Bernie Sanders, he started out as a far left fringe candidate with laughably uncombed hair and ridiculous ideas. Not electable, not even a chance. Especially not against the political powerhouse that is Hillary Clinton. But in the past few months, something has changed in the way we talk about Bernie. Some polls put him close to or even ahead of Hillary, and everyone from pundits to late night comedians have started shifting their conversation away from jokes about his hair and accent to the question: Can he really do it? Can a socialist really become president?
His supporters certainly think so. His rallies are attended by thousands, #feelthebern seems to be trending every other day, YouTube videos featuring any candidate has at least two or three people in the comments section declaring that Bernie will defeat them. He is the far left candidate that speaks for the new generation. He is the savior we’ve all been waiting for. But, as of this past Friday, our image of perfection has begun to fracture a bit as evidence surfaces that his campaign may not be as incorruptible as once thought.
This past Friday, a glitch in Democratic National Committee’s voter database made it possible for Sanders’ campaign staffers to access data on the Clinton campaign. And at 10:40am, that is exactly what they did. The audit logs report that four people, including Sanders’ national data director, ran multiple searches, accessed, and downloaded key Clinton voter data, projections, and strategy.
In response, the DNC chairwoman, Debbie Wasserman Schultz announced that the Sanders’ campaign’s access to the database would be suspended “until the DNC is provided with a full accounting of whether or not this information was used and the way in which it was disposed”. In response, Sanders’ campaign manager released a statement claiming that staffers had acted on their own accord, that disciplinary action had been taken, and none of the data had been used. Further, he announced that the campaign was suing the DNC until their access to the database was restored. On Saturday, the DNC announced that the campaign had complied with their investigation and they were restoring their access to the data.
So that’s it, no more drama and a happy ending, right? Not exactly. Because while this drama between Senator Sanders and the DNC has been fun to watch over the past few days, it isn’t nearly as interesting or revealing as the reactions of Bernie’s supporters.
For any other presidential candidate, this would be a PR nightmare at best and a scandal at worst. Integrity would be questioned and accusations of corruption would abound. Shady activity involving virtual data in which it’s unclear if the candidate is at fault or even knew about it? This had all the potential to be Sanders’ “email moment.” Whether or not he knew this was happening or not will probably never be known, but it does prove one thing, this campaign isn’t as incorruptible and righteous as we once thought. They are a political campaign like any other.
But Bernie supporters don’t see it that way. As would be expected, social media fixated on #berniegate, but not in the way you’d think. Scrolling through the feeds on every website from Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and more, it was almost impossible to find a single post criticizing, or even questioning Bernie’s campaign. Instead anger and hatred abounded towards the DNC, and particularly its chairwoman, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz who Sanders’ supporters believe was intentionally sabotaging Bernie’s campaign in order to promote Hillary.
While a few stray comments suggested that it only made sense to shut down Sanders’ side of the website until the DNC could be sure the breach was under control, they were almost totally drowned out by increasingly far-flung conspiracy theories and an absolute refusal to consider any wrongdoing or even mistakes on the part of Sanders.
And this blind loyalty wasn’t contained to the blogosphere. Buzzfeed News attended an event of Bernie Sanders’ supporters and after several interviews found a general agreement that everything that had taken place was “orchestrated by the Democratic Party looking to end the Sanders’ insurgency.” Some even went so far as to say that “Debbie Wasserman Schultz had personally appointed the aide who copied proprietary Hillary Clinton data and activated the mole when the time was right.” And, while details of various theories differed, there was one conclusion that everyone could agree on: “no one thought the Sanders campaign had erred.”
Eventually, the Sanders’ supporters began refocusing their anger at not just the DNC, but the Clinton campaign, who many believed to be at least partially behind the incident. By the end of Friday, every one of Clinton’s Facebook posts had been inundated with attacks accusing her of deliberately sabotaging Sanders’ campaign and vowing to never trust her again. It is surprising to say the least, that while it was nearly impossible to find any criticism towards Bernie for the actions of his own staffers, it was impossible to avoid the hateful rhetoric aimed at Hillary, even though there is no evidence that she was even tangentially involved. There are a whole lot of hoof beats and some people seem far too eager to assume it's zebras.
As Bernie has risen these past few months from unknown, eccentric senator of Vermont to the darling of the far-left, people have understandably gotten excited. But slowly that excitement has turned to devotion, and from there morphed into worship. Bernie has become the messenger and the god all wrapped into one. Representative of the ideals that anti-establishment millennials hold dear. He can do no wrong. And when evidence arises that perhaps he has done wrong? Impossible.
The narrative for this scandal had been built long before this past Friday. Bernie is Anti-Establishment Far-Left, come to save us from the Big Bad Corrupt Establishment who will do anything to take him down. By the time this scandal broke out on Friday, one had to only ignore the straightforward indications and twist it around a bit to fit the story which had already been constructed.
Once we strip away all those preconceived notions and ideals, what are we left with? A technical glitch. A few political staffers with questionable morals. And a presidential candidate who isn’t running as tight and scrupulous a ship as we’d once thought.
Bernie Sanders is a radical politician with great ideas and a chance of bringing about real change. But neither he nor his campaign are infallible, and we best not forget that. If history is any tell, blind faith in a perfect hero doesn’t usually end well.
