8/16 Sanders to be Guest On Sunday Bobblehead Shows; News & OT
Can Biden win over the young Latinos who flocked to Bernie Sanders?
Energized by universal healthcare and free college tuition, enthusiastic young Latinos favored ‘Tio Bernie’ – and Biden has work to do to convince this crucial voting bloc
Thomas Kennedy remembers spending all day on the phone keeping up with excited new voters wanting to know how “el caucus” worked, ahead of the first Democratic primary contest in Iowa in February.
The most noticeable callers were highly motivated young mothers, part of a huge wave of Hispanic voters, activists and volunteers inspired to get involved in politics for the first time by passion for their candidate.
That candidate was Bernie Sanders. Kennedy, a progressive activist and former Sanders operative, has switched to support Joe Biden, who will next week become the Democratic nominee for president, but worries whether Biden can win over valuable young progressives underwhelmed by his moderate politics.
“Bernie talked directly to people’s material needs,” said Kennedy. The clear populist promises of universal healthcare and cancelling student debt in particular caught fire, Kennedy said.
And expansive outreach and slogans like ‘¡Nuestro Futuro, Nuestra Lucha!’ — Our Future, Our Struggle – clicked with the cohort who nicknamed Sanders “Tío Bernie” (Uncle Bernie).
For the first time, Latinos are poised to be the nation’s largest non-white ethnic voting bloc in the 2020 election, with a large young cohort among the estimated 32 million eligible to vote – a record.
Democrats know that their support is crucial to winning the White House – and potentially both chambers of Congress – but concerns remain over whether Biden can not only persuade young progressives who were energized by Sanders, but mobilize Latinos in decisive numbers at a moment when the coronavirus and economic crises are disproportionately hurting communities of color.
“The Biden campaign must reach young people,” María Teresa Kumar, the president of Voto Latino, a political organization focused on voter engagement. “Because if you’re not reaching young people, you are not reaching the Latino community.”
A survey published last month by Voto Latino and pollster Latino Decisions found that only 60% of Latino voters in six battleground states say they definitely plan to vote, and fewer than half say they are “extremely motivated and enthusiastic” about doing so.
Though the poll was conducted before many of Trump’s recent comments on immigration and the coronavirus, it found enthusiasm for Biden waning, particularly among young Latinos. His support among Latino voters slipped to 60% from 67% in February. By comparison, 73% of Latino voters supported Hillary Clinton at this point in 2016.
“When I worked for Bernie, it wasn’t about electing one person. It was about a movement,” Belén Sisa, a former Sanders press secretary, said. “I don’t feel that from Joe Biden.”
Since the primary, Biden has appeared to move to the left on key policies important to young Latinos. He has embraced a $2tn climate plan, though not the Green New Deal, and pledged an ambitious overhaul of Trump’s immigration orders, and an economic agenda centered on racial equality.
“We’ve moved the needle a bit,” Sisa said.
But, like many progressives, she is frustrated by Biden’s reluctance to embrace Medicare for All, the universal healthcare policy that she says would reduce health disparities for Latinos, who are among the country’s most uninsured. And he has refused to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), the agency carrying out hardline Trump anti-immigration policies at the US-Mexico border and in raids in US cities.
Sisa also said Sanders’ campaign invested more, much earlier, to cultivate Latino voters.
Chuck Rocha, the architect of Sanders’ ambitious Latino outreach strategy, is now applying some of the tactics used to win Hispanics voters in primary contests from Iowa to California, to help Biden beat Trump in November.
After Biden won the primary, Rocha founded Nuestro Pac, a Democratic Super Pac that will target Latino voters in Michigan, Wisconsin, Florida, Nevada and Pennsylvania.
“Part of our work is spreading the message that Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden agree 75% to 80% of the time,” Rocha said.
The Biden campaign recently made other high-profile hires including Julie Chavez Rodriguez, the granddaughter of civil rights hero Cesar Chavez, and Matt Barreto, the founder of Latino Decisions, a top Democratic polling firm. The campaign has also hired Republican strategist Ana Navarro.
Biden’s platform aimed at Hispanic voters – “Todos con Biden” – focuses on healthcare, education and reversing Trump’s anti-immigration agenda. Biden has promised to reinstate the Daca program of rights and protections for undocumented young people, and send a bill to Congress “on day one” that would create a path to citizenship for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the US.
He has also pledged a 100-day moratorium on deportations.
During the primary campaign, Biden was repeatedly confronted by immigration activists who demanded contrition for the more than 3 million deportations carried out while he was vice-president.
“You should vote for Trump,” Biden told one critic. Weeks later, he was obliged to apologize for the “pain” caused by the policies.
Earlier this week, prominent Latino politicians, activists and organizations applauded the selection of Kamala Harris as his running mate. Harris, the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, represents California, which has the largest population of Hispanic voters in the nation.
Domingo Garcia, president of Lulac, the oldest Hispanic organization in the US, said: “She [Harris] knows what Dreamers are facing, the impact Covid-19 is having on black and brown communities, and the contributions immigrants are making to the economy of the United States.”
weather alert: @BernieSanders will this morning join @MeetThePress, @ThisWeekABC, @CNNSotu and @AliVelshi on @MSNBC.
