i’m a bernie sis, hello

Let’s harken back to 2016 for a sec. Back then, every major news outlet you can name (New York Times, Washington Post, Vox, The Atlantic, Buzzfeed, et cetera.) warned of the “Bernie Bro:” the fanatical, racist, misogynistic, performatively-progressive brocialist flocking towards the Sanders campaign, sitting ready behind their keyboards to patronise you and your mum.

After all, Bernie Sanders was the sole candidate running against Hillary Clinton. And what young feminist could support an old white man over the first female president? Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright (a war criminal branded “feminist icon” in the press) notoriously croaked about young Bernie supporters, “There’s a special place in hell for woman who don’t help each other!” Gloria Steinem reasoned with condescension that these young women were un-radical and boy-crazy, and “The boys are with Bernie.”

Well, here I am, a Bernie sis, back again in 2020, still having to fight against this inane criticism. Surely simple data collection should’ve done away with the notion that Sanders supporters are overwhelmingly sexist white