Bernie Sanders supporters often excuse away bad behavior by other Sanders supporters by saying something like, “So because someone was mean to you online, you’re going to keep people from getting health care?” But by the logic of these Sanders supporters, this contingent of mean and nasty Sanders supporters, by actively alienating people who might otherwise be open to supporting Sanders, are also potentially keeping people from getting health care.
Generally, I think it’s unwise and irrational to dislike a candidate because his or her supporters were assholes to you online. But we’re human after all, and humans often don’t react rationally, they react emotionally and viscerally. You might have the greatest product known to mankind, but if you treat potential customers like shit, they’re less likely to buy your product.
The same can be said for the notoriously boorish behavior of a certain segment of Sanders supporters. Many Sanders people have tried to downplay or outright deny the existence of this phenomenon, but there have been far too many verifiable examples of it and I’ve personally seen and experienced it too often to think it is just a made-up thing.
Now to be clear, every candidate has assholish, toxic supporters. As a Warren supporter, I’ve seen bile spewed at her from every kind of supporter out there, I think I even saw a Delaney supporter trolling her once (well, Delaney was probably paying him lol). Just recently a liberal podcaster and previous Warren supporter with a large following, Ryan Knight, declared that he was switching to Sanders because of his view that after finishing 4th in New Hampshire Warren was no longer viable, and Knight was brutally ratioed with angry and insulting missives from Warren supporters.
But when some union or progressive organization endorses Sanders, you simply don’t see supporters of other candidates swarming the endorsers with angry comments, at least not in any noticeable way. However, when for example, the Working Families Party pretty innocuously endorsed Elizabeth Warren last fall, Sanders supporters inundated WFP with angry and insulting messages, accusing them of rigging the endorsement process, and many spending days and weeks obsessing over a conspiracy to steal the endorsement from Sanders. Again, you simply don’t see other candidates’ supporters doing this on more than a fringe level. But it’s all too predictable behavior from a certain segment of Sanders supporters.
Of course there was the recent episode in which Nevada’s Culinary Union 226 unleashed a coordinated barrage of negative mailers and ads against Sanders in the immediate wake of his New Hampshire victory, alleging that Medicare for All would take away the health care the union had negotiated, to which Sanders supporters predictably responded with a torrent of abusive messages, voicemails, and tweets.
Just as a comparison, the day after the New Hampshire primary the President of the Association of Flight Attendants unleashed a pretty harsh attack on Pete Buttigieg’s health care plan and decrying Buttigieg’s attacks on Medicare for All as “offensive and dangerous”. But so far as I’m aware, the Flight Attendants’ Union wasn’t flooded with nasty, insulting messages, voicemails, and tweets from Buttigieg supporters.
A part of this phenomenon is due to the sheer passion of Sanders’ supporters, which is admirable in many ways but, as passion is wont to do, can often get out of hand. Yet another part of it is the fact that Sanders simply has a lot more supporters online than other candidates, so when they lash out their numbers amplify their perceived nastiness.
But just look at the self-described “dirtbag left”, Chapo-following Sanders supporters — which if you look at the number of people who listen to that podcast isn’t exactly small — and you’ll quickly see there’s just a level of cruelty you don’t generally see from other supporters in any significant manner. You see them regularly making fun of the other candidates or their supporters, bragging about bullying candidates and their supporters, comparing other candidates to snakes or rats, and generally engaging in toxic behavior.
Lest you think this kind of behavior has no real world effect, go look at Warren’s speech after the New Hampshire primary. Everyone knows Warren’s campaign is on the ropes (to my dismay), and if things continue to go badly, there’s a likelihood she’ll drop out sometime after Super Tuesday.
Warren should be a natural ally to Sanders, they agree about virtually every major issue there is along with the remedies, and they both share disdain for the Democratic establishment and their rich, corporate benefactors. But if you watched Warren’s post-NH speech, you’d have probably thought she was leaning, if anything, toward Amy Klobuchar.
As for why Warren wasn’t signaling favoritism to her old friend and progressive ally Bernie Sanders, that was made clear in this part of the speech:
But the fight between factions in our party has taken a sharp turn in recent weeks with ads mocking other candidates and with supporters of some candidates shouting curses at other democratic candidates.
