Who are our enemies? Who are our friends?

About two weeks ago Representative John Lewis (D-GA) explained to the press why he and other members of the Black Congressional Caucus are supporting Senator Hillary Clinton for president.  Asked about Senator Bernie Sanders's activism in the civil rights movement as an undergraduate at the University of Chicago, Lewis was dismissive: "I never saw him.  I never met him."  And then he went on to recite his own credentials in the movement, which are well-enough known that they should not need repetition.  The best known is the vicious beating he received at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge.  It was far from the only demonstration of personal courage and commitment that John Lewis demonstrated.

The Twitter trolling that John Lewis received may be beside the point.  Anybody can (and will) say anything on Twitter.  "Maybe John Lewis has Alzheimer's" and "I'm so over the civil rights generation" were relatively mild examples.  It was certainly a graceless remark for Lewis to make as it implies that his personal imprimatur is necessary for a person to be taken seriously as a part of that struggle.  More ill-considered, though, were some of the attacks on Lewis.  Seriously, if you are a white twenty-something, do you really expect to sway the opinions of African American voters by calling John Lewis a sell-out or an Uncle Tom?

We saw it again this weekend during the Nevada Democratic Party caucuses.  John Lewis is known to a younger generation through the movie "Selma" (2014) in which he was played by Stephan James, who will portray track star Jesse Owens in the upcoming "Race."  Dolores Huerta, is similarly known to young people through the movie "César Chávez" (2014) in which she was played by Rosario Dawson.  Huerta was the day-to-day leader of the United Farm Workers and has been an activist for labor, for Chicano rights and for peace for over five decades.  Once again we saw a distinguished elder advocating for Senator Hillary Clinton.  Once again we saw some tasteless attacks on Twitter. And that is a generous description.

I am no more interested in discussing the particulars of that Las Vegas caucus than I am in arguing the merits of John Lewis's dismissal of Senator Sanders.  Suffice it to say that Huerta was quick to interpret a situation as an attack on Spanish speakers in general, on Mexican Americans in particular, and on her personally.  And certain Sanders supporters were only too happy to oblige with the personal attacks.  Many of them seemed to think that the particular facts of the event were what mattered, that shouting her off demanding a neutral translator is much better than chanting "English Only.  And again, seriously, if you are a white twenty-something, do you really expect to sway the opinions of Mexican American voters by calling Dolores Huerta a vendido?

The thin-skinned, quick-draw partisanship I describe here is not unique to the Sanders camp, regardless of what the press has to say about "Bernie Bros."  I posted in this space just three weeks ago about Hillary Clinton's completely wrong-headed characterization of the period after the Civil War, a characterization that ignored both the African American struggle for freedom and the terrorist campaign for white supremacy.  After writing that piece I tweeted a link to it with the words "Why #HillaryClinton got #Reconstruction so very wrong."  In under two minutes that tweet received a response, "Why you are so wrong."  It came from a total stranger who must have a bot searching for any and all references to Senator Clinton on Twitter.  It also came in much less time than it would have taken to click here and actually read the post.  I was charmed by it in a way because it was more attention than this blog usually gets!  But it also meant another person who was ready to go immediately on the attack at the hint of a discouraging word about their candidate.


Some readers will recognize my title, "Who are our enemies? Who are our friends?" as coming from Chairman Mao's "Analysis of Classes in Chinese Society."  No, I don't think there will be millions of deaths like the Great Leap Forward.  Nor do I anticipate pro-Hillary and pro-Bernie student factions attacking each other with spears like the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.  But I do ask that we consider who we are fighting for and against.  Does anybody at this point think that Hillary Clinton's rank-and-file supporters are all our class enemies?  (Note that I am not asking about her.  She is.)  Does anybody seriously think that Bernie Sanders (who has scrupulously avoided civil rights issues for decades by moving to one of the whitest states in the country) is a champion of African Americans, Latinos or Native Americans?

I am quite certain that some horrible things can come out of this election.  I remain skeptical that much good can come of it.  Will we still have a House and Senate dominated by a party that seems to think it is in their interest to oppose any idea coming from the White House?  Or will the Republicans go back to the business of compromising with Democrats in order to destroy unions, privatize and eradicate public services like schools, provide tax benefits for the super-wealthy and attack people in other countries with armed drones?  Because those are the policies of both parties.

I support the efforts to raise the minimum wage and re-regulate the big banks.  I oppose the notion that those "color-blind" policies will benefit all of us equally.  After all, we had Sanders-esque policies during the era of Jim Crow, and they primarily benefited white people.    I am hopeful that the enthusiasm for Sanders can translate into a broadly-popular mass movement.  I don't see how we get there by attacking one another.