It was less than three years ago that white nationalists, including outright neo-Nazis, marched through the streets of an American city wielding weapons and torches, attacking antiracist protesters, and chanting "Jews will not replace us." This was a spasm of the racial terrorism bubbling beneath the surface in America since its founding. Two years earlier, a white supremacist shot nine parishioners at the Mother Emanuel AME church in Charleston, South Carolina, hoping to ignite a race war. In the years since, the threat from these domestic terrorists has only grown.
We would be foolish to ignore that those marchers in Charlottesville also chanted the president's name. "Hail Trump," some shouted, while performing a Nazi salute. For some reason, white supremacists believe the president represents them. Are they mistaken? Do they have a bad read on him? Or do they process his hate campaigns against Muslims and Hispanic immigrants as a renewed declaration that America is a country for white, Christian people, and everyone else should just be happy to be here?
Sanders represents the opposite. While he has struggled to gain the support of the black voters who are the keystone of Joe Biden's coalition—and, indeed, the Democratic Party's—his movement is a push for genuine multiracial democracy. It's not just that he himself is Jewish, it's that his politics would offer anyone a seat at the table in America if they subscribe to a set of human values that transcend ethnic and religious divides. Of course, that's also what they told you in school about America. It is no man's castle, but every man's refuge. Or at least, that's one of the questions at the heart of this election, even if it's not Sanders but Biden who is named the nominee at the next Democratic National Convention.
