☪️ ישוע شهريار  ✡️Verified account

Here's my problem with Bernie and a lot of Bernie supporters: Look man, I respect your core economic ideas. I do. I'm fighting for the same.

But you gotta understand that economics isn't the only variable at play here. When I say that, I'm not saying economics don't matter to me.

What I'm saying is I have to worry about racism, too. About ableism, too. About bigotry. About xenophobia. I gotta worry about so much more.

I got friends who gotta worry about transphobia. About homophobia. About misogyny. And all the while, we gotta worry about poverty!

When Bernie says Trump voters weren't motivated by race, he's not just going against empirical research and mountains of anecdotal evidence.

By refusing to call out Trump voters for their racism, Bernie is in effect negating minorities' struggle for rights and justice.

Now let me tell you I'm a pessimistic man. Very pessimistic. But let's look at the optimistic options. Let's pretend Bernie means well.

Let's say Bernie is trying to NOT alienate Trump voters by pretending they're not racist so they feel good about themselves and abandon DJT.

Read the paragraphs from this article @ParkerMolloy tweeted and explain to me HOW you'll reach this Trump voter.https://twitter.com/ParkerMolloy/status/848274183284981761 …

Since the election, we've had interview after interview with Trump voters who have literally signed their own death warrants by voting Trump

People on Obamacare. On Medicare. On Medicaid. On disability programs. On meals on wheels. These people risked death and voted Trump.

These aren't ppl who voted Trump, thinking he won't take away life-saving support from them. They support him AFTER knowing he'll do it, too

If ppl can't be convinced to abandon Trump under threat of DEATH, then they're not gonna abandon Trump because you say they're not racist.

So even in the most optimistic scenario, this whole "Trump voters aren't racist," thing doesn't do us any good, Bernie... BUT!

...but just because no good comes out of this tactic doesn't mean no bad comes out of it either. Heard of "normalizing racism"? Yeah, that.

As one of the most popular politicians in the country, Bernie's words matter. They shape the minds of millions of his followers.

Bernie's words also enter popular discourse, shaping both politics in general and culture in particular. His words are consequential.

By normalizing the role racism played in one of the most important elections in living memory, Bernie is setting us back decades.

This will hurt bonds between White Bernie supporters and people of color because of how our views will differ on what happened on Nov8/2016.

Going forward, the divide between leftists who see economics as the be all end all of the struggle and those who disagree will widen.

Valuable future allies will see racism and all forms of hate as less and less harmful to the fate of the country... Isolating the oppressed.

Already we have fissures which will no doubt increase. This is very exploitable by the rich who have the money to sabotage our discourse.

Why is it so hard for Bernie to see that? To understand that he provides PART of the solution. That the problem is much much bigger.

Bernie's forte is economics. Why won't he stick to that? Really? I'm totally up for standing with Bernie on so many issues we both agree on.

I'm there with Bernie on universal health care, free college education, more regulations on big corporations. Will march with you rn!