Why I am not currently supporting Bernie Sanders

The "currently" up there indicates that I have not completely ruled out future support - not a change from past support.

I had been kind of leery of him from the get-go, without hating him, and then I read an excellent series on him which solidified that.

A lot of my feelings are centered around Black Lives Matter, and so watching his interactions lately have both solidified my lack of support and given me hope that he could come around.

Institutionalized racism is my key issue; Bernie's is income inequality. Don't get me wrong - I care greatly about income inequality. Unfortunately, it is a blind spot for him. He really seems to think it will fix everything else, and there is no evidence to back that up. We have had times with much greater economic mobility and better wages and stronger unions, and there was still institutionalized racism so that black people could not benefit from it.

If we have more jobs and better wages, but the same prejudices apply in who gets hired, who advances, and how much they make, that's not good enough. Sanders does not seem to have adequately explored that, but that's not even the reason it's my main issue now. Having higher wages does not do much good if you are not alive to spend them.

I know lynchings have a long history. One of the most chilling things I have read recently was someone recounting searching for the three civil rights workers murdered in Mississippi, and they kept finding other bodies that weren't them. The swamp was full of murdered black people. Maybe it's just that we have better access to information now, but the death rate really seems to be escalating.

At least 1083 Americans killed by police since Mike Brown died. 317 this year. 120 (4 a day) since Sandra Bland was arrested. 4th teenager killed this week.

Not all of them are black or unarmed, but a lot are. We don't have video of all of them, but the excuses for the deaths are failing.

Improving the economy will not automatically fix that, lives have to take priority over money. If we valued people over money, it would stop a lot of economic abuse.

Therefore, two of the factors that sway me against Sanders are his blind spot on the economic issues (which are still important) and how that does hold him back on Black Lives Matter. The other is his crankiness. I know people admire this as keeping it real, but it is not actually a great diplomatic asset. That matters sometimes. You want the people in office to be able to keep calm and observe decorum. They should also be able to cast decorum aside sometimes when it is important, but cranky all the time is not a great executive trait. (That might be relevant to Trump too, but there so much else there...)

None of the other candidates are where I want them to be on Black Lives Matter yet, but Sanders is having to respond to the protests now, and making more effort. Again, he still returns to the economic issue too glibly, even when talking about racism, but it's better. That leads to two other very important points.

One is that these protests are absolutely necessary. No one would be paying attention otherwise. It is quite clear that most candidates will ignore racism if they can, if for no other reason than that it makes people uncomfortable. The protesters have to create a commensurate amount of discomfort, and I am thankful for their efforts.

It is disheartening to see how quickly Sanders' supporters will devolve into racist name-calling, though not surprising, but the other point is a response to some of their complaints.

No, it is not an attack to point out a need for change. No it is not unreasonable to ask for change. This can only derail his candidacy if he handles it badly, and if he can't handle it well he should be derailed.

Someone on Twitter was talking about efforts to split the vote among the Democrats so a Republican can win. Okay, this is a primary, where we are deciding whom we want. It is appropriate for the votes to be divided now. That's why you have primaries!

Let's say Sanders loses the primary and runs as an independent (which some supporters say they would like him to do now), that could lead to a Republican victory. However let us remember that even when you did have a third-party candidate with Nader, he still probably could not have been a spoiler if not for butterfly ballots, a Florida secretary of state who was involved with Bush's campaign, and a right-wing Supreme Court. That is not sufficient grounds for fear-mongering and stamping out dissent.

For that series that I found helpful, you can go to http://www.shakesville.com/2015/07/looking-for-bernie-part-1-sanders-72.html.

It is  amazingly thorough, more so when you remember that Aphra Behn did not have a research assistant of budget. It really gives a feel for his values and thought processes, good and bad.