of any effectiveness that unions have .
We ’ ve created the greatest income @ @ @ @ @ @ @ created all sorts of mechanisms .
Let ’ s not forget that this system of mass incarceration is primarily a form of social control .
Half of the 2.3 million people in our prison system have never physically been charged with harming another person and almost none of them got effective legal representation .
But a lot of this , by the way , was Joe Biden .
Huh .
Then when they get out , they are thrown into a criminal past system .
That ’ s , I think on purpose @ @ @ @ @ @ @ urban centers .
Especially since I think African-Americans have traditionally Ben the most politically astute , in terms of voting patterns .
That ’ s a form of keeping people in bondage .
Ah , and okay .
Now , we are seeing an expansion of that taking away of due process .
Let ’ s use the right word , police terror in these streets .
This is all about the social control of the underclass .
It started primarily with poor people of color , but it ’ s expanding now @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Lastly , Chris , we know you have to get out of here , but I wanted to ask , Joe Biden ’ s campaign was , for lack of a better term , dead and stinking before the South Carolina primary , and now after Super Tuesday , his campaign has been buoyed .
It ’ s gained new life and there is a lot of concern , legitimate concern It could lead to a brokered convention , come the time of the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee this summer .
Should @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be denied the nomination if he has the amount of delegates , if the establishment denies him this opportunity to be the nominee , are we looking at the end of the Democratic Party as we know it ?
Chris Hedges : I think there ’ s almost zero chance the Democratic elites are going to give … he ’ s not going to come in with a 1,991 or whatever it is , delegates , he needs .
The superdelegates , which are 700 plus , vote in the second round .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ re going to , it may be more naked and more and therefore more revealing , but they ’ re not going to allow Sanders to be the nominee and there ’ s been all sorts of articles in the New York Times and people like Lloyd Blankfein , the former CEO of Goldman Sachs , they ’ ve all said that if he was the nominee , they ’ d vote for Trump .
I think there ’ s almost no chance he ’ s going to get it .
I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can ’ t see Bernie ’ s base , his young base , sticking with the Democratic Party .
But I think when we go back to 2016 , it was always my argument that Bernie should have run as an Independent , that we ’ re not going to build an effective political opposition in one election cycle , and that we can ’ t reform the Democratic Party or the system from within .
We ’ ve got to attack it from the outside .
Kim Brown : His latest piece @ @ @ @ @ @ @ titled Class , the Little Words Elites Wants you to Forget .
We ’ ve been joined today with Chris Hedges .
If he is a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist , of bestselling author and activist .
We ’ ve been speaking to him today from Princeton , New Jersey .
Chris , it was great to have you back on the Real News .
Chris Hedges : Thank you very much .
Kim Brown : Thank you for watching the Real News Network .

Journalist Chris Hedges says both Republican and Democratic elites are happy to discuss race, gender, religion, and any politics of identity—as long as you don’t connect it to class divisions.
Story Transcript
This is a rush transcript and may contain errors. It will be updated.
Kim Brown: Welcome to the Real News. I’m Kim Brown. Outside of the elites, Americans tend to lack class solidarity. We don’t see poor people rallying around the same issues to the extent that the rich elites do. Why is that? Why is class not an integral discussion in our political discourse? Well, in his latest piece for truthdig.org journalist Chris Hedges explores this precise issue and his piece is titled Class, the little words the elites want you to forget. We’re joined today with Pulitzer-Prize, award winning journalist, best selling author and activist Chris Hedges, who’s on the line from Princeton, New Jersey. Welcome back to the Real News, Chris. Thank you for being here.
Chris Hedges: Sure.
Kim Brown: Let’s get into to your piece, because it’s laid in with a lot of foundational arguments about why the oligarchical class in the world. But I’m assuming you specifically, you mean here in the US, to forget or would rather talk about identity politics more so than class divisions. Can you explain that?
Chris Hedges: Yeah, because it’s not a threat. You can have your first African-American president. He was a biracial president. You can have your first woman president. At least up until a couple of days ago, we could’ve had our first gay president, or at least openly gay president. As long as that particular gender or race or a religious persuasion or sexual orientation serves the system, the system’s fine with it. But the class divisions, the rise of the oligarchic state and we live in an oligarchy now, is something that the ruling elites do not want discussed. That’s precisely what Bernie Sanders is discussing, which is why he is a threat. It’s also ironically, what Trump is discussing. If you listen to Trump’s very long-winded, self-adulatory speeches at his rallies. Now of course, he’s a con artist. He will do nothing to harm. In fact, he will further consolidate oligarchy power.
But he does play, and certainly did in his attacks on NAFTA and the ruling elites in particular, the Democratic Party ruling elites who have the trade working men and women going all the way back to Clinton with NAFTA, with the 1994 Omnibus Crime Bill, which doubled our prison population, the deregulation of the FCC, which consolidated media outlets in the hands of a half dozen corporations, the destruction of Glass-Steagall, which ripped down the firewalls between commercial and investment banks, the destruction of welfare and 70% of the original recipients on welfare were children. All of that was done by the Democrats. So, and then all wholesale surveillance, imperial war, everything else.
Endless war, that’s been a bipartisan issue. A class, the Democratic elite serve the oligarchy corporate elites, corporate class, the same way the Republican party does, and that’s what they don’t … They don’t want that curtain ripped open.
Kim Brown: Do you think the struggles of low-income white, Americans are comparable to that of low-income black Americans?
Chris Hedges: No. We know statistically that people of color are economically far worse off than white Americans. But, at the same time de-industrialization has imploded the certainly, the expectations and the financial stability of the white working class. That’s a fact. But I don’t think it’s worse. I think the reason the white working class is more vocal, James Baldwin writes about this, is because they expected as the white majority more from the society. Baldwin writes that, he writes African-Americans or are far less prone to having midlife crises because they recognize from the moment their children onward that the system’s gamed against them. The white working class has, certainly before de-industrialization, before offshoring, was in a more privileged position. That has now been taken away, and I think that that it really gets down not to a matter of disparity because people of color are living in far worse conditions. But it’s the rage of the white working-class is that they feel that their birthright and their future was robbed from them.
