Opinion

At The Brown And Black Forum, Democrats Announce Which Special Interests Matter Most

Scott Greer Contributor
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If you missed the Democratic presidential forum Monday night, you’re not alone
. As per party style, the Democrats have tried to keep any debate or forum pretty-low key during the primary season.

From hosting debates on Saturday nights to doing little to publicize the events, the Democratic National Committee has done a masterful job of making sure journalists don’t pay much attention to what gets discussed between the presidential candidates.

Monday’s night “Brown and Black Forum” was no exception as the Democratic candidates fielded racially-based questions amid all the attention given to President Obama’s final State of the Union. Even though the event was met with nowhere near the fanfare of a Republican debate, it encapsulated how far to the left the Democratic Party has drifted and what the politics of the future may look like in an America dominated by racial interests.

If you couldn’t tell by the name, the Brown and Black Forum is a discussion geared entirely for minorities and has been hosted every presidential election since 1984. But this year, it might’ve taken on new importance considering the politics of the modern Democratic Party.

Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley took question which included, “How have you benefited from white privilege?” and “Under what scenario should a man be able to tell a woman to do with her body?”

Clearly, there were a lot of burning questions for these candidates to respond to at the Brown and Black Forum. Clinton received the most pressing of inquiries at the Fusion-hosted event, given her front-runner status.

She was the one asked how she’s benefited from white privilege. Hillary made sure to pander, and bemoaned how her success in life is mostly due to her middle-class, Caucasian background.

And that was the only chance the former secretary of state got to engage in white-bashing. She agreed with a question posed to her as to whether “white terrorism” presented as much of a threat to the United States as the Islamic State.

“I think we have all kinds of threats in our country, and I wouldn’t discount any of them,” Clinton said. (RELATED: Hillary: ‘White Terrorism’ And ‘Police Violence’ Are Just As Big A Threat As ISIS)

Clinton was further pressed on her stance on immigration by none other than noted illegal immigrant activist journalist Jorge Ramos. Hillary said she disagreed with the White House’s recent deportations of some illegals — a move she called “divisive, they are sowing discord and fear.” (RELATED: Hillary Breaks With Obama On Immigration Raids, Dodges Questions On Deporting Children)

While she may have scored points with the crowd on that comment, her support for some kind of “barrier” at the U.S.-Mexico border wasn’t a huge hit. Ramos cornered her to make sure there would be no wall between the two countries and Clinton tried to defend herself by saying the barrier would only be a fence.

Strong borders are not a hot commodity with Democrats right now.

Additionally, Hillary’s refusal to promise not to deport illegal minors didn’t sit well with Ramos either.

“I cannot sit here and tell you I have a blanket rule about who or who won’t ever be let into the country to stay because it has to be done individual by individual,” she admitted.

Clinton, however, was not the only candidate who squirmed under the glare of racialized politics. Besides being grilled for his tough policing policies while mayor of Baltimore, long-shot White House hopeful Martin O’Malley had to answer for his campaign staff’s lack of diversity.

The former Maryland governor’s staff is 82 percent white, which is a deeply problematic fact to the event’s organizers. He tried to dodge it by saying how diverse his gubernatorial staff was and how much he just loves diversity.

Bernie Sanders seemed to have taken less heat at the event and earned rave applause when he talked about how “radical” his ideas were.

For all the talk of how “extreme” Republican presidential candidates are sounding, it appears that no one has been paying attention to the far-left drift of the leading Democrats. If talk of how radical you are in your plans to redistribute wealth is your biggest applause line, there’s definitely plenty of extremism to go around within the blue party.

The most unfortunate message of the Brown and Black Forum is how much is expected of politicians to capitulate to the demands of special interests groups. We can’t have a secure border because that’s offensive to Hispanics. We can’t deport illegal aliens because that doesn’t sit well with this certain group. We have to hire people not based on the quality of their resume but on the color of their skin — you know, for diversity’s sake.

These are the values of the Democratic Party in 2016, and it comes with a side of lectures on white privilege.

It’s hard to see how political leaders promoting these ideas will lead to a strong and unified America. A nation that refuses to protect its border and grants legal status to anyone who arrives, ceases to exist as an actual nation. Making sure hiring practices take into account racial make-up more than skill undermines the whole notion of our meritocratic society. Believing white terrorism is just as much of a threat as radical Islam is not only fool-hardy — it puts our nation at risk and offers the justification for restricting the rights of law-abiding citizens.

If the message of the Brown and Black Forum is considered mainstream, then our opinion makers must think a balkanized America is a future worth realizing.

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