Bernie Sanders seems so innocuous. Sure, you might not agree with his politics, but you know he probably likes ice cream and polyester pants and telling unsuspecting neighborhood children to get off his lawn before he turns the hose on them.
But some of Bernie’s online supporters are waging a sexist campaign against female Hillary Clinton supporters that’s definitely not aligned with the “peaceful and progressive” brand that Sanders has built around him. Called Bernie Bros (or #BernieBros), Sanders’s online army of young, male and predominantly white activists are wreaking Donald Trump-style insult havoc on their social media opposition. Mostly, they’re “man-splaining” their favorite candidate’s virtues to any member of the fairer, stupider (in their opinion) sex.
In September, journalists who wrote critically of Bernie Sanders started receiving a barrage of aggressive Twitter mentions from Sanders supporters.
@Russian_Starr Man, that sure is some entitlement you have going there. Also, you're a hypocrite.
— Alex Cowan (@Desareon) September 7, 2015
By January, women who support Hillary Clinton began noticing that their Twitter mentions weren’t as complimentary as before, and their interactions with Sanders supporters became, according to Mashable, “derogatory and misogynistic.” It only went downhill from there.
One female journalist, Sarah Jeong of Vice (a Sanders fan), had to shut her Twitter account down after she was inundated with sexist attacks after mentioning to Sanders supporters that they should tone down their rhetoric (Clara Jeffery, co-editor of Mother Jones, picked up the tweet).
2/ This campaign of harassment began with some who self-identify as @SenSanders supporters. cc @nickconfessore pic.twitter.com/qwVJYWDnmU
— Clara Jeffery (@ClaraJeffery) January 28, 2016
By late January, the online harassment and dog-piling had gotten so bad among self-identified Sanders supporters that his campaign had to step in.
if you support @berniesanders, please follow the senator's lead and be respectful when people disagree with you.
— mike casca (@cascamike) January 26, 2016
And the higher the Hillary Clinton supporter, the worse the harassment. One official with a Clinton surrogate’s office told Mashable, “We’ve gone out of our way not to be critical of [Bernie Sanders] ever…But any time she posts anything on her political page about Hillary, we get all of these Bernie people just being ridiculous. And I’ve talked to staff for other members, and it’s just exhausting.”
Self-identified feminists supporting Clinton seem to be the #BernieBros top target. Bernie’s male supporters seem to be hell-bent on convincing them that their vote for Clinton is the result of gender solidarity as opposed to deep consideration of which candidate would actually be better for women.
Joanne Bamberger, Hillary supporter and editor of the book Love Her, Love Her Not: The Hillary Paradox, told Heat Street that this is just the latest in a long line of liberal attacks on women: “Sadly, I think we still live in a world where many men don’t think women have a right to any opinions of substance. It’s not just the Bernie Bros. In 2008, young men showed up at her rallies and shouted ‘Iron my shirts!’ and ‘Make me a sandwich!’ That sort of invective speaks as much to a dislike of Clinton as it does to how some men (even liberal ones) view women—suitable only for traditional, domestic roles and not entitled to having thoughts of their own.”
One of the targeted feminists, a writer for New York Magazine, curated her experience with Bernie Bros in real time, after realizing that the sexist hordes were “reminding their feminist peers that misogyny and bitter gender resentments are not — as they have never been — the sole province of the American right.” Among her top picks:
600,000 Iraqis died because of the war Hillary enthusiastically supported but you're "a hot mess" so that settles it https://t.co/6G6NkuB181
— HR-Compliant Freddie (@freddiedeboer) October 4, 2015
Ppl voting for Hillary for this reason are like southern GOP neighbors wanting GOP for culturally affirming reasons https://t.co/36SJLyQAgN
— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) October 3, 2015
Her catalog didn’t include our favorite, a Bernie Bro tweeting that “their vaginas are making terrible choices!”
With less than 100 delegates left before Clinton clinches the Democratic nomination, Bernie Bros have turned their attention to their own “flexible math,” trying to justify Sanders staying in the race. Clinton may be one good primary away from locking up the Democratic Party’s nod, but Bernie Bros insist that the arithmetic is all a matter of perspective—and that there’s still an outside chance they could flip all-important Superdelegates to Sanders before the end of July.
Clinton has not launched the most effective outreach program. Even her million dollar “Correct the Record” project has responded to trolls with a tin ear (and comforting memes about love and kindness). She’s going to have to do a lot better or she’ll risk losing even more ground to Trump.