That’s not wrong. I mean that is a correct. That’s correct. We’ve created one industrial wasteland after another, which has turned communities. I was in Anderson, Indiana for my last book, the old GM Center of GM manufacturing. All those plants not only been ripped down, they’ve been, they’re big empty lots now. They were bulldozed away and all those jobs, good union jobs have gone to Monterey, Mexico. So, 25,000 union workers are out of work in Anderson and Mexican workers are doing the same work for $3 an hour without benefits and then able to drive the trucks over the border and sell them.
Kim Brown: The argument about class as a political tool, so to speak, is something that has been employed by Bernie Sanders and the progressive arm of the Democratic Party as small/growing as it may be. But as we come on the heels of Super Tuesday, where Vice-President Biden took a majority of the primary states, with Bernie Sanders picking up two states, both California and his own state of Vermont. I’m looking specifically at the State of Virginia, for example, because Joe Biden didn’t have a lot of money invested in Virginia. He only made one campaign stop there. I think he only had one office open in Virginia, and yet he was able to come away with 70% of the Africans-American vote. The class argument over race, so to speak, does not seem to be rounding or resounding with black voters. Why do you think that is?
Chris Hedges: Well, I’d be careful of that statement because, okay, the percentages of black voters, especially younger voters, which is also true often among white, younger voters, they don’t vote. I mean, the largest voting block in the country, the 100 million people, don’t vote. You’re talking about that demographic, which tends to skew older that does vote. But, I’m not from Virginia. I didn’t report there. I’m not going to make suppositions about African-Americans in Virginia because frankly, I don’t know. I wouldn’t know what I’m talking about. Why did they vote for Biden? It’s a good question. But you’d have to have somebody from Virginia who’d been out in those communities to answer it.
Kim Brown: Well, I think part of the argument lies within this exact discussion that we’re having about class trumps all when it comes to identity politics. Bernie Sanders, his message, at least when it translates to votes at the ballot box, does not seem to be resonating with the African-American electorate, particularly because of perhaps a reluctance to tie racism to the economic and housing and disproportionate health outcome plights that black Americans face. Why is there a disconnect between saying that we are in low class or lower class solidarity with each other across racial lines, but failing to acknowledge racism as systemic and how it helps to keep black Americans in the same class that they, more often than not, were born into,
Chris Hedges: Racism is one of the primary weapons of an oligarchic state or the ruling elites to create racial divisions, and it’s protean. I mean, racism and I mean, let’s look at our system of mass incarceration as the poet Yusef Komunyakaa says, “The cell block has replaced the auction block.” That is the latest iteration of Neo-slavery. So, it’s constantly hiding its face. Then, what are the black codes? Well, they are people who are thrown into a prison system. I teach in a prison. 94% of them never had a trial. They come out into the criminal cast, where because of their records, they can’t get work, they can’t get public assistance. They become second. They can’t even vote good. They’re become second class citizens. The racism is an integral part of class power. I mean, my students will sometimes say, “Well, I never was actually insulted. Nobody used the N word against me, et cetera.”
I’ll say from Camden or Patterson and I’ll say, “Well, describe your schools which are overcrowded and dilapidated and dysfunctional and they don’t have proper lab equipment or proper computer equipment or they have police in the hallways.” I say, “Well, let me describe the public school in Princeton where I live. That’s racism, that’s institutional racism. This whole charter school business, which also has a long history, is essentially about profiting off of a segregated, unequal system between white kids and poor kids of color.” I’m not pitting identity politics against racism. I’m saying, that when your focus is on identity politics and you have forgotten the primacy of economic justice, then it can become a kind of boutique activism.
As for Bernie Sanders, I’ve always felt that Bernie was racially tone-deaf. He’s gotten a little better, but I fully understand why he might not connect to African-American voters. I think he’s moved since 2016 but I think he knows very little about their reality and they sense that. I don’t want to speak for them. I’m only guessing.
Kim Brown: Well, Chris, in your piece, you also go on to look back historically and note how Franklin Roosevelt observed that we were on the cusp of a societal revolution in the 1930s, coming out of the Great Depression and the steps that he took to ensure that people were put to work, even if the largest employer was the federal government. That infrastructure improvements and the foundations for that were laid, and out of that came the rise of the labor movement, of the labor unions. You go on to note that in more modern times, that the elite forces have worked to destroy the working class, fight organized fight, that comes out of the labor struggle. How is it that we see a large group of Americans who are wholly disenfranchised financially and other ways, but we don’t see the class solidarity of us, versus them. We, we tend to put these rich people on a pedestal and imagine our lives through their lives, not understanding that that is not attainable for most people.
Chris Hedges: Because that’s what mass culture does. It’s a form of propaganda. Those who speak about class consciousness or the corporate coup d’etat that the United States has undergone are not given a platform on the corporate media. I know, because I’m one of them. I mean, [Gram 00:12:19], she writes about this. Culture is a form of political control and you’re very right that those values are inculcated through systems of mass entertainment, through the educational system, through the new … I mean, just all the way that images and stories are disseminated on electronic screens. So, the oligarchic state is quite comfortable with somebody achieving a particular individual identity. But, what they don’t want is class solidarity. They’ve quite effectively, through many mechanisms, including as you mentioned, destroying labor unions. We are now, 11% of workers in the United States are unionized.
I think something like 7% of those are public sector employees. Many of them cannot even strike, which is the only weapons of any effectiveness that unions have. We’ve created the greatest income inequality in American history. We have created all sorts of mechanisms. Let’s not forget that this system of mass incarceration is primarily a form of social control. Half of the 2.3 million people in our prison system have never physically been charged with harming another person and almost none of them got effective legal representation. But a lot of this, by the way, was Joe Biden. Huh. Then when they get out, they are thrown into a criminal past system. That’s, I think on purpose, these kind of de-industrialized wastelands and urban centers.
Especially since I think African-Americans have traditionally Ben the most politically astute, in terms of voting patterns. That’s a form of keeping people in bondage. Ah, and okay. Now, we are seeing an expansion of that taking away of due process. Let’s use the right word, police terror in these streets. This is all about the social control of the underclass. It started primarily with poor people of color, but it’s expanding now across the country.
