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"Sanders, Biden Camps Clash over Arizona Debate Format." POLITICO. https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/07/bernie-sanders-joe-biden-arizona-debate-123467.
Welcome back! In this edition of Blogging Berden I will be discussing the 10th democratic debate which took place on February 25, 2020 in Gaillard Center, Charleston, South Carolina.
Collective Representation within the 10th debate
In a previous post about the 8th debate, my peer Isa Blankers brought up an interesting point made by John Mast that candidates tend to metaphorically wrap themselves in a flag in order to connect to “the narratives of democracy and liberty” (Mast 2012). Biden and Sanders are no exception to this and in their own ways even in this debate attempt to appeal to Democratic voters through tapping into their beliefs on key domestic and foreign issues. The debate on February 25th, however, presented something that was unheard of before this point: Joe Biden on the offensive. Specifically as an actor, Biden in some way or form always found a way to make each question work in his favor or work against one of his opponents.
Biden on the offensive Bringing up Gun Control
One major issue which involved both candidates was the issue of gun control within the United States. When Gayle King asked Joe Biden the question, “every day in our country, over 100 people die from gun violence. You all have plans, I know, on this stage, to address the gun crisis. But Congress has not been able to pass major gun legislation in a quarter of a century. And just think about this, in those 25 years, we've had Columbine, Newtown, Parkland, Las Vegas. We could go on and on.” (King 2020) Biden immediately responded by bringing up the fact that gun violence, “has caused carnage on our streets, 150 million people have been killed since 2007” (Biden 2020) He then added that Bernie was directly responsible for these deaths since he voted to exempt the gun manufacturers from liability. Biden plays on the collective consciousness toward gun violence while also slamming his opponents' iconic image by making him seem directly involved in the deaths of so many lives. This was one of the many hits Bernie took that night and it was clear that these attacks from all sides were starting to get to him and his campaign.
Why Collective Memory is a powerful tool
Barry Schwartz, a Professor of Social Theory and Social Action at Swarthmore College, wrote in his piece, “Iconography and Collective Memory: Lincoln's Image in the American Mind,” regarding the importance of understanding the power of image and Iconic statues and figures, that the “collective memory that centers on the active construction and interpretation of common constructive and interpretive activity-generalizable from the present case-is undertaken by those who care more about the past than do others, wish to accurately represent it, and are offended by what they take as its distortion. Some commemorative matters, like the present one, mobilize relatively few.” (Schwartz 1991) Schwartz conveys that there are multiple lenses even with a collective consciousness and depending on our lens we may interpret things differently. In relation to the debate when Biden calls out Sanders holding him accountable for the 150 million deaths, he is directly attacking Sander’s Iconic image through the topic of gun control by using our shared understanding that these deaths should have been prevented. So linking Sanders to these deaths makes it seem like Sanders failed as a leader, thus making him seem like a weak candidate.
The Downfall of Sanders and why Systems of collective representation explains his loss
Biden attacking Sanders in this debate was not the first time his image has taken a hit. Almost every candidate in some way or form has used some issues in order to take a jab at Bernie’s reputation. In my first post on this blog I talked about Sanders as if he were this impeccable actor who embodied the very idea of what he fought for. However, as I have looked further and further into these debates I can now see that this never really changed. Sanders as a political actor seemed to be flawless. However, he was constantly being made the villain on stage by his fellow democratic candidates. This really took a toll on his image as a whole. Through this debate and the last, Sanders’ iconic image was constantly put to the test when each candidate called him out. Over time this made Sanders and his base seem problematic and not presidential. Sanders’ image was tarnished in such a way that made people not want to side with him simply because it was “too risky.” From his stances on health care all the way to his smallest policies, these last two debates made Sanders seem as if he was bad for the American people. To put it plainly it’s become clear that Sanders began to lose steam, not because of his own passion but because every candidate around him made him seem as if he went against the very foundation of America and the democratic party.
My predictions for the final debate
In this final debate I believe we will see the effects of all the things I have talked about up to this point. After this debate, Sanders began to fall as more and more candidates began to endorse Biden. It's clear to see that democratic voters in their collective beliefs were truly the cause of Sanders’ downfall and I think that the next and final debate will be proof of that.
Citation
Mast, Jason L. 2012. The Performative Presidency Crisis and Resurrection during the Clinton
Years. Cambridge, Ma: Cambridge University Press.
"Read the Full Transcript of the South Carolina Democratic Debate." CBS News. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/south-carolina-democratic-debate-full-transcript-text/.
"Sanders, Biden Camps Clash over Arizona Debate Format." POLITICO. https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/07/bernie-sanders-joe-biden-arizona-debate-123467.
Schwartz, Barry. "Iconography and Collective Memory: Lincoln's Image in the American Mind." The Sociological Quarterly 32, no. 3 (1991): 301-19. doi:10.1111/j.1533-8525.1991.tb00161.x.
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