i'm not going to end up supporting buttigieg. i'm leaning socialist/green. i've been clear on that.

but, i'd kind of like to see this play out, because i sort of think it's necessary.

so, you've got people like harris and castro warning that the democrats need to elect somebody that will appeal to black voters, which is just a homophobic dog whistle - and should be interpreted and analyzed and treated exactly like that.

the church doesn't like the gays, and the blacks (in the south) are controlled by the church. ergo....

but, am i going to shrug that off and say "oh, well"? no. if the black church will not stand with gay rights, then they need to be openly and explicitly called out for it and opposed on those terms. fuck the black church, then. i'm not going to support a party that won't vote for a candidate because they're gay. those people aren't allies, they're opponents.

that said, something i learned in 2016 is that this narrative is all wrong, and that these attitudes are defined less by race or skin colour and more by geography. so, an argument that southern blacks don't like the gays (or the jews.) may have a lot of evidence to support it, but that evidence cannot be extended to blacks in the north, who tend to be more like northern whites. if you look at states like tennessee in 2016, clinton did about as well with whites as she did with blacks, and if you look at states like illinois, sanders was far more competitive with blacks than he was in the south, and sometimes outright won latinos.

so, arguing that blacks in milwaukee or detroit won't vote for a gay guy is probably wrong. arabs, on the other hand...

if your concern is about black voter enthusiasm and eventual turnout around a gay candidate, that's mostly going to be an issue in the general in the south, and the republicans are going to sweep these states, anyways. do the democrats have a serious chance of winning georgia or texas? i'd rather focus on michigan and wisconsin - i think the chances are a lot higher.

that said, this is why you have primaries, you let the voters figure it out. if wisconsin and michigan pick the gay guy, as the trends are suggesting will happen, the democratic process needs to be respected.

i said this in 2016, though - if the south wants to insist on picking candidates that the north won't support, then we're going to have to fight about it. the south can't expect the north to just go along to get along, or erect some kind of primacy for black voter preference in the party. the liberal north has been losing this fight in the party to the conservative south for decades, now. the west wants in, too, and they lean left. the liberal north has to come up with some kind of strategy to start defeating the black church. it's long overdue...

the way you beat biden is that you do really, really, really well with white voters in the north.

...which is, incidentally, also how you beat trump.

my preferred ideological candidate didn't listen to good advice because he's not very bright. a more intelligent candidate, who i agree with far less, actually figured that out, and he's on the only path there actually is.

all i can do is shrug and vote green.

and, remind people that you should listen to the mathematicians, not the marketing consultants.