Kim Brown: Lastly, Chris, we know you have to get out of here, but I wanted to ask, Joe Biden’s campaign was, for lack of a better term, dead and stinking before the South Carolina primary, and now after Super Tuesday, his campaign has been buoyed. It’s gained new life and there is a lot of concern, legitimate concern It could lead to a brokered convention, come the time of the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee this summer. Should Bernie Sanders, rightly or wrongly, be denied the nomination if he has the amount of delegates, if the establishment denies him this opportunity to be the nominee, are we looking at the end of the Democratic Party as we know it?
Chris Hedges: I think there’s almost zero chance the Democratic elites are going to give … he’s not going to come in with a 1,991 or whatever it is, delegates, he needs. The superdelegates, which are 700 plus, vote in the second round. It’s pretty clear that they’re going to, it may be more naked and more and therefore more revealing, but they’re not going to allow Sanders to be the nominee and there’s been all sorts of articles in the New York Times and people like Lloyd Blankfein, the former CEO of Goldman Sachs, they’ve all said that if he was the nominee, they’d vote for Trump. I think there’s almost no chance he’s going to get it. I think this will be damaging. I can’t see Bernie’s base, his young base, sticking with the Democratic Party. But I think when we go back to 2016, it was always my argument that Bernie should have run as an Independent, that we’re not going to build an effective political opposition in one election cycle, and that we can’t reform the Democratic Party or the system from within. We’ve got to attack it from the outside.
Kim Brown: His latest piece appears on truthdig.com. It’s titled Class, the Little Words Elites Wants you to Forget. We’ve been joined today with Chris Hedges. If he is a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist, of bestselling author and activist. We’ve been speaking to him today from Princeton, New Jersey. Chris, it was great to have you back on the Real News.
Chris Hedges: Thank you very much.
Kim Brown: Thank you for watching the Real News Network.
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Production: Genevieve Montinar, Cameron Granadino
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therealnews--2020-03-09--Increasing Calls for Warren to Back Sanders to Stop Biden

This is a rush transcript and may contain errors .
It will be updated .
Elizabeth Warre… : I was told at the beginning of this whole undertaking that there are two lanes , a progressive lane that Bernie Sanders is the incumbent for , and a moderate land that Joe Biden is the incumbent for .
And there ’ s no room for anyone else in this .
I thought that wasn ’ t right , but evidently I was wrong .
Jaisal Noor : Welcome to The Real News .
I ’ m Jaisal Noor .
It ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Democratic primary with just three candidates left led by Joe Biden , who beat expectations on Super Tuesday after a commanding victory in South Carolina , and after the backing of several former rivals and much of the Democratic establishment .
If Bernie Sanders is going to win back the momentum he needs a strong performance in upcoming primaries and the democratic debate .
On Thursday , Elizabeth Warren announced she ’ s suspending her campaign .
Elizabeth Warre… : I ’ ve had a chance to get out there and talk with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ideas now that we talk about that we just weren ’ t talking about even a year ago .
A two cent wealth tax , and universal childcare that could be real , we could make it happen .
And canceling student loan debt for 43 million Americans , and raising social security payments .
Those are life changing events for people .
And we could actually do this .
Jaisal Noor : The next Democratic debate is March 15th and it will be followed by delegate rich primaries in Arizona , Florida @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Well , now joining me to discuss all of this and more is Norman Solomon .
He was a former delegate for Bernie Sanders , co-founder , National Coordinator of RootsAction.org which is supporting Bernie Sanders .
And he wrote the recent piece , A Profound and Historic Question for Elizabeth Warren : Which side are you on ?
Thanks so much for speaking with us again , Norman .
Norman Solomon : Glad to be here .
Jaisal Noor : So looking forward , the stakes couldn ’ t be higher @ @ @ @ @ @ @ faced a major setback on super Tuesday .
He was the favorite according to the odds makers , and now Five ThirtyEight , The New York times blog has given Biden a seven and eight chance to take the democratic nomination .
Your thoughts right now ?
Norman Solomon : Well , a lot of this is a media and political pundit expectation game .
If we had said a month or two or three ago that it would be down to Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden most people would ’ ve thought @ @ @ @ @ @ @ uphill climb , but certainly can win the nomination , and against Donald Trump as well .
And what we ’ re seeing now is a corporate gang up on Bernie Sanders .
At the political level , virtually almost all of his opponents who have lasted into these last few weeks basically teaming up to bash and trash him .
We ’ ve had not only Joe Biden carrying the mantle of corporate America , although he wouldn ’ t quite put it that way , but we see Pete Buttigieg , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Michael Bloomberg , [ inaudible 00:03:24 ] back from the past .
These are like five political candidates from the election who had at one time or another huge media cache and were seen as major candidates [ crosstalk 00:03:39 ] .
Jaisal Noor : And some who had framed themselves as progressive , like O ’ Rourke and others .
Norman Solomon : Yes .
And O ’ Rourke was hard to grasp , what he meant by that , he sort of was , and wasn ’ t progressive and didn @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of course we ’ ve had this effort by other candidates as well .
Most recently I think Pete Buttigieg to claim to be progressive , and then within a year after launching the campaign was very much running an anti progressive effort .
So these are people who whatever their positive characteristics have enormous opportunistic tendencies .
And I think when you look at those five I ’ ve mentioned who were ganging up on Bernie Sanders now , what a contrast to somebody who for several decades has been saying the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and social justice , and that ’ s Bernie Sanders .
And in the midst of all that , now of course , as you mentioned , we have the recent withdrawal from the campaign of Elizabeth Warren and that ’ s one of the major unknowns as we go forward , as to what role she might be willing to play .
Jaisal Noor : Now , you and many others have called for Warren to back Sanders in the primary .
She has declined to endorse anyone so far .
In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ until Hillary won the race , which angered some people .
But it ’ s been reported that not many people thought that Sanders had a shot , and he proved them wrong .
At least one poll I saw has her supporter split between the two candidates .
And Warren was interviewed on Rachel Maddow last night .
And now , it was a wide ranging interview , she talked about some of the work that she has done with Sanders .
And it ’ s worth mentioning , Warren launched her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like the bankruptcy bill .
But she also raised the online harassment carried out by some supporters of Bernie Sanders .
I want to play a little bit of that clip .