— mike casca (@cascamike) August 16, 2020
More news, tweets, videos, etc in the comments. This serves as an open thread.
Nursing Homes With Safety Problems Deploy Trump-Connected Lobbyists
I won’t be able to stick around as the Benny family is about to be eastbounding down. Have a great day, birdies!
The voiced agreement is one thing. Biden’s ownership by the oligarchy including the insurance establishment is quite another. Where is the rubber going to meet the road? I’m guessing on the practical side of corporate ownership, and not with the lip service.
yeah. imho It sounded like a piece intended to attract Latinos. Even while it was saying they were cautious about Biden, it was including the promises we all know so well. That’s how it works
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/bernie-sanders-acknowledging-progressive-disagreements-platform-joe-biden/story?id=72396119
https://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/512212-sanders-on-downballot-progressive-primary-victories-we-have-made
So, then, here we go again with “Trump Bad”. Ho hum. Yes, and what then is the DNC and their propped up, selected candidate? Will the kleptocracy end? Of course not, as long as either end of the establishment is in power.
I have the luxury, in this state, of being able to vote my conscience. Biden’s getting all the electoral votes, that’s just another way the system is rigged. But I will vote for who I want. That’s what I do, and if everyone did it, the world would be a much better place. And I’m not voting for Biden.
Not hearing about how bad Trump is, for me, is probably the best reason to hope he gets bounced in Nov.
Who will the liberal media turn their clickbait-driven outrage towards, if Biden wins?
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-people-angela-davis-election-idUSKCN25930Y?utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=facebook&utm_source=reddit.com
not only did she not oppose the death penalty, she left someone on death row who only wanted to include DNA evidence
T and R, Ms. Benny!! 🙂 Important CV NC link:
https://news.yale.edu/2020/08/15/yales-rapid-covid-19-saliva-test-receives-fda-emergency-use-authorization
https://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/512227-sanders-labels-usps-dispute-as-a-crisis-for-american-democracy
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/15/pelosi-bringing-house-back-early-postal-service-395791
No, no modified bullshit. Post Office gets funded, period. That means Nancy and Stoyer, you have to get up off your monied asses and call the Senate back in session. Believe me, the House has the power. It’s called the Peoples’ Bully Pulpit! 🤬
Not address funding, too? They have the power of the purse
this morning on CNN SOTU:
Jake Tapper sure ain’t worried about his bills. He doesn’t pay rent.
I’m glad to see AOC top Clinton. I’m sooooo tired of the Clintons..
amazing to me that physical abuse is still a thing a widespread thing
Bullies used to people kowtowing to them. It smacks of entitlement.
I saw a bit of Bernie on SOTU and it was good to see his cragged face.
Jake Tapper, when Bernie would let him get a word in edgewise, haha, tried to ‘gotcha’ Bernie, once by bringing up something Briahna said, well he tried at least, multiple times and, when that didn’t work (at least partly thanks to a fortuitous incoming phone call), a WSJ headline about Wall Street being relieved with Biden’s VP selection.
IIRC there was a bit of a gap here as Bernie was distracted by the noise, so Bernie never actually responded to the bit about what Briahna said. Of course Bernie probably agrees with Briahna.
Great timing on the incoming phone call, lol.
I mean, I would have LOVED it if Bernie had said something about not agreeing with Kamala’s willingness to go soft on Wall Street. Earlier Bernie had brought up the “1%” and it’s pretty clear where Bernie stands on Wall Street (and doing anything to help them engorge themselves even more).
And I would have loved it if Bernie got feisty about the party needing to make a lot more concessions (any?) to its left flank.
But I can understand, for now, Bernie just signaling that he will be fighting for “a progressive agenda” no matter who wins.
I can’t wait to see all the khivers out there hitting the pavement for their queen.
We may need to remind them, frequently, that Hillary thought she had it in the bag too. Remind them that they DO need the left to turn out, whether they choose to be in denial about it or not. And going out to brunch gushing about how great Kamala is won’t help turnout.
The Byedone/KHive bunch don’t just need us Progressives, they need the Hispanic vote, too! Does Joe get that?
i’m not sure they do. especially if vote by mail (vbm) can be kept pretty clean.
You all see this? Apologies if a dupe.
Lol
I like the way it ends.
“You’ve been waiting on it for four hundred years.”
Markos managed to:
1. get the word ‘purity’ in
2. use lack of context to mislead people (in a very willfully deceptive way)
3. squander his potentially-valuable platform to punch left
4. disparage Sanders
5. widen the divide in the party
all in one small tweet! Masterful.
Hmmmm, whose interests are aided by efforts such as those..
I had a childish urge to do something silly like tune in to only watch Bernie speak tomorrow night then immediately sign off, but I just looked at the schedule and it’s almost as though someone anticipated such a thing.
Are both Bernie and Michelle scheduled to speak at the same time? That’s what the schedule implies.
Personally I plan to boycott the whole circus. It should be possible to see the Sanders and AOC segments after-the-fact.
Good point. I’m even worried about Sanders’ speech. I’d love to help him edit it, lol.
Yeah, I’m afraid for Bernie too. I wish he’d have AOC help him beforehand. i’m definitely not watching live.