The Bernie Bro Myth

[mdbl]

I just read an opinion piece this morning in an on-line paper which throws the Bernie Bro term into the mainstream.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/05/12/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-social-media-supporters/84284322/a

The term is quite derogatory in it's broad use to classify anyone who doesn't agree with Hillary's politics as a 'Bernie Bro'. While I know those who use the term will defend it by saying they are only describing some toxic uses of the internet, I feel their motive is much more sinister and is being used as a campaign tool. That's where politics becomes completely unproductive and why our system of government has broken down as a good to society. There are very few people who would fit the term Bernie Bro as I understand its meaning. Using it in a headline is makes a mountain out of a molehill.

[Joob]

1. I read that article and saw the video clip basically saying Bernie wants Bernie bros. Hogwash.

That whole article and especially the video is likely to turn more people away from Hillary. Dunno why they did that.

[GreatGazoo]

2. It is a campaign technique. Hillary used it in 2008 against Obama also

Hillary NEEDS to be a victim. She gets more support when she is attacked and they are relying on this dynamic in the GE against Trump.

Hillary is a brand which they want to mean "safe, civil and female" so they created "Bernie Bros" to be the alleged contrast.

[silvershadow]

4. +1

[LWolf]

6. Yes.

But a look back at 2008 shows a quiet dress rehearsal of this same fight.

‘Obama Boys’

Veteran observers of the 2008 election, of course, remember sexism as a hot-button issue during the showdown between Clinton and Obama. Hillary supporters hit the young senator hard for several slights that many felt were gendered (“you’re likable enough, Hillary”), and her campaign returned to these charges more frequently as the race dragged on.

But that broadside gave life to a more specific narrative in the blogosphere: the scourge of the “Obama Boy,” a term coined in a 2008 Salon headline , though not the body, of a piece by Rebecca Traister, one of same authors who has repeatedly weighed in on the Bernie Bro this season. In the 2008 piece, Traister described women who, while sympathetic to Obama if not outright supportive, felt alienated by latent and sometimes not-so-latent sexism from male supporters .

“You already see this idealistic longing projected on Obama,” says one woman interviewed by Traister. “People talk about him as a secular messiah who will bring us political salvation. There’s no sense of what is plausible.” Unchecked idealism is also one key aspect of the Bernie Bro, as the Atlantic wrote last year: “The Berniebro doesn’t really have a good answer when you ask why the Democratic Party, which has spent six years explaining how its market-based healthcare policies aren’t socialist, would ever find national success nominating an actual democratic socialist.”

http://www.ibtimes.com/bernie-bros-obama-boys-echoes-2008-medias-clinton-sanders-pundit-clash-2300707

[Deb]

3. Pathetic, she has a difficult time with "bros"

presumptive leader- not

[NCTraveler]

5. .

"I feel their motive is much more sinister and is being used as a campaign tool."

This is a campaign.

"Why our system of government has broken down as a good to society."

That simply shows a lack of understanding of history. These things have been around since the beginning. Thoughts like the one displayed in that sentence are based in a need for self importance. The thought that this is a new tool designed just to be used against current individuals when facts tell a completely different story. Early Presidential campaign were some of the worst at defining their opponents.

I have been called a racist pedophile promoter by white male Sanders supporters. I think I have used the term Bernie Bro three or four times this election cycle. That's it. A certain group fits the bill. I'm still not big into the name calling.

[mdbl]

7. Yes, I completely lack understanding of history.

I don't understand how it got so F'd up as to allow someone to excuse reprehensible behavior in politics.