Elizabeth Warre… : I think there ’ s a real problem with this online bullying and sort of organized nastiness .
And I ’ m not just talking about who said mean things , I ’ m talking about some really ugly stuff that went on .
Jaisal Noor : So Warren went on to highlight the doxxing of two officials @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on Medicare for all ahead of the Nevada caucuses .
So on one hand you have real instances of online harassment , which have really captured the media narrative , and some Warren supporters are concerned about that .
And then on the other hand , on Thursday , a Nazi flag was unfurled at a Sanders rally .
And as far as I can tell , that ’ s received far less coverage .
Can you respond to both ?
And I mean Sanders has openly denounced these supporters that have attacked @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Warren .
But this still continues to be a major narrative in the media and just what people are saying online .
Yeah , I wanted to get your response to that .
Norman Solomon : There ’ ve been awful online attacks and sometimes online and offline against a number of candidates , certainly including Elizabeth Warren , certainly including Bernie Sanders , and some of their top spokespeople and so forth .
The night before last when Bernie Sanders basically spent an hour with Rachel Maddow on the air , she @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Sanders raised the question not only or addressed the matter of not only really horrible attacks by people who said they were Sanders supporters , but also the incoming .
The attacks for instance , as we know on Nina Turner , a co-chair of the Sanders campaign , terrible online racist and sexist attacks , just awful .
When the question of attacks on Bernie Sanders came up from him , Rachel Maddow made clear , “ No , I don ’ t want to talk about the outgoing from people who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ want to talk only about attacks by people who said they were Sanders ’ supporters.
” And I think that sort of gives away the game for weeks and really months at this point .
Outlets like the New York times , Washington Post , CNN , MSNBC , they don ’ t want to talk about it in a single standard way .
They want to talk about attacks that are done in the name of , vile attacks done in the name of supporters of Bernie Sanders , whether they ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ don ’ t know , but certainly some of them are people who feel they ’ re supporting Sanders .
But the mass media don ’ t want to talk about the vile , vicious attacks including racism and sexism that have been launched consistently against some of the top officials of the Sanders campaign and against Sanders himself .
So I think underneath all of that , sure we should condemn all of those sorts of attacks .
No question .
At the same time , why are the corporate media focusing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they feel that they can make Sanders look bad ?
And the answer to be very brief about it is these are corporate media outlets .
They ’ re opposed to Bernie Sanders .
The media watch group FAIR for many months , and actually four or five years has been documenting corporate media attacks on Bernie Sanders .
Consistent , outrageous patterns .
So what are the vested interests of these corporate outlets ?
And I would just sum up .
They don ’ t want higher taxes .
They don ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ complex .
They don ’ t want somebody in the white house who will really go after income inequality , and try to diminish the power of huge corporations , and the wealthy over our political process .
So I think this whole question of online harassment has been really tainted and the well has been poisoned by the vested interest of corporate media .
Jaisal Noor : And Norman , I wanted to ask you , so one argument that I ’ ve heard and something that Elizabeth Warren made directly before @ @ @ @ @ @ @ something that Sanders will have to address more , if he ’ s going to win over her supporters , if he ’ s going to get this increased turnout , which we saw in places like New Hampshire but not in some of these super Tuesday States , is that … One of the arguments is that the questioning of Bernie Sanders accomplishments in office saying that , Warren was the one that could have gotten things done .
She had the plan , but really questioning , what has Sanders accomplished @ @ @ @ @ @ @ something done in this current political landscape ?
And so how do you respond to that ?
Norman Solomon : Well , Bernie Sanders was known in Congress as the amendment King , very effective in proposing and implementing amendments to legislation .
There ’ s a huge benefit that we owe a debt of gratitude to Bernie Sanders for having to do with Obamacare , the Affordable Care Act when it was very close in terms of the votes in Congress , whether Obamacare would be passed .
Bernie Sanders rather than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said to president Obama quite explicitly , “ If you want my vote for the Affordable Care Act , you must put in that bill , huge funding for underserved communities via community clinics.
” And federally qualified health centers received as a result more than 11 billion with a B dollars .
Like many people around the country , urban and rural areas , I live a few miles from a federally qualified health center that is assisting low income , middle income people and they ’ re able to do it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ often do we hear that mentioned in the news media ?
Virtually never .
Jaisal Noor : And looking forward , the next debate it ’ s going to be Biden and Sanders and Sanders has already taken the gloves off against Biden .
I wanted to play a clip of an ad that Sanders is running in the States with upcoming primaries .
Joe Biden : When I argued that we should freeze federal spending , I also meant social security as well .
I meant Medicare and Medicaid .
I meant @ @ @ @ @ @ @ solitary thing in the government .
And I not only tried it once , I tried it twice , I tried it a third time and I tried it a fourth time .
Bernie Sanders : Well , we ’ ve got some bad news for them .
We are not going to cut social security .
We ’ re going to expand benefits .
I ’ m Bernie Sanders , and I approve this message .
Jaisal Noor : So you have the set of ads that Sanders rollout , really using @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , which that ’ s going to happen in this primary .
That ’ s going to happen in the general election .
We ’ ve seen some pushback against these ads saying , look , this is , someone even called it a kamikaze effort .
You ’ re going to hurt Biden too much .
You ’ re going to hurt the Democratic nominee too much by using these tactics .
Do you think these are going to be effective in States like Michigan and States like Illinois , and Florida @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the upcoming weeks , and that Sanders is going to have to do well in if he ’ s going to stay in this race or if he ’ s going to win .
Norman Solomon : Much of the most effective messaging against Joe Biden will be his own words , the footage , the video of exactly what Joe Biden has said and what he ’ s advocated for and against .
And anybody who says , and this is aligned from corporate Democrats and corporate media , Bernie Sanders shouldn @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s going to damage the prospects of defeating Trump .
The Republican operatives , the Trump campaign is well aware of everything about Joe Biden ’ s record .
They ’ re well aware of the fact that all of this video it ’ s available and you can bet they would use it against Trump .
And not only issues like social security and Medicare , but also his fierce advocacy for invasion of Iraq , his advocacy for the credit card companies , and also his fierce support and advocacy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ down to electability issues , again , corporate media rarely ever mentioned this , is that in the States that determined the 2016 election , they were shocking because Trump won them in the upper industrial Midwest .
