The Power of the Audience during the 9th Debate.... What is a “Bernie Bro”? By Bijan Khaghani

Figure 1: Sanders' RallyBixby, Scott. "Bernie Bros Are Loud, Proud, and Toxic to Sanders' Campaign." The Daily Beast. January 22, 2020. https://www.thedailybeast.com/bernie-bros-are-loud-proud-and-toxic-to-bernie-sanders-campaign.

Dear Reader,

Welcome back to another post on Blogging Berden! Before we begin I want to give a quick shout out to one of my peers on this blog, Eli Rocke, who really got me thinking about what it exactly means to win a debate. Specifically, in our last big blog post (which I highly suggest you go watch if you haven’t!) when I asked the group who they thought won the 8th democratic debate. Eli came in with the answer, “well that depends where you look,” and I found that to be very true! Depending on where we look we will see different results based on where people stand with each candidate and ultimately the kind of audience member. Sanders supporters may say Sanders won by a landslide while more moderate Democrats may say Biden won effortlessly.

The Agenda for Today.

With that in mind, today’s post will be centered around the 9th Democratic debate which occurred in Las Vegas on February 19th, 2020. However, unlike last time I will be focusing more heavily on the Bernie 2020 campaign. Specifically Bernie’s audience, since by that point in the race there were certain supporters of Sanders known as the “Bernie bros” who were tarnishing Sanders' image by attacking his political opponents online.

Who are the “Bernie Bros” and why were they so important by this point in the election?

To give a quick summary on the origins of the Bernie Bros, back in 2016 groups of Sanders supporters began to wage war against anyone who even had a single bad thought about the Vermont Senator or his backers. These individuals would go on to be called the Bernie Bros and were argued as one of the reasons why Hilary Clinton did not win the presidency in 2016. By the time of February 19th 2020, the Bernie Bros were once again in full swing calling out all other campaigns, especially Warren and Biden’s campaigns in every way imaginable. Ultimately, the media deemed that this sort of support was in fact bullying and Sanders has on many occasions stated that those who do and support this sort of online bullying are not truly a part of his campaign. What made Bernie Bros so important during this debate compared to previous debates was that the number of candidates who were running for the nomination was dropping and  it became a question of who is the best leader and base left to beat Donald Trump in the upcoming general election.

What is so important about having a strong base?  (Joe Biden V.S. Bernie Sanders)

To quote Pete Buttigieg during the debate:

-  “Leadership isn't just about policy. I think at least in broad terms, we're largely pulling in the same direction on policy, but leadership is also about how you motivate people to treat other people. I think you have to accept some responsibility and ask yourself what it is about your campaign in particular that seems to be motivating this behavior more than others, because in order to turn the page on the Trump era, we're going to need a president, not just a candidate who can win, but a president who can move us forward.”

As previously mentioned in my last post about Biden and Sanders, according to Jason L. Mast, a global research fellow at Warwick University’s Institute for Advanced Study, “a political actor has the power to give life and communicate their message to an audience by inhibiting their political roles.“ Actors make choices that vary from prescient to poor and embody or speak their symbolic intentions with varying degrees of deftness.” (Mast 2012) However, Mast also recognizes that political actors do not have complete autonomy in how their message is received. Ultimately, the audience has the true power in being able to take in that message and register it within their minds. Though, depending on the kind of supporter they could have different feelings about what is said.

Yağmur Karakaya and the different sorts of Audience members/voters

Yağmur Karakaya, a Ph.D. candidate in Sociology at the University of Minnesota, wrote about the different types of audience members in his article called “The conquest of hearts: the central role of Ottoman nostalgia within contemporary Turkish populism.” He specifically brings up types such as Spectacle Seekers, Appraising Skeptics, and History Guardians. In this case Sanders supporters fall under Karakaya’s definition of Spectacle Seekers in the sense that they feed into that togetherness and emotional rise which Sanders and his team bring out through his speeches and rallies. Meanwhile, one could argue that Biden supporters are more Appraising Skeptics because they find that Biden has already proved his credibility through his years as Vice President and therefore that his political rallies only serve to paint the image that he is for “the people,” just like Sanders. A leader’s following can build them up and tear them down. While I agree with Buttiegeg’s sentiment that we all need to be accountable for our supporters, at some point the internet is going to be dark no matter how hard we try to stop it. This is frustrating for a candidate like Sanders whose main demographic is young tech-savvy voters who are more capable and therefore likely to engage in this type of behavior.

