For the past few months I’ve watched in horror as the Democratic primary has skidded off the rails into death cage match.  I tried to sound the alarm.  I can’t say in the past 28 years since I started to vote in National elections that I’ve seen anything quite like this race.  Social media and the explosion of outlets on the internet is part of the problem.  Voters can consume only the media that perfectly aligns with his or her point of view without ever seeing a differing opinion.  This creates echo chambers of political purity.  After a while political junkies start to view anyone who questions or even mildly criticizes their chosen candidate as a heretic who must be purified or destroyed.

A primary is supposed to be a scrimmage of people playing on the same team.  Some of the more passionate progressives didn’t realize that eviscerating another Democratic was a bad idea.  They didn’t anticipate that when that candidate dropped out of the race his or her supporters didn’t just disappear.  The doxxing, insults, harassment and threats wouldn’t be quickly forgotten.  A scrimmage is not supposed to result in broken bones and bloody head injuries.  The main source of this kind of extreme negative campaigning came from young, passionate Bernie Sanders supporters known as Bernie Bros.  Of course no campaign was completely free of this kind of toxicity but the overwhelming source of it came from supporters of the Democratic Socialist from Vermont. 

Tweets like these didn’t help.

I used a blurred version of the image because it depicts a scene from a movie of a teenage boy being sexually tortured by a group of men.  The person who tweeted it was Virgil Texas of the popular progressive podcast – Chapo Trap House.  Virgil Texas and his cohorts don’t work for the Sanders campaign directly but they are enthusiastic supporters.  Texas and his fans laughed off any claims of homophobia although the tweet is clearly hateful towards gay men.  Texas might have thought it was clever but it certainly wouldn’t win over any Buttigieg voters once he dropped out of the race.

This is just one out of many examples of self-defeating attempts to boost Sanders.  It doesn’t make sense to smear Pete viciously because his voters will vote for someone else doesn’t win the nomination.  A critique of Buttigieg’s policies, background or donor base would be much more productive.  A disgusting homophobic smear is not going to lure any Buttigieg voters to the Sanders camp.  It could also turn off supporters of other candidates.  

Images like this one were also celebrated as some kind of victory but in the end all they did was alienate supporters of those campaigns.

Again someone forgot to realize that new voter outreach was also part of the game.  Do images of bloody campaigns make supporters of Beto, Harris or Pete want to join the Grim Reaper?  I saw Sanders supporters gleefully repost this while supporters of other candidates saw this as proof of Bernie Bros’s toxicity.   

I’m pretty sure the image posted above is supposed to be satirical.  The underlying message is that if someone isn’t with Sanders and his mob they might find themselves at the wrong end of the guillotine.  Even if it’s meant as a joke the message is literally “Support Sanders or else.”  

I’m not sure why they thought they could bully their way to the top.  It’s just not how voting works.  They should have been trying to win over new people by selling the great and wonderful qualities of this man who made them so excited.  Most Sanders supporters did not engage in this type of behavior, but sadly the worst ones created an insular toxic clique that would only accept the purist supporters.  

I’ve compiled a short list of the worst trends on Twitter I’ve seen since this whole ordeal started that do the opposite of attracting new supporters.  

#1. The How Dare you not love my candidate.

 “If you don’t support my candidate then you obviously want people to die!  You just want people to die!  You want millions to get sick and die from climate change, never-ending wars, poverty, and the evils of giant corporations. 

It’s never occurred to a “How Dare You” ranter that someone might care a great deal about the same issues, they just think another candidate might have a better plan.

#2. The classic insult.

Anyone who doesn’t support my candidate is an idiot and a moron, I guess your brain doesn’t work.  What the fuck is wrong with you?

What is a person trying to accomplish with this one?  Do they want them to like their candidate or just feel bad about themselves?

#3. The insult you won’t even understand approach.

Well of course you wouldn’t like him/her you neoliberal corporatist, centrist, Democratic establishment, shill.

I mean what does half of that even mean?  

#4. I guess you can’t read.

Obviously my candidate has the best policies.  How do you not see it? 

Instead of scolding them, and acting like they are illiterate buffoons maybe try to sell the policies you love so much. 

#5. My candidate is a victim

Everyone is against my candidate.  The Democratic establishment wants him/her to lose.  The media is trying to stop them.   

I kinda get this one as the media isn’t always fair.  The DNC is less than perfect.  The problem is painting a candidate for president as a perpetual victim does not make that person look like a strong leader.  Trump uses this exact same tactic.  It works for a portion of the electorate but it also turns people off. 

#6 Gaslighting

I’ve heard about some supporters being abusive but I’ve never seen it myself.  It must be bots, fake accounts or some plot to make my candidate look bad.  

Just because you don’t see something personally doesn’t mean it isn’t happening. 

#7 The Threat

We will keep lists of anyone supporting that candidate.  We won’t forget who you are.  You will pay for this. 

An actual threat of death will usually motivate anyone to vote for whatever the person holding the gun wants, otherwise this is a losing strategy. 

#8 Some voters are just stupid 

Voters who did not vote for my candidate are low-information.  

Low information is just a fancy way of saying stupid.  It doesn’t help. 

#9 The abuser approach

You will be forced to vote for my candidate because it’s him/her or Trump.  When we win we laugh in your fucking face.  

Who wouldn’t want to vote for their candidate after getting a tweet like that?  

#10 The scorched earth

Your candidate is…

• a racist
• a Russian asset (Unless you’re Tulsi Gabbard) 
• a looney toones
• a child molester
• a rapist
• not really gay
• a rat
• a snake
• a murderer
• secretly working for the CIA
• a Republican
• a cop
• the person who will bring on the end of the Democratic party
• the person who will make sure Trump wins the election

Where did they learn this?  Is it the media? Angry podcasters that tap into entitlement and rage? Are these folks simply stuck in a sports team menality and don’t realize that they have to reach out and persuade others in order to build their base of support?  

Negative campaigning during a primary towards other Democrats and their supporters is counter-productive.  There is a reason we’ve never seen this type of extreme vitriol in the past – it simply doesn’t work.  The slings and arrows might silence people from speaking out but it doesn’t change their opinion.  If anything it makes the candidate the bullies are trying to build up look worse. 

Attacking a Republican is something else entirely, especially someone like Trump.  We will still face swing voters though who might not like Trump but won’t be swayed if someone calls them a murderer when they don’t support a vague plan for Medicare For All. 

Will this primary get any better?  I hope so but I’m not convinced that the worst actors in this mess have learned anything.  I fear that even if Sanders gets the nomination this type of behavior will continue or just get worse.  There are potentially millions of voters who voted for Trump in 2016 who don’t want to vote for him in 2020.  Our best bet at getting them on board with a Democratic nominee, whomever that person is, should be by selling our candidate in the best possible light.  The scorched earth tactics should be used against Trump, not moderates and independents and certainly not towards other Democrats.  

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