If you look at Michigan and Wisconsin , Pennsylvania , it would apply to Ohio as well , NAFTA is despised .
Working people there attribute NAFTA to the departure of jobs that has decimated communities .
Well , Joe Biden championed NAFTA , he championed other corporate trade pacts that sent jobs overseas where @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wages , bad working conditions , and many factories were shuttered in these communities that then voted for Trump .
So the reality is that Joe Biden is a sitting duck for the demagoguery of the Trump campaign .
At the same time that Joe Biden truly helped decimate some of those communities .
So this is reality .
This is history and it ’ s better that it come out now than wait until Trump can use it against Biden .
Jaisal Noor : Now , Norman , last thing , today @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can beat Trump .
He said yes .
What are your thoughts on that ?
Norman Solomon : Well , we would hope but we need for any Democratic presidential nominee to defeat Trump .
I know that Biden has campaigned casting great aspersions on Bernie Sanders capacities to beat Trump and we know that the match-ups , the polling in those pivotal swing States show that Bernie Sanders is several points ahead of Trump .
This is all about a progressive message to get out the vote , get out the turnout @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we would be best off doing that with a strong progressive candidate , that would be of course , Bernie Sanders .
Jaisal Noor : All right , Norman Solomon , thank you so much for joining us .
Co-founder , National Coordinator of RootsAction.org which is supporting Sanders wrote the recent piece , A Profound and Historic Question for Elizabeth Warren : Which side are you on ?
Please send us your questions and comments on this video on Twitter , on Facebook .
Thanks so much for watching The Real News @ @

Joe Biden is a weaker candidate against Trump, argues Roots Action co-founder Norman Solomon.
Story Transcript
This is a rush transcript and may contain errors. It will be updated.
Elizabeth Warre…: I was told at the beginning of this whole undertaking that there are two lanes, a progressive lane that Bernie Sanders is the incumbent for, and a moderate land that Joe Biden is the incumbent for. And there’s no room for anyone else in this. I thought that wasn’t right, but evidently I was wrong.
Jaisal Noor: Welcome to The Real News. I’m Jaisal Noor. It’s a brand new race in the Democratic primary with just three candidates left led by Joe Biden, who beat expectations on Super Tuesday after a commanding victory in South Carolina, and after the backing of several former rivals and much of the Democratic establishment. If Bernie Sanders is going to win back the momentum he needs a strong performance in upcoming primaries and the democratic debate. On Thursday, Elizabeth Warren announced she’s suspending her campaign.
Elizabeth Warre…: I’ve had a chance to get out there and talk with millions of people, and we have ideas now that we talk about that we just weren’t talking about even a year ago. A two cent wealth tax, and universal childcare that could be real, we could make it happen. And canceling student loan debt for 43 million Americans, and raising social security payments. Those are life changing events for people. And we could actually do this.
Jaisal Noor: The next Democratic debate is March 15th and it will be followed by delegate rich primaries in Arizona, Florida, Illinois and Ohio on March 17th. Well, now joining me to discuss all of this and more is Norman Solomon. He was a former delegate for Bernie Sanders, co-founder, National Coordinator of RootsAction.org which is supporting Bernie Sanders. And he wrote the recent piece, A Profound and Historic Question for Elizabeth Warren: Which side are you on? Thanks so much for speaking with us again, Norman.
Norman Solomon: Glad to be here.
Jaisal Noor: So looking forward, the stakes couldn’t be higher for the Sanders campaign. Obviously he faced a major setback on super Tuesday. He was the favorite according to the odds makers, and now Five ThirtyEight, The New York times blog has given Biden a seven and eight chance to take the democratic nomination. Your thoughts right now?
Norman Solomon: Well, a lot of this is a media and political pundit expectation game. If we had said a month or two or three ago that it would be down to Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden most people would’ve thought that was farfetched. Bernie has an uphill climb, but certainly can win the nomination, and against Donald Trump as well. And what we’re seeing now is a corporate gang up on Bernie Sanders. At the political level, virtually almost all of his opponents who have lasted into these last few weeks basically teaming up to bash and trash him. We’ve had not only Joe Biden carrying the mantle of corporate America, although he wouldn’t quite put it that way, but we see Pete Buttigieg, we have Amy Klobuchar, we have Michael Bloomberg, [inaudible 00:03:24] back from the past. These are like five political candidates from the election who had at one time or another huge media cache and were seen as major candidates [crosstalk 00:03:39].
Jaisal Noor: And some who had framed themselves as progressive, like O’Rourke and others.
Norman Solomon: Yes. And O’Rourke was hard to grasp, what he meant by that, he sort of was, and wasn’t progressive and didn’t want labels. And then of course we’ve had this effort by other candidates as well. Most recently I think Pete Buttigieg to claim to be progressive, and then within a year after launching the campaign was very much running an anti progressive effort. So these are people who whatever their positive characteristics have enormous opportunistic tendencies.
And I think when you look at those five I’ve mentioned who were ganging up on Bernie Sanders now, what a contrast to somebody who for several decades has been saying the same basic social change message of economic and social justice, and that’s Bernie Sanders. And in the midst of all that, now of course, as you mentioned, we have the recent withdrawal from the campaign of Elizabeth Warren and that’s one of the major unknowns as we go forward, as to what role she might be willing to play.
Jaisal Noor: Now, you and many others have called for Warren to back Sanders in the primary. She has declined to endorse anyone so far. In 2016, she sat out the primary until Hillary won the race, which angered some people. But it’s been reported that not many people thought that Sanders had a shot, and he proved them wrong. At least one poll I saw has her supporter split between the two candidates. And Warren was interviewed on Rachel Maddow last night. And now, it was a wide ranging interview, she talked about some of the work that she has done with Sanders. And it’s worth mentioning, Warren launched her political life opposing Joe Biden on things like the bankruptcy bill. But she also raised the online harassment carried out by some supporters of Bernie Sanders. I want to play a little bit of that clip.
Elizabeth Warre…: I think there’s a real problem with this online bullying and sort of organized nastiness. And I’m not just talking about who said mean things, I’m talking about some really ugly stuff that went on.
