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Joe BidenCongratulations to our presumptive Democratic nominee, Joe Biden!
 

Uncle Joe

(58,112 posts)
Mon Mar 16, 2020, 12:05 PM Mar 2020

"Something Is Wrong in America": Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor & Michael Eric Dyson Debate Sanders v Biden



(snip)

KEEANGA-YAMAHTTA TAYLOR: Yeah, a couple of things. I came to support Sanders because I think that his politics and his political program actually capture the depths of the problem and crises in the United States right now, even before the coronavirus hit the U.S., the problems with the grotesque amount of economic inequality in this country, the way that that manifests itself particularly in black communities in terms of underemployment, the issues with racial justice, injustice with the criminal justice system in this country, the issues with housing insecurity. The entirety of Bernie Sanders’ program captures the abiding problems of inequality in the United States right now that have disproportionate impact in African-American communities. And so, for me, this was not a difficult decision. I am someone who is deeply cynical about electoral politics, and have been for some time. In many ways, I remain that way. But Sanders’ candidacy in 2016, where someone who identifies as a socialist for the first time in a mainstream election garnered 13 million votes, that I think spoke to the deep problems in this society and the deep desire to do something about them.

But beyond issue of the program, I think that — of Sanders’ program, I think that there are two things that are really important: his commitment to solidarity, that is exemplified by his campaign slogan, “Us, not me,” and the political revolution, which is really just about saying that — is an understanding that in order to pass the kind of dramatic legislation that is necessary to transform the lives of people in this country, that it’s not just going to come from Washington, D.C. It most likely won’t come from Washington, D.C., but that it actually has to be pursued by social movements on the ground. It has to be pursued by organizing on the ground. And Bernie Sanders is clearly, by far and away, the only candidate that understands that. So, when people talk about his political program as pie in the sky, as unrealistic, not only is that betraying their own cynicism — and, for that matter, ignorance — about the way that progress has been achieved in this country, but it dismisses what I think is very different and fundamental about how he sees the enactment of these policies, which is through broad social movements on the ground that have the ability to politically coerce a Congress that is filled with millionaires, that is filled with self-interested politicians who have very little interest — many of whom have very little — who have displayed very little interest in the conditions of the people who are worst off in this country.

And I think, now more than ever, we see the absolute necessity for universal healthcare in this country. That Joe Biden can show his face in public and talk still about affordable healthcare, when we have a convergence of a public healthcare crisis and an economic crisis, and the solution to the public healthcare crisis is what will drive the economic crisis — isolation, quarantining, putting the country on lockdown will exacerbate the economic crisis that is about to be unleashed in this country. So, the notion that healthcare should be affordable, that prescriptions should be affordable, in a time where people’s ability to afford anything, for ordinary working-class people, their ability to afford anything will be thrown into absolute peril, makes no sense. And I think that what Sanders said over the weekend, that we are as safe as the least insured person, has never made more sense than it does in this moment.

And so, I think that the crisis that we are confronted with as a society right now not only highlights the vast inequality that is the underbelly of U.S. society, that is usually and typically hidden — the lives of poor people are almost always papered over and hidden in this country, and in moments of crisis they come bubbling to the surface. And so we have to ask as a society: Are we going to use this opportunity, to use this moment, to actually implement fundamental change, or are we going to continue to kick this can down the road and acting as if there is some normal to get back to? This thing is going to forever alter the way that we interact with each other. It will forever alter probably life as we know it and have understood it to be in the United States.

(snip)

https://www.democracynow.org/2020/3/16/keeanga_yamahtta_taylor_michael_eric_dyson


If I were to vote in a presidential
primary today, I would vote for:
Undecided
10 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
"Something Is Wrong in America": Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor & Michael Eric Dyson Debate Sanders v Biden (Original Post) Uncle Joe Mar 2020 OP
I am no longer reading posts by Sanders people katmondoo Mar 2020 #1
good idea SCantiGOP Mar 2020 #7
Lol because Sanders couldn't carry his own water. In 48 hours we will have the presumptive nominee. grantcart Mar 2020 #2
Why is a non-Democratic site so concerned about the Democratic party primary? wyldwolf Mar 2020 #3
Democracy Now. No thanks. George II Mar 2020 #4
Who is that person? NCProgressive Mar 2020 #5
Here is some information on Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor Uncle Joe Mar 2020 #8
bad mouths millionaires in congress lololol cuz bernie is a MULTi millionaire in congress nt msongs Mar 2020 #6
there "something wrong with" America treestar Mar 2020 #9
Bernie Sanders was Bernie Sanders last night. Authentic to the bitter end, fighting the good fight. BeckyDem Mar 2020 #10
 

katmondoo

(6,454 posts)
1. I am no longer reading posts by Sanders people
Mon Mar 16, 2020, 12:08 PM
Mar 2020
If I were to vote in a presidential
primary today, I would vote for:
Joe Biden
 

