From the late 1970s large US corporations morphed into imperialist transnational monopolies and exerted their control over American politics by injecting and dumping large gobs of money into the political system, essentially corrupting and hobbling its ability to serve "we the people."
The first to embrace this new trend and greedily feed at the corporate trough was the Republican Party during the 9180s and then the Democrats followed suit during the 1990s. This rightward march by BOTH parties was accompanied by policies that accommodated and genuflected to their new corporate masters which culminated with the now infamous United States Supreme Court Citizens United ruling -- essentially making corporations people and opening the flood gates for more and more money to find its way into the political process.
Prior to this, basically from 1932--1976, the Democratic Party was far more progressive that the GOP. The issues and approaches advocated today in 2016 by Senator Bernie Sanders were considered mainstream Democratic ideas by Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson, and even many moderate Republicans at the time. Back then it was common to support strict financial regulation, liberal immigration, social services for the poor, and progressive tax policies.
Not so now. But back to why Blacks are supporting Hillary Clinton and a bit more historical perspectives.
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the compromises of what we may soon start calling the first Clinton era had dire negative repercussions for African Americans. But Sanders' Congressional career is certainly no pure virgin marriage bed. Though he dances around the issue, the fact is that he voted for the 1994 Crime Bill that saw the number of incarcerated Black Americans skyrocket. And, more troubling, his opposition to large waves of gun control legislation has directly endangered American lives, especially Black lives, just as surely as Bill Clinton's bowing to a Republican Congress did.
But perhaps the most important issue as to why Sanders has not been able to woo Black vote and support to his campaign is in the other uncomfortable fact that he has spent large chunks of the last eight years opposing America's first black President -- calling for him to face a primary challenge in 2012, and voting against his attempt to close Guantanamo in 2009.
In short, while he's voted 95% of his career as an Independent in the United States Congress with Democrats, he's led a kind of political crusade, a low-level witch-hunt if you will, against a Black president that commands both the loyalty, support and popularity of the Black community in near stratospheric heights. In this context Black voters see Sanders as "an Obama hater" -- just like rightwing Republicans. That, in my opinion, is the single most important reason why Blacks are not rushing to Bernie Sanders's campaign and why that will cost him the New York Democratic presidential Primary tomorrow.
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