Jaisal Noor: So Warren went on to highlight the doxxing of two officials from unite here that had opposed Sanders on Medicare for all ahead of the Nevada caucuses. So on one hand you have real instances of online harassment, which have really captured the media narrative, and some Warren supporters are concerned about that. And then on the other hand, on Thursday, a Nazi flag was unfurled at a Sanders rally. And as far as I can tell, that’s received far less coverage. Can you respond to both? And I mean Sanders has openly denounced these supporters that have attacked other supporters of other candidates including of Warren. But this still continues to be a major narrative in the media and just what people are saying online. Yeah, I wanted to get your response to that.
Norman Solomon: There’ve been awful online attacks and sometimes online and offline against a number of candidates, certainly including Elizabeth Warren, certainly including Bernie Sanders, and some of their top spokespeople and so forth. The night before last when Bernie Sanders basically spent an hour with Rachel Maddow on the air, she raised this as well. And when Sanders raised the question not only or addressed the matter of not only really horrible attacks by people who said they were Sanders supporters, but also the incoming. The attacks for instance, as we know on Nina Turner, a co-chair of the Sanders campaign, terrible online racist and sexist attacks, just awful. When the question of attacks on Bernie Sanders came up from him, Rachel Maddow made clear, “No, I don’t want to talk about the outgoing from people who said they support somebody else. I want to talk only about attacks by people who said they were Sanders’ supporters.”
And I think that sort of gives away the game for weeks and really months at this point. Outlets like the New York times, Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC, they don’t want to talk about it in a single standard way. They want to talk about attacks that are done in the name of, vile attacks done in the name of supporters of Bernie Sanders, whether they’re supporters or not. Sometimes we don’t know, but certainly some of them are people who feel they’re supporting Sanders. But the mass media don’t want to talk about the vile, vicious attacks including racism and sexism that have been launched consistently against some of the top officials of the Sanders campaign and against Sanders himself.
So I think underneath all of that, sure we should condemn all of those sorts of attacks. No question. At the same time, why are the corporate media focusing only on one aspect of that where they feel that they can make Sanders look bad? And the answer to be very brief about it is these are corporate media outlets. They’re opposed to Bernie Sanders. The media watch group FAIR for many months, and actually four or five years has been documenting corporate media attacks on Bernie Sanders. Consistent, outrageous patterns.
So what are the vested interests of these corporate outlets? And I would just sum up. They don’t want higher taxes. They don’t want challenges to the military industrial complex. They don’t want somebody in the white house who will really go after income inequality, and try to diminish the power of huge corporations, and the wealthy over our political process. So I think this whole question of online harassment has been really tainted and the well has been poisoned by the vested interest of corporate media.
Jaisal Noor: And Norman, I wanted to ask you, so one argument that I’ve heard and something that Elizabeth Warren made directly before she dropped out of the race, something that Sanders will have to address more, if he’s going to win over her supporters, if he’s going to get this increased turnout, which we saw in places like New Hampshire but not in some of these super Tuesday States, is that … One of the arguments is that the questioning of Bernie Sanders accomplishments in office saying that, Warren was the one that could have gotten things done. She had the plan, but really questioning, what has Sanders accomplished? Is he the person to get something done in this current political landscape? And so how do you respond to that?
Norman Solomon: Well, Bernie Sanders was known in Congress as the amendment King, very effective in proposing and implementing amendments to legislation. There’s a huge benefit that we owe a debt of gratitude to Bernie Sanders for having to do with Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act when it was very close in terms of the votes in Congress, whether Obamacare would be passed. Bernie Sanders rather than simply going with the democratic party line said to president Obama quite explicitly, “If you want my vote for the Affordable Care Act, you must put in that bill, huge funding for underserved communities via community clinics.” And federally qualified health centers received as a result more than 11 billion with a B dollars. Like many people around the country, urban and rural areas, I live a few miles from a federally qualified health center that is assisting low income, middle income people and they’re able to do it largely because of Bernie Sanders. How often do we hear that mentioned in the news media? Virtually never.
Jaisal Noor: And looking forward, the next debate it’s going to be Biden and Sanders and Sanders has already taken the gloves off against Biden. I wanted to play a clip of an ad that Sanders is running in the States with upcoming primaries.
Joe Biden: When I argued that we should freeze federal spending, I also meant social security as well. I meant Medicare and Medicaid. I meant Veterans benefit, I met every single solitary thing in the government. And I not only tried it once, I tried it twice, I tried it a third time and I tried it a fourth time.
Bernie Sanders: Well, we’ve got some bad news for them. We are not going to cut social security. We’re going to expand benefits. I’m Bernie Sanders, and I approve this message.
Jaisal Noor: So you have the set of ads that Sanders rollout, really using Biden’s own words against him, which that’s going to happen in this primary. That’s going to happen in the general election. We’ve seen some pushback against these ads saying, look, this is, someone even called it a kamikaze effort. You’re going to hurt Biden too much. You’re going to hurt the Democratic nominee too much by using these tactics. Do you think these are going to be effective in States like Michigan and States like Illinois, and Florida that are going to be voting in the upcoming weeks, and that Sanders is going to have to do well in if he’s going to stay in this race or if he’s going to win.
Norman Solomon: Much of the most effective messaging against Joe Biden will be his own words, the footage, the video of exactly what Joe Biden has said and what he’s advocated for and against. And anybody who says, and this is aligned from corporate Democrats and corporate media, Bernie Sanders shouldn’t do this because then it’s going to damage the prospects of defeating Trump. The Republican operatives, the Trump campaign is well aware of everything about Joe Biden’s record. They’re well aware of the fact that all of this video it’s available and you can bet they would use it against Trump. And not only issues like social security and Medicare, but also his fierce advocacy for invasion of Iraq, his advocacy for the credit card companies, and also his fierce support and advocacy for NAFTA. And when we get down to electability issues, again, corporate media rarely ever mentioned this, is that in the States that determined the 2016 election, they were shocking because Trump won them in the upper industrial Midwest.
