Bernie’s Blind Spot
Sanders and other white progressives must finally develop a race/class analysis to defeat MAGA.
I remember when I first drove a car in drivers’ education, and the instructor said beware of your blind spot. The blind spot on an automobile is where you look at your side mirror and think it is clear to change lanes, then suddenly there is another car, and you did not see it because that was your blind spot.
For the last forty years, Bernie Sanders, Independent Senator from Vermont, has advocated democratic socialist policies such as Medicare for All and taxing billionaires. In 2023, he published a book titled It’s Okay to Be Angry at Capitalism. He argues that the richest 1% continues to expand, while 80% of Americans are stagnant, falling behind, or out of the race. Sanders’ class analysis is correct, but for many white progressives’ race and racism continue to be their blind spot in American politics.
Last week it came to light that Graham Platner, Democratic candidate for Senator of Maine, had a Nazi tattoo on his chest. According to Platner, he was drunk and with some of his military pals when he got the tattoo, but was unaware of the symbol’s anti-semitic meaning. The tattoo was a “Totenkopf” or “death’s head” that the Nazi SS wore during the Second World War. And Platner’s apparent fascination with Nazism is far from an isolated case: studies have shown that there are a number of white members of the US military who support white supremacy and Christian nationalism.
Sanders did not condemn Platner’s statement. Nor did he criticize Platner when evidence surfaced that Platner “just wanted to know why Black people do not tip.”
Democrats want to win elections, but at what cost? Are there progressive Democratic candidates who have not posted racist, sexist, or homophobic comments on their social media? I am not naïve and understand all potential candidates may have made comments that they wish they could take back. But where is the line?
A new young white male face of the Democratic Party, Platner is running as a progressive “anti oligarch”. His Democratic opponent is 77 year-old Janet Mills, the Governor of Maine. The Democratic Party is moving to support younger candidates such as Democratic candidate for Mayor of New York Zohran Mamdani. Establishment Democrats such as New York Governor Kathy Hochul and House Minority leader Hakeem Jefferies, who just announced his support for Mamdani one week before the election, do not agree with all Mamdani’s policies, but they view him as a viable candidate. Mamdani is running on making New York City affordable and not relying on reactionary manosphere podcast rhetoric or blaming American problems on African Americans, undocumented migrants, and trans athletes.
Several Democrats, including Ezra Klein of The New York Times, have said, the Democratic Party needs a Charlie Kirk to attract younger voters. Kirk’s success was not rooted in policy or complex theories of government. It was based instead on a politics of grievance that traded in racist and sexist stereotypes, just to name a few. Despite Platner’s statement, young Democratic voters in Maine, including white male voters between the ages of 18 and 29, continue to support him. This is the Charlie Kirk effect.
However, Democrats who support Platner should be careful what they wish for. Platner apologized for his Nazi tattoo and other comments, but Sander’s support for Platner is a problem for white progressives—and their blind spot.
Sanders has accepted Platner’s apology because he wants another Democratic Senator in Congress who is anti-oligarch and can stop MAGA. Accepting Platner’s apology works for Sanders, but for many Democrats racist, sexist, anti semitic symbols, gestures, and tweets are problematic. The best way to beat Trump and MAGA is not being Trump and MAGA, seeking to win with an “at all costs” attitude that promotes or downplays racist, sexist, or xenophobic rhetoric.
In overlooking racist tweets, statements, or stereotypes in hopes of winning at the ballot box, young white progressives are exposing the white progressive blind spot. White progressives often downplay racism because, as white males, they have the privilege to define racism in Marxist terms as “false consciousness” or just reactionary “identity politics.”
All Americans participate in identity politics because they all have an identity. When Republican candidates say “working class,” “farmers”, “suburban moms,” “evangelicals”, and “rural voters” that is code for WHITE. White voters make up the majority of MAGA and the Republican Party. However, in their minds, identity politics only exist for non-white people.
During the last decade, several journalists have asked Sanders to address the race question. Sanders is 84 years, and I do not think he will ever grasp the complexity of the interplay of race and class in American society. Together with Sanders, Bronx congresswoman Alexandria Ocosio-Cortez is participating in a “Fight Oligarchy” tour. I hope Ocosio-Cortez goes beyond Sanders blinkered view and develops the language to address race and class. She should make time to have anti-oligarchy town halls in African American communities, where they are thirty percent of total registered voters in Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi. White voters make up the largest number of Democratic voters, but African American women and male voters are the number 1 and 2 voting blocks for the Democratic Party.
Systemic racism persists—and is growing under Trump. Sanders and other white progressives must finally develop a race/class analysis to defeat MAGA.
Dr. David A. Canton is Associate Professor of History at the University of Florida.
