CommentsMY TURN--Today’s media love their “darlings” in the same way that they love those that are evil. Since it’s all about the ratings, if they can’t find people to match these identifiers, they will create them. And so they did when it comes to Bernie Sanders and Trump.
Both personalities share a lot in common and when the media saw that they attracted new viewers, they not only gave them talking platforms, but encouraged both to speak out of the box. Trump spewed enough hate, racism, bigotry and sexism and, with Russian help, stole the election. Sanders moved forward to continue his forty year old dream of a political revolution, saying the same things that he has said for so many years, while actually accomplishing nothing.
While Bernie may have attracted those that were disillusioned, frustrated or just the “angry young white guys”, they also shared these same traits with the Trump extremists. The results of words without actions on Bernie’s side is that his revolution is failing and people are looking for representatives that have accomplished more than just being a “talking head”.
You see, humans can only maintain a state of anger for so long. It wears down both the emotional and physical state and our brains must balance out as a survival tactic. Both the Trump and Sanders campaigns were based on anger. Each one tapped into a different resource: Trump to the white racists and Sanders to the always-unhappy-youth. The astounding part is that neither of these extreme sides had the backing or support of very many of the organizations of the country. Of course, the GOP will line up behind a rock if it is elected as their representative, and so they did for Trump. Sanders on the other hand thought he had movement that would continue forward and instead, it is dying a slow death of their own creation.
Our Revolution is An Elitist Group
If you are political candidate looking for the support of the Our Revolution gang, you had better make sure that your past is pure and your present is pristine and very very progressive. This group backs only those candidates that represent their own cherry-picked values and to hell with the rest of the people and their needs. I cover this topic in-depth in my article: Bernie Sanders Supporters: The Elitists Hiding Behind their Revolution
“When you have a loud and obnoxious group that is spewing demands without a care about the fallout for those that will feel the effects of their “conscious voting”, they emulate the exact same behavior as any extremist cult and yet they are too blind to see it.”
I continue with:
“While the election is over the attitude is not and the Sanders supporters continue to have a “let them eat cake” opinion as they refuse to endorse any Democratic candidate that doesn’t pass their personal “litmus test” of purity. The blinders that they wear don’t allow them to see the devastation that Trump and the GOP have caused. Their never ending chant of railing against the Democrats proves that they are clueless.”
All you have to do at this point is to add a very bad leader for the Our Revolution movement, who maintains that they alone are the only people that should have the right to vote on any liberal topics and suggest that all other liberals should be thrown to the wayside; and you have a formula for immediate failure. As the leader of Our Revolution, Nina Turner has offered an extremist message that is really too extreme for many of their members. As they try to move forward, supporting only those candidates that pass their litmus test, it has become obvious that their backing has actually contributed to a loss by a large majority of those candidates.
Add to the fact that the organization of Our Revolution is poorly run and badly operated, with little or no concept of how to maintain the integrity of a group, and you have a recipe for disaster. Politico covered the lack of interest and winning anything in their article: Bernie’s army in disarray
“But an extensive review of the Sanders-inspired group depicts an organization in disarray — operating primarily as a promotional vehicle for its leader and sometimes even snubbing candidates aligned with Sanders. Our Revolution has shown no ability to tip a major Democratic election in its favor — despite possessing Sanders’ email list, the envy of the Democratic Party — and can claim no major wins in 2018 as its own.
The result has left many Sanders supporters disillusioned, feeling that the group that was supposed to harness the senator’s grass-roots movement is failing in its mission. The problems have also fueled doubts about Sanders’ organizational ability heading into 2020, even after his out-of-nowhere near-march to the nomination two years ago. Critics of the Vermont independent had been worried he’d have a juggernaut-in-waiting to fuel a second presidential campaign, but that anxiety has faded after watching Our Revolution the past year and a half.”
Know Your Target Audience
Trump can only do one thing and that is to continue to fuel his target audience with the most outrageous brainwashing, propaganda lies that he can come up with. He has had the help of Fox, which is not even close to a “news source”, but instead, listed as entertainment. The right wing wackos simply adore the spin as it appeals to their inner hate and continues to keep their desire to support an extreme right platform. Of course, they are not bright enough to see that they are being manipulated and that every fascist regime of the past did the very same thing.
This is something that Our Revolution has missed. They are so disorganized that they forgot that today’s viewers have a short attention span. This is one of the reasons that data visualization and memes have become so popular: they can get a message across in nanoseconds. Since people are not reading text as much as they used to, this methodology works and yet Our Revolution is too busy trying to “be” a revolution to pay attention. They are losing their supporters in droves and they aren’t even aware of it.
The Our Revolution group is so embroiled in their own internal struggles that they have allowed their weaknesses and dirty laundry to be exposed to the public; and it’s not a pretty sight. A PeoplesView.net article included information on how out of touch the group is in: True Colors: Bernie Sanders, Our Revolution, and the Racist Left where they state:
“After living comfortably in the shadows for 16 months, ‘progressive’ organization Our Revolution finally had its curtain pulled back on Monday and what was behind the curtain was not pretty. According to a Politico article, Our Revolution is exactly as many of perceived it to be: a petty, vindictive organization, built on self-interests and egos, and pretending to be supporting Democratic candidates but actually having a secretive and selective process that nobody except the top brass care to understand. In short, the organization closely mirrors the campaign of Bernie Sanders, a campaign supposedly driven by progressive values but actually driven by greed and a lust for power.”
They continue with:
“The truth is that Our Revolution is progressive in name only. It exists to serve itself and to ratfuck the Democratic Party. Why else would you support Fox News toadie Dennis Kucinich rather than former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau head Richard Cordray? Why wouldn’t you want to help elect Doug Jones in Alabama? Why wouldn’t you campaign for Connor Lamb in Pennsylvania? Why wouldn’t you advocate for Ralph Northam as governor for Virginia? If you don’t support these Democrats in these must-win races, what exactly do you stand for?
The answer is that Our Revolution stands for itself only. They are not our friends. Like Bernie Sanders, they areborrowing the Democratic Partyin name and using that name to promote themselves and their brand. They are the mirror image of the Trump Administration in that they see government as a way to enrich themselves and their friends. Don’t believe me? Look at who has come to the aid of Our Revolution since the Politico article broke. The Young Turks’ Cenk Uygur called it a ‘hit piece’ on Twitter. Both Nomiki Konstand James Zogby immediately came to Cenk’s aid. Walker Bragman immediately retweeted Konst. Common Dreams published an article by Michael Sainato attempting to discredit Politico’s reporting. The damage control by the usual suspects and the lack of any purported factual errors seem to indicate the original article was grounded in sound reporting.”
All of this is contributing to the loss of supporters and proves that Our Revolution really didn’t have a clue who their target audience is/was and the psychology needed to keep the attention of a group that has little to being with.
The end result of all of this chaos is that those Democrats that are viable candidates need to completely disavow support from Bernie, Nina Turner, or the Our Revolution monstrosity. They are loud and obnoxious, continually trying to shove the idea that success can’t happen without them, while actually having the opposite happen.
Democrats make up an incredibly diverse segment of our society, covering a gamut of beliefs. We cannot have a single extremist group dictating what topics and candidates are personally “approved of” and must make every attempt to have all voices heard. No one gets everything that they want in life, and this is a lesson that the Our Revolution gang were never taught. While it’s good to dream and questioning does bring change, their approach is the wrong one; and it’s showing by their failure.
(S. Novi is a journalist that worked in the media and continues to seek out truth and integrity. A liberal and one that is suspicious of cults and empty promises. Novi posts at Medium.com … where this column originated.)
-cw