If you look at Michigan and Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, it would apply to Ohio as well, NAFTA is despised. Working people there attribute NAFTA to the departure of jobs that has decimated communities. Well, Joe Biden championed NAFTA, he championed other corporate trade pacts that sent jobs overseas where workers are oppressed and get very low wages, bad working conditions, and many factories were shuttered in these communities that then voted for Trump. So the reality is that Joe Biden is a sitting duck for the demagoguery of the Trump campaign. At the same time that Joe Biden truly helped decimate some of those communities. So this is reality. This is history and it’s better that it come out now than wait until Trump can use it against Biden.
Jaisal Noor: Now, Norman, last thing, today Sanders was asked if he thinks Biden can beat Trump. He said yes. What are your thoughts on that?
Norman Solomon: Well, we would hope but we need for any Democratic presidential nominee to defeat Trump. I know that Biden has campaigned casting great aspersions on Bernie Sanders capacities to beat Trump and we know that the match-ups, the polling in those pivotal swing States show that Bernie Sanders is several points ahead of Trump. This is all about a progressive message to get out the vote, get out the turnout and defeat this horrible president, and we would be best off doing that with a strong progressive candidate, that would be of course, Bernie Sanders.
Jaisal Noor: All right, Norman Solomon, thank you so much for joining us. Co-founder, National Coordinator of RootsAction.org which is supporting Sanders wrote the recent piece, A Profound and Historic Question for Elizabeth Warren: Which side are you on? Please send us your questions and comments on this video on Twitter, on Facebook. Thanks so much for watching The Real News Network.
Studio: Adam Coley, Bababtunde Ogunfolaju
Production: Genevieve Montinar, Bababtunde Ogunfolaju, Andrew Corkery
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therealnews--2020-03-10--Harriet Tubman’s Legacy: Hope in the Age of Trump

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therealnews--2020-03-10--What Price Would You Pay For Your Principles?

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therealnews--2020-03-12--Trump Causes More Coronavirus Confusion

Trump Causes More Coronavirus Confusion

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therealnews--2020-03-12--Why Is Bernie Still In the Race?

Why Is Bernie Still In the Race?

Bernie Sanders : While we are currently losing the delegate count .
Poll after poll , including exit polls , show that a strong majority of the American people support our progressive agenda .
While our campaign has won the ideological debate , we are losing the debate over electability .
Today I say to the democratic establishment , in order to win in the future , you need to win the voters who represent the future of our country .
And you must speak to the issues of concern to them .
Marc Steiner : Welcome to Real News @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Bernie Sanders just went up at one o ’ clock today .
Just say he ’ s still running and said a great deal more .
And I ’ m joined here by Charles Lenchner , who is our Digital Director here at the Real News and worked on Bernie ’ s last campaign .
Charles , so what we just witnessed here is Bernie saying , we had the generations with us , we have the future with this , but we lost this particular piece of the campaign , we ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s the essence here ?
Charles Lenchner : Bernie Sanders made a point that he had lost to some extent the electability argument with a majority of the voters so far .
But he was also making the case that he ’ s won the generation argument in terms of having large majorities , but especially the young people support him on the issues , whether that ’ s Medicare for all raising taxes on the wealthy and supporting so many of the causes that animate young people today , like free college @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he also said he was going to take it to Biden on Sunday and he listed all the ways he was going to take it to Biden on Sunday .
So the question is , I mean , what does this mean about the battle being set up ?
I mean clearly if you take it backwards for just a moment , Bernie ’ s campaign did not organize this correctly over the last four years .
It might not be in this position if you ’ re organized among black voters , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them out in a way that really built a movement when you ’ re just saying we have a movement , so where does it go from here ?
Charles Lenchner : Bernie Sanders grassroots is not happy , as you might imagine .
Charles Lenchner : The defeats on Super Tuesday and yesterday are real and painful .
But if you compare the situation today to the situation during Occupy Wall Street , how many more people we have involved in meaningful work , how many more people and staff and volunteers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of running in campaigns of running for office , of helping to support the kind of things that these folks want .
We are way ahead of the game if you give it that kind of comparison and given the majorities of young people that support Bernie Sanders vision , the future looks bright .
It ’ s also important to note that there is complete unity on our side of the fence about the need to defeat Trump and to make sure that no matter what , a Democrat replaces him in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ around the fights inside the democratic party , that ’ s not one event that takes place in Milwaukee at the DNC .
That is hundreds or thousands of events at the county level , municipal level , state level .
At the DNC , there ’ s a platform committee , there ’ s a rules committee .
Maybe we ’ ll finally get rid of all the superdelegates .
There ’ s all that productive work to be done and many , many people eager to engage in it between now @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : So you said one thing is really important .
I think a , there ’ s never been a time in American history before where people on the left , where people will call themselves socialist , people think of themselves constantly left , have had this mass of people in a party and just pushing this country forward and it has its roots go way back .
The question is , in the last election people went , look , if it ’ s not burning , I ’ m that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ voted for Obama in 2008 did not vote in 2012 another eight and 2016 .
10 % of Trump supporters were Obama supporters before that and then , and so this could be very intense .
The question becomes why are you so confident that this means that folks are going to come out in November to defeat Trump if Bernie ’ s not the man ?
Charles Lenchner : I ’ m not confident at all .
I think that Biden as a nominee is going to make turning out large number @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it would be .
All the more reason for the Biden forces , even if they feel confident or that they ’ re going to win , they ought to be nervous as hell about making sure they win in November .
There ’ s a lot of doubts expressed because if we don ’ t get young people to vote and turn out in large numbers , we ’ re going to see a second Trump term .
So what ’ s needed by Biden is to be on that stage , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and policy proposals and instead of smacking them down and talking about what he ’ d veto , he needs to show us that he can grow and he can do better .
That he ’ s open to embracing the principles of the Bernie Sanders movement .
If he fails to do that , it bodes very badly for our chances in November .
Marc Steiner : and that ’ s very frightening .
I mean , I will see what happens Sunday night .
I mean Bernie has a chance Sunday @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and we don ’ t .
This is not over yet in terms of when I watch our movements grow and had been in politics a lot long time myself , this is not over .
The real danger is what happens in November when you have this white nationalist clique around Trump and these neoconservative around Trump who are defining what ’ s our future .
That ’ s the danger .
The question is , will people see that ’ s the danger ?
Charles Lenchner : I certainly hope that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ becoming the third most important character in this election play .
