Comment: Courting Black Voters

Amy Davidson

COMMENT COURTING BLACK VOTERS IN MARCH, 1988, Bernie Sanders, the democratic-socialist mayor of Burlington, Vermont, held a press conference to say that, for the first time, he would be attending his state’s Presidential caucus, in order to support the “historic” candidacy of the Reverend Jesse Jackson. “All political observers, regardless of their affiliations, now believe that Jesse Jackson in fact has a fighting chance to become the nominee of the Democratic Party, and has a fighting chance to become the next President of the United States,” Sanders said. That was an exaggeration. Jackson was still seen as an improbable choice, compared with Michael Dukakis, Richard Gephardt, or Al Gore. But Sanders sounded absolutely persuaded that the nomination could come down to “a few votes” at the Convention, in Atlanta, and that…

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The New Yorker (Digital) - 1 Issue, February 22, 2016

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