Socialist Lives Matter

I'm actually starting to feel sorry for Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.  His underdog campaign has been laid siege not by Tea Party activists opposed to his tax and spend economic beliefs--nor by Hillary Clinton supporters worried that he will be the one to ruin her coronation this time around--but rather by the very people he believes he will be helping the most.

For the second time since he started campaigning, Sanders had a public appearance taken over by members of the Black Lives Matter movement.  In Seattle on Sunday, Sanders was to speak to the crowd about income inequality and corporate influence on politics when his introduction was interrupted by two African-American women who literally commandeered the microphone and demanded four-and-a-half minutes of silence in honor of Michael Brown's shooting death in Ferguson a year ago.  When the two were booed by members of the crowd (after they did honor the request for silence), the women went on a tirade about how racist everybody in Seattle is.  Eventually, Sanders left the stage--without ever addressing his supporters.

This stunt was preceded by a Sanders appearance at a liberal conference called NetRoots last month where, again, Black Lives Matter folks interrupted his speech and he made the unforgiveable gaffe of saying that he believes "all lives matter".  Apparently, Sanders campaign consultants (if he can even afford to have such staffers) didn't brief him that the phrase "all lives matter" is racist and serves only to marginalize African-Americans by treating them the same as all other people.  Even liberal websites are joining in the attacks calling Sanders' belief that closing the income gap will improve the lives of minorities as "naïve".

You might wonder why the Black Lives Matter activists aren't crashing the Hillary Clinton campaign stops--since she is the "clear frontrunner" in the race.  But they likely can't afford the $10,000 minimum donation to attend all of her "private functions".  Bernie Sanders is making the mistake of actually campaigning in public--leaving him a much easier target for protest. 

I would like to think that the Black Lives Matter protesters that are trying ruin the Bernie Sanders campaign are patriots and believe in the American ideal of self-determination--so his Socialist agenda insults everything they stand for.  Or that perhaps those folks have grown tired of the idea that their lives will be so much better with more government handouts and the return of drug dealers to their neighborhoods because too many African-Americans are in prison.  But the reality is that they don't care what Bernie Sanders has to say--even if he truly believes that taking from the rich and giving to the poor will fix every problem that exists in this country.  And the fact that he has TV cameras following him around every day just makes him that much more inviting a target.