The pandemic , it ’ s not been officially declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization .
I believe it ’ s going to have a dramatic impact on our political process for the next chunk of time and that the values of solidarity , a strong safety net of people coming together , of taking care of each other , our values that the pandemic inadvertently promotes because it forces our communities to ask the question , how do we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ protected ?
Not just because it ’ s the right thing to do , but because if we fail it that we ’ re all going to suffer .
Marc Steiner : Well , we ’ re going to see what happens this Sunday when this debate takes place for these two men .
And Monday morning , we ’ re willing to get out here and tell you what we think and , and really get into this in a very deep way .
We ’ ll see how this week pans @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have Charles Lenchner on the air and we ’ ve got a great deal more to come .
Marc Steiner : Thank you .
And I am Mark Steiner for the Real News Network .
Good to have you .

Bernie’s odds of defeating Biden are narrow; but he’s winning on the issues.
Story Transcript
Bernie Sanders: While we are currently losing the delegate count. Poll after poll, including exit polls, show that a strong majority of the American people support our progressive agenda. While our campaign has won the ideological debate, we are losing the debate over electability. Today I say to the democratic establishment, in order to win in the future, you need to win the voters who represent the future of our country. And you must speak to the issues of concern to them.
Marc Steiner: Welcome to Real News, I’m Marc Steiner. Bernie Sanders just went up at one o’clock today. Just say he’s still running and said a great deal more. And I’m joined here by Charles Lenchner, who is our Digital Director here at the Real News and worked on Bernie’s last campaign. Charles, so what we just witnessed here is Bernie saying, we had the generations with us, we have the future with this, but we lost this particular piece of the campaign, we’re not done. So what’s the essence here?
Charles Lenchner: Bernie Sanders made a point that he had lost to some extent the electability argument with a majority of the voters so far. But he was also making the case that he’s won the generation argument in terms of having large majorities, but especially the young people support him on the issues, whether that’s Medicare for all raising taxes on the wealthy and supporting so many of the causes that animate young people today, like free college.
Marc Steiner: So, but he also said he was going to take it to Biden on Sunday and he listed all the ways he was going to take it to Biden on Sunday. So the question is, I mean, what does this mean about the battle being set up? I mean clearly if you take it backwards for just a moment, Bernie’s campaign did not organize this correctly over the last four years. It might not be in this position if you’re organized among black voters, if he organized his base and got them out in a way that really built a movement when you’re just saying we have a movement, so where does it go from here?
Charles Lenchner: Bernie Sanders grassroots is not happy, as you might imagine.
Marc Steiner: Yeah.
Charles Lenchner: The defeats on Super Tuesday and yesterday are real and painful. But if you compare the situation today to the situation during Occupy Wall Street, how many more people we have involved in meaningful work, how many more people and staff and volunteers and super volunteers are learning the mechanics of running in campaigns of running for office, of helping to support the kind of things that these folks want. We are way ahead of the game if you give it that kind of comparison and given the majorities of young people that support Bernie Sanders vision, the future looks bright.
It’s also important to note that there is complete unity on our side of the fence about the need to defeat Trump and to make sure that no matter what, a Democrat replaces him in office in November, but the fight around the fights inside the democratic party, that’s not one event that takes place in Milwaukee at the DNC. That is hundreds or thousands of events at the county level, municipal level, state level. At the DNC, there’s a platform committee, there’s a rules committee. Maybe we’ll finally get rid of all the superdelegates. There’s all that productive work to be done and many, many people eager to engage in it between now and July in Milwaukee.
Marc Steiner: So you said one thing is really important. I think a, there’s never been a time in American history before where people on the left, where people will call themselves socialist, people think of themselves constantly left, have had this mass of people in a party and just pushing this country forward and it has its roots go way back. The question is, in the last election people went, look, if it’s not burning, I’m that out there. 8 million people who voted for Obama in 2008 did not vote in 2012 another eight and 2016. 10% of Trump supporters were Obama supporters before that and then, and so this could be very intense. The question becomes why are you so confident that this means that folks are going to come out in November to defeat Trump if Bernie’s not the man?
Charles Lenchner: I’m not confident at all. I think that Biden as a nominee is going to make turning out large number of young people much more difficult than it would be. All the more reason for the Biden forces, even if they feel confident or that they’re going to win, they ought to be nervous as hell about making sure they win in November. There’s a lot of doubts expressed because if we don’t get young people to vote and turn out in large numbers, we’re going to see a second Trump term. So what’s needed by Biden is to be on that stage, to listen to Bernie’s criticisms and policy proposals and instead of smacking them down and talking about what he’d veto, he needs to show us that he can grow and he can do better. That he’s open to embracing the principles of the Bernie Sanders movement. If he fails to do that, it bodes very badly for our chances in November.
Marc Steiner: and that’s very frightening. I mean, I will see what happens Sunday night. I mean Bernie has a chance Sunday night to really push Biden a lot and we don’t. This is not over yet in terms of when I watch our movements grow and had been in politics a lot long time myself, this is not over. The real danger is what happens in November when you have this white nationalist clique around Trump and these neoconservative around Trump who are defining what’s our future. That’s the danger. The question is, will people see that’s the danger?
Charles Lenchner: I certainly hope that they do. The Corona virus is becoming the third most important character in this election play. The pandemic, it’s not been officially declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. I believe it’s going to have a dramatic impact on our political process for the next chunk of time and that the values of solidarity, a strong safety net of people coming together, of taking care of each other, our values that the pandemic inadvertently promotes because it forces our communities to ask the question, how do we make sure that the most vulnerable are protected? Not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because if we fail it that we’re all going to suffer.
Marc Steiner: Well, we’re going to see what happens this Sunday when this debate takes place for these two men. And Monday morning, we’re willing to get out here and tell you what we think and, and really get into this in a very deep way. We’ll see how this week pans out and it’s good to have Charles Lenchner on the air and we’ve got a great deal more to come.
Charles Lenchner: Thank you, Mark.
Marc Steiner: Thank you. And I am Mark Steiner for the Real News Network. Good to have you.
Studio: Will Arenas, Dwayne Gladden
Production: Dwayne Gladden, Andrew Corkery
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