Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) saved Joe Biden’s sinking 2020 campaign. His endorsement allowed Joe Biden to clinch the crucial South Carolina primary, setting off a comeback that allowed the aging Delaware liberal to plow his way through the rest of his competition for the Democratic nomination. While voters were feeling the Bern for Sen. Sanders (I-VT) for a hot second, as they did in 2016, the feeling waned once the primary season traveled below the Mason-Dixon line.
No Democrat can win without black voters. It’s why Bernie Sanders could never win the nomination. For Biden, it’s one of a few key voter blocs that either abandon him or are beyond unenthused about supporting this decrepit president. Clyburn is once again doing the hard labor to keep Joe afloat, but he’s not happy with young black voters turning their backs on him. The black SC Democrat claims Biden has a record that matches Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society. That’s hyperbole to the nth degree, not to mention not the best historical comparison.
Like Joe, Johnson could not handle foreign affairs, and his popularity suffered due to the chaos in Vietnam. He would later refuse to run for another term, dropping out, which is something talked about regarding Joe. The drone attack by Iran-backed militias on an American base in Jordan, which killed three Americans, has the United States barreling toward all-out war in the Middle East. Biden won’t be able to cope with the task, so we’ve seen such a pussyfooting demeanor from the White House.
Back to the States, Clyburn has been making the rounds ahead of the Democratic primary in the Palmetto State, where he’s reportedly “indignant” that younger black voters aren’t backing this man to the hilt. That’s maybe a sign, Mr. Clyburn, that Joe Biden’s record isn’t anywhere near the Great Society (via NBC News):
Of young Black voters who've grown disenchanted with Biden, Clyburn said: "I want them to stand in front of me and tell me they will support that [Trump’s record] over Joe Biden’s record."
NBC News polling in 2023 found that Black voters overall favored Biden over Trump by 73% to 17%. But when it came to voters under the age of 34, the margin shrank. Among that slice of the Black electorate, Biden’s support fell to 60%; Trump’s rose to 28%. In 2020, Biden won 87% of Black voters, including 89% of Black voters under 29 and 78% of those 30 to 44.
Any slippage from Biden's base could prove disastrous in another tight election. In 2020, Biden's victory rested on fewer than 43,000 votes in just three states: Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin.
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“I just hope that in 2024 we are not going to find ourselves as a country falling into what Germany fell into in 1932,” he added, referring to the period when the Nazis came to power.
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When it comes to politics, young voters aren’t taking cues from long-standing institutions and party leaders, a former Biden administration official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss frankly some of the president's electoral vulnerabilities. They’re instead looking to people “in the culture”: social media influencers, grassroots leaders and urban radio. Black voters “are not going to be a rubber stamp for the party,” this person added.
Suppose we’re going to dabble in Nazi reference, Jim. In that case, it’s your party that has a problem: they’re rabid antisemites who have engaged in a weirdo denialism about Hamas’ genocidal terrorist attack against Israel last October that left 1,200 civilians dead. The level of brutality hasn’t been seen since the Crusades—it was all-around inhuman behavior, which is why the more terrorists killed in Gaza, the better.
Student loan forgiveness, which had a choppy and legally dubious rollout, falls on deaf ears. Young blacks are putting Biden on mute, and it’s disturbing regarding their position on the Gaza War:
Yet some of the students are unmoved [by Biden’s student loan programs]. The war in Gaza and Biden's inability to rein in the Israeli military is a bigger concern. Biden could do more to address urgent needs at home if he redirected the money going toward Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, some said.
“As Black voters, we have the ability to empathize with the people of Gaza because we have a history of oppression,” said Olivia Ratliff, a 20-year-old sophomore at South Carolina State, Clyburn's alma mater. “It’s really hard for our president and our lawmakers to understand that because they’ve never been in a situation where they’ve been oppressed like the people of Gaza have.”
Jamie Harrison, the chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party, who is black, probably had the most damning exchange with a voter, which was quoted toward the end of the article, where “36-year-old Amia Harrison approached to say she was fed up with ‘voting blue no matter who.’ Harrison listened a bit and then turned away with a clipped, ‘I appreciate you.’”
Biden is also losing support among labor unions and Hispanics. The question is whether those chardonnay-sipping women of the suburbs will bail out this old man because all they care about is abortion. And that’s an issue the GOP has to figure out quickly because, as of now, they’re bound to get tied in a pretzel over it.
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