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Bad Bernie takes: “Bernie Bros”
№4 of a multi-part series deconstructing the worst bad-faith arguments against Sen. Bernie Sanders
The job of a Democratic operative must be great. It’s the easiest of money. You get paid from a bottomless pit of megadonor cash to recycle the same garbage every four years. The idea of misogynist “Bernie Bros” was workshopped by the Clinton campaign in the 2008 primary—they were called “Obama Boys” back then—and rolled out in earnest in 2016. But since the last election, Sanders’ has gained the endorsement of prominent young women of color in Congress while diversifying both his base and his campaign staff. For a moment at least, it seemed that the myth of the “Bernie Bro” was all but dead.
With the Iowa Caucus fast approaching and Sanders pulling ahead of his rivals in early states, the “Bernie Bro” smear is coming out of retirement. Earlier this month, NBC published an op-ed by former Breitbart spokesman Kurt Bardella, who had a road-to-Damascus moment in 2016 and became a Democrat. In the piece, titled “Trump’s MAGA supporters and Twitter Bernie Bros have this ugly tactic in common,” Bardella wrote:
The attacks against Warren come from the same corners of social media that disparage Democrats (like myself) as being “puppets,” “centrist,” “anti-Semitic, and “ageist” for…