SCantiGOP

(13,856 posts)
7. good idea
Mon Mar 16, 2020, 04:59 PM
Mar 2020

I do have enough alternative topics to nurture my anxiety and high blood pressure

If I were to vote in a presidential
primary today, I would vote for:
Joe Biden
 

grantcart

(53,061 posts)
2. Lol because Sanders couldn't carry his own water. In 48 hours we will have the presumptive nominee.
Mon Mar 16, 2020, 12:09 PM
Mar 2020
If I were to vote in a presidential
primary today, I would vote for:
Joe Biden
 

wyldwolf

(43,865 posts)
3. Why is a non-Democratic site so concerned about the Democratic party primary?
Mon Mar 16, 2020, 12:10 PM
Mar 2020
If I were to vote in a presidential
primary today, I would vote for:
Joe Biden
 

George II

(67,782 posts)
4. Democracy Now. No thanks.
Mon Mar 16, 2020, 12:22 PM
Mar 2020
If I were to vote in a presidential
primary today, I would vote for:
Joe Biden
 

NCProgressive

(1,315 posts)
5. Who is that person?
Mon Mar 16, 2020, 12:35 PM
Mar 2020

Never heard of him/her.

If I were to vote in a presidential
primary today, I would vote for:
Joe Biden
 

Uncle Joe

(58,112 posts)
8. Here is some information on Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
Mon Mar 16, 2020, 08:17 PM
Mar 2020


Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor is an African-American academic and writer. She is assistant professor of African-American Studies at Princeton University, and the author of From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation (2016).[1][2] For this book, she received the 2016 Cultural Freedom Award for an Especially Notable Book from Lannan Foundation.[3] She is the author of several books and articles that discuss her work in activism for black lives. Taylor is an activist for black lives and focuses her work in this area.

Education/ Academia

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor earned her PhD in African-American Studies from Northwestern University. Her dissertation is titled Race for Profit: Black Housing and the Urban Crisis in the 1970's. She previously worked at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Department of African American Studies from 2013 to 2014.[1] Taylor is currently an Assistant Professor at Princeton University in the African American Studies Department. She teaches two classes in the 2018 semester. Her current courses are "Rats, Riots, and Revolution: Housing in the Metropolitan United States" as part of the Sociology and African American Studies programs and examines the effects of housing developments and practices that led to underdevelopment in cities and its effects on the Black community. Taylor also teaches "Public Policy in the U.S. Racial State" which looks at how "public policy is debated, adopted, and implemented" through the lens of racial discrimination.[1] Her work has appeared in The Guardian,[4] and Jacobin.[5]

(snip)


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keeanga-Yamahtta_Taylor

If I were to vote in a presidential
primary today, I would vote for:
Undecided
 

msongs

(67,199 posts)
6. bad mouths millionaires in congress lololol cuz bernie is a MULTi millionaire in congress nt
Mon Mar 16, 2020, 01:58 PM
Mar 2020
If I were to vote in a presidential
primary today, I would vote for:
Joe Biden
 

treestar

(82,383 posts)
9. there "something wrong with" America
Mon Mar 16, 2020, 08:30 PM
Mar 2020

because it doesn't elect Bernie President. That's a little much.

If I were to vote in a presidential
primary today, I would vote for:
Joe Biden
 

BeckyDem

(8,361 posts)
10. Bernie Sanders was Bernie Sanders last night. Authentic to the bitter end, fighting the good fight.
Mon Mar 16, 2020, 11:42 PM
Mar 2020

No one wants a political revolution, they know the corruption in government is so overwhelming they know they need one to overturn some of the worst legislation of a generation.

If I were to vote in a presidential
primary today, I would vote for:
Joe Biden
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