These harsh tactics might work if you are willing to burn down the rest of the party in order to be the last man standing. They might work, if you don’t worry about leaving our party and our politics worse off than how you found it, and they might work if you think only you have all the answers and only you are the solution to all our problems. But if we’re going to beat Donald Trump in November, we are going to need huge turnout within our party and to get that turnout, we will need a nominee that the broadest coalition of our party feels like they can get behind.
Now if you’re a Sanders supporter reading that, you’ve got several choices on how to react.
You can go the snarky dismissive route and say, “So I guess Warren is going to risk health care for all because Sanders supporters were mean?”
Or you can go the denial route and pretend this is all made-up or exaggerated.
But if you were smart and actually serious about wanting to elect Sanders and gain support for his agenda, your response should be, “If bad behavior by some Sanders supporters is even pushing away an unquestioned progressive and natural ally like Warren, then we need to stamp this shit out pronto.”
For the life of me, I do not get why people who genuinely and fervently hope Sanders is elected would tolerate, downplay, or engage in this kind of behavior. I have yet to see a successful movement that aggressively tried to alienate potential supporters, but it seems a not-insignificant segment of Sanders supporters is intent on trying.
I also want to be clear that I do understand to an extent where Sanders supporters are coming from, and why Sanders supporters might feel besieged and exasperated. The coverage and/or lack of coverage of Sanders by most mainstream Democratic outlets, analysts and pundits has been incredibly slanted and even outright hostile. The way the supposedly liberal MSNBC has treated Sanders as well as other outsiders like Andrew Yang has been embarrassing and has depleted most of the esteem I once held in MSNBC and a number of liberal pundits and figures.
Also, as someone who has lately been beating the drum about the likelihood of a Sanders nomination to Democrats and liberals who for too long have remained in denial about it (and many who still do), and who has watched many liberals’ increasing openness to Michael Bloomberg with disgust, I, too, sometimes feel like saying “fuck it” and just going into full asshole mode when dealing with some head-in-the-sand Democratic normies and centrist/center-left types.
When you see certain Democrats and liberals continually insisting without any evidence that Sanders can’t win the general election, even though virtually all head-to-head polls show Sanders beating Trump and by as much if not more than any other Democratic candidate, it can be crazy-making.
When you see certain Democrats and liberals saying that Sanders can’t win Nonwhites, then you point to evidence showing Sanders leading among Nonwhites, and the same Democrats and liberals continue to insist Sanders can’t win over Nonwhites, it’s enough to make your head explode.
When you see certain Democrats and liberals continuing to insist that Sanders didn’t really win New Hampshire even though he won New Hampshire, it can make you want to take crazy pills.
When you see certain Democrats and liberals who’ve ripped Sanders for not being concerned enough with social issues, who’ve said they’re concerned that Sanders is a 78-year-old man with heart problems, and who’ve criticized Sanders for being an independent rather than a Democrat, then suddenly turn around and voice support for Bloomberg, who expanded and defended stop-and-frisk, said the financial crash was caused by regulations preventing banks from discriminating against Black and Brown people, is a 77-year-old man with heart problems, and who was a Republican and independent not that long ago, believe me, I can see where your frustration is coming from.
But here’s the reality. Sanders is making an enormous bet that the American people will rise up in overwhelming, unprecedented numbers to force lawmakers of both parties to enact his agenda. By definition that will require having as many people actively supporting that agenda as humanly possible. Bullying and purposefully alienating people who may be potential active supporters of Sanders’ agenda hurts the likelihood of that agenda becoming reality.
In conclusion, it’s in the interests of Sanders and his movement that this noxious element be quashed, and given that Sanders is now the front-runner, not a moment too soon. And lest you think this is just me as a Warren supporter concern trolling Sanders and his supporters, look at my recent comments and the most recent diary I’ve written, you could be forgiven for thinking I’m already a Sanders supporter. If Warren drops out, which seems possible after Super Tuesday, I will be supporting Bernie Sanders. There’s gonna be a lot of other Warren supporters up for grabs and they should be easy, logical converts to Sanders. But not if you let the assholish elements in your movement push them away.
Sunday, Feb 16, 2020 · 3:56:32 AM +00:00
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puakev
I want to be absolutely clear that this is not a “bash Sanders supporters” diary. Please read the part of the diary about how I can see why Sanders supporters justifiably feel so exasperated at times. This diary is also a criticism of how many normie Democrats and liberals have behaved and treated Sanders and his supporters.