Could Bernie Bros be the passionate end for the Sanders campaign? The Power and Backlash of KYDSA’s announcement.

Figure 2: KYDSA logo "Kenyon College Young Democratic Socialists of America." Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/KenyonYDSA/.

Yes! Looking at how powerful a base can be, it’s a major set back when your supporters are considered to be this hostile irrational group. Take Kenyon College for an example, around the time of this debate the Kenyon Young Democratic Socialists of America or KYDSA announced that they would support Sanders for the 2020 election. Immediately after this many students on campus felt a grand divide among their peers as after this announcement there became a stigma on campus where if you didn’t vote for Sanders your vote was considered incorrect. I personally know several of my classmates who were yelled at in close corners just because they openly talked about their support for other candidates such as Joe Biden. While it wasn’t the KYDSA’s fault for the social situation at school, what it ultimately led to was many students outside of KYDSA’s circle to consider Sanders’ supporters as crazy, and that ultimately Biden was the logical choice in comparison. The impression that students got of Sanders supporters ultimately led to them believing that Sanders was hostile which ruined his image on campus among common students.

So what does this all mean moving forward?

Figure 3. Settle For Biden shirt made after Sanders dropped out of the race"Settle for Biden 2020 Gift by Kader85." TeePublic. https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/8472266-settle-for-biden-2020-gift eed_sku=8472266D1V&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=AgencyWithin_Shopping_AllDesigns_NonChildSKUs&gclsrc=aw.ds&?ar_clx=yes&ar_channel=google&ar_campaign=9182645456&ar_adgroup=90282973622&ar_ad=415256327458&ar_strategy=search&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI1o3n8fOG6QIVCovICh10xAsVEAQYASABEgK9fPD_BwE.

 With Biden as the current Nominee I believe that Biden will continue to face challenges with getting Sanders supporters to follow him. All around social media there are shirts and slogans saying things such as “Settle for Biden,” which ultimately makes him seem like a weaker candidate. What the Democrats need to do is to unite together in these trying times. However, a Biden campaign could divide moderate and young liberal democrats in the general election. Even though Sanders endorses Biden and even though we all would want a party that sticks together no matter the nominee, the truth is voters have the power in painting the image of our political actors and the way we are painting Joe Biden now may lead to another Trump presidency. We must do everything we can to stop that!

Citations

Beauchamp, Zack. "The Raging Controversy over "Bernie Bros" and the So-called Dirtbag Left, Explained." Vox. March 09, 2020. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/3/9/21168312/bernie-bros-bernie-sanders-chapo-trap-house-dirtbag-left.

"Bernie Sanders Supporters Get a Bad Reputation Online." BBC News. January 28, 2016. https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-35422316.

"Full Transcript: Ninth Democratic Debate in Las Vegas." NBCNews.com. February 20, 2020. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/full-transcript-ninth-democratic-debate-las-vegas-n1139546.

Mast, Jason L. 2012. The Performative Presidency Crisis and Resurrection during the Clinton

Karakaya, Yağmur. "The Conquest of Hearts: The Central Role of Ottoman Nostalgia within Contemporary Turkish Populism." American Journal of Cultural Sociology, 2018. doi:10.1057/s41290-018-0065-y.

"Settle for Biden 2020 Gift by Kader85." TeePublic. https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/8472266-settle-for-biden-2020-gift eed_sku=8472266D1V&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=AgencyWithin_Shopping_AllDesigns_NonChildSKUs&gclsrc=aw.ds&?ar_clx=yes&ar_channel=google&ar_campaign=9182645456&ar_adgroup=90282973622&ar_ad=415256327458&ar_strategy=search&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI1o3n8fOG6QIVCovICh10xAsVEAQYASABEgK9fPD_BwE.