538: South Carolina’s Black Democrats Are Powerful, But What Do They Want?

[hack89]

Some interesting tidbits:

“When you talk about the black vote, you’re especially talking about black women,” Campbell said. Black women have the highest national voting rate, and Campbell says they are drivers of family voting behavior. “We are the secret sauce to get to the White House or the governorship or the mayors’ offices.”

When I wasn’t at church, I spent part of the weekend visiting campaign offices in Charleston. At one Sanders office, everyone was white. I spoke to Sanders staffers face to face and repeatedly followed up with others, including the state coordinator, by phone trying get an interview from a black volunteer or supporter. None was offered.

By contrast, when I went to a local Clinton headquarters, the staff and volunteers were a mix of black and white. While the staff skewed considerably younger, many of the volunteers were of retirement age. One of them, Helen A. Rivers, 71, was phone banking. A Charleston County native who was a medical intensive care nurse at the the VA hospital for 30 years, Rivers said she supported Clinton because “we need someone who would be fair to all races, not just one.”

The phone bank captain — in other words, a volunteer in charge of volunteers — was Pat Hardy, 64, who was born in New York but retired to South Carolina, where she has family. Hardy is a former schoolteacher and a lifelong Democrat who described supporting Clinton as common sense. “I want someone who can navigate the political world,” she said. “She’s been Secretary of State. No one else has that. She’s not namby-pamby. She’s a strong woman, and we need that.”

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/south-carolinas-black-democrats-are-powerful-but-what-do-they-want/

[hoosierlib]

1. Apparently they want the staus quo...and that's worked so well in the past

[brooklynite]

6. ...and they live in a "Confederate State"...so who cares what they think?

[ladjf]

2. If Hillary's "Black Gambit" puts her in office, we can look

for eight years of meaningless pandering during which nothing of significance will have been done on behalf of the POC or the American people in general. But, the rich will have advanced further in their avaricious grab of our money and rights.
Then the election after that might not have such a capable and willing candidate as Sanders.

[hack89]

3. It certainly should elicit some soul searching on Bernie's part

on how he was not able to capitalize on such an important opportunity.

[ladjf]

4. The problem does lie withing Bernie's thoughts, but those of they

American People who chose either Trump, the Carnival Barker or Clinton, a known ally of the Rich Establishment.

[Rebkeh]

5. This doesn't surprise me, unfortunate as it is

I understand it though, as a Gen X black woman myself. I am solidly for Bernie though because he's the only one up there that I trust to follow through with his word. I trust his intentions, I don't trust hers. I don't believe a word she says so it really doesn't matter how good she is at the game. Consistency and integrity rank higher than the hustle and navigation in dirty politics.

Bernie does not play the game in ways that are familiar to most, this doesn't mean he can't play it. The familiar way hasn't made any substantial gains anyway, I'll take my chances on the more authentic option. Those odds are far better.

[UncleTomsEvilBrother]

7. As a GEN X Black Man myself,...

...I think the attitude of the SC Black electorate is "smugger" than it should be. For them (us) to be so demanding, we sure do seem to "get ghost" during midterm and local elections. The SC House, Senate, and Gov are all Republicans. I feel the same way about the Black electorate in my home state of FL.

In order to deserve this level of pandering, they(we) should be required to show our political muscle in midterm and local elections.