Black Men for Bernie founder Bruce Carter’s mission to restore black communities didn’t end when Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders lost to Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary. He opposed Hillary Clinton and the Democratic establishment then because he knew that they didn’t represent the minority communities he engaged in politics to fight for.
After the leak of internal DNC emails, Carter is convinced that the Democratic Party “rigged” the primary against his candidate and that Hillary Clinton’s Democratic Party has no intention of changing the policies that led to the destruction of the communities he’s working to improve.
Bruce Carter still believes that Hillary Clinton is the poster child for the kind of cronyism, corruption, and evil that the Bernie revolution was built to overthrow. He doesn’t believe Hillary Clinton when she labels Donald Trump and his supporters as racists because he knows she falsely labeled her opponents in the primary as sexist “Bernie Bros.” Carter’s preparing to take the experience, knowledge, and contacts his group built during the primary to campaign against Hillary Clinton and for Donald Trump and other Republicans in battleground states across the country.
Bruce Carter and Black Men for Bernie are at war with the Democratic establishment, whom he says pander for votes but haven’t delivered meaningful results to minority communities for decades. Carter became politically active to support Bernie Sanders, who taught him how the establishment’s only real constituency was the donor class. When he paired that knowledge with what he knew about the decline in the black and minority neighborhoods he loves, he realized Democratic politicians and the media had been lying.
“Bernie inspired us to disrupt the status quo because it only works for the elites and not regular people who are struggling,” Carter told Breitbart News. “If black communities vote for Hillary Clinton and Democrats in November, nothing will change because Democrats will continue to believe they don’t have to do anything to earn our votes.”
Carter became one of the most prominent and recognizable supporters of the Sanders campaign by traveling the country in a tour bus and fleet of vehicles wrapped with the Black Men for Bernie logo and a picture of Sanders being arrested during the civil rights movement. His online videos received millions of views and featured celebrities like Mark Ruffalo and ice cream makers Ben and Jerry.
At the Democratic convention in Philadelphia, Black Men for Bernie organized daily protests with crowds in the thousands. The message of the Bernie protesters outside of the DNC convention was that the movement would continue and that Hillary Clinton was still the epitome of the cronyism and corruption that the Bernie people had built a movement to defeat.
Carter told Breitbart News that his greatest awakening of how Democrats exploit minority voters came when he learned from the Washington Post that the Democratic Party spends less than 2 percent of its campaign resources with minority-owned companies, even though they get better than 90 percent of the black vote. It is a practice that Carter calls “political slavery.”
When Carter emailed Breitbart News this link as the source for his claim that Democrats don’t invest campaign resources with minority businesses, he singled out interim DNC Chairman Donna Brazile, saying, “Donna Brazile is mentioned in the article, and it would be nice if you could mention that because later I will call her out on a lot of things.”
Now Black Men for Bernie are rebranding and again planning to tour the country with an emphasis on battleground states. Carter says he’s going to organize black and minority communities to vote against Hillary Clinton and the Democratic establishment.
“Donald Trump is a business man and a real estate mogul who could provide knowledge and resources to transform urban communities through the development of minority-owned businesses,” Carter said. “With this tour, we’re going to show Mr. Trump and Republicans that the black and minority communities are ready to work with anyone willing to work with us to build opportunities in businesses, employment, and housing. We don’t want welfare, we need opportunity.”
Carter has also explored supporting the Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, but he thinks working with Trump will have a more immediate impact on struggling communities. “Lot’s of Bernie people are asking me about Jill Stein, and she’s courting Bernie voters, but currently the Green Party does not hold any seats in congress,” Carter said. “Voting for Jill Stein is better than voting for Hillary by a long shot, and if people decide to do that, I get it, but it won’t have as much of an impact as voting for Trump and a Republican-led Congress.”
Carter had a lot of ideas when asked about what Trump could do to help him win black votes away from the Democrats. “When Donald Trump tells black people, what do you have to lose by voting for me, he’s getting close to a message that will work, but it’s not quite there yet,” Carter explained:
It comes across as condescending because the groundwork of the argument hasn’t been laid, yet. Before that argument will work, people need to understand how Democrats, and especially congressional black leadership, and Hillary Clinton have used our communities for their personal gain and then discarded us when they get into power.
“We’re going to go back to these communities in Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and across the country to lead people to the facts about the Clintons’ and Democrats’ failures with our struggling communities,” Carter said:
We’re not going to tell people what to do, but we’re going to strategize with them how to get more out of their political power. If Donald Trump can show that he’s willing to do something different for them, then these people will be willing to give him a chance because then they’ll understand that they don’t have anything to lose by abandoning Democrats like Hillary Clinton.
Carter believes that when the DNC rigged the primary election for Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders, they created a unique opportunity for Republicans to reach out to minority communities, and it might be the only chance they get. He also is adamant that when a party decides to invest directly in minority communities during the election process on a consistent and long-term basis, that party will become the party of preference in those communities, even if that party is the Republicans.
Without the support of a presidential campaign after Bernie suspended his campaign, Carter sought help from Republicans in Texas and Oklahoma that know his passion for people and community. “In an effort to support this mutually beneficial movement Keep The Senate and House was formed,” Carter said. “Congressional Republicans like Rand Paul are reaching out to our communities, and we’d be foolish not to take them up on it. They want to deliver because they know they need to win minority support to stay in power. To support the movement please visit www.keepthecongress.com or https://www.gofundme.com/urbanvoters.”
For Carter and the Black Men for Bernie, they can’t unlearn what they discovered about Hillary during the primary. “We know that Hillary Clinton is for Hillary Clinton and the rich donors of the Clinton Foundation,” Carter said. “We know that Bill and Hillary did major damage to our communities the last time they were in the White House. We know they will lie about their opponents by unfairly labeling them sexists and racists and radicals.”
“Donald Trump isn’t a typical politician and he isn’t beholden to the same old political powers,” Carter continued. “We want to earn our seat at the table in his administration and I think he and the Republicans are smart enough to realize that when we deliver them a historic number of minority votes, they better do a better job than the Democrats have done or they’re never going to get an opportunity like this again.”
Finally, Carter states that is vital to not provide the Democrats with a blank checkbook but that it’s also important that a partnership is formed with the Republican Congress before delivering them the minority vote. “This could be a historic moment that changes the political calculus for generations, The Democrat establishment is about to learn the hard way that they don’t own the minority vote.”
Dustin Stockton is a political reporter for Breitbart News, a community liaison for Gun Owners of America, and a political strategist. Follow him on Twitter @DustinStockton or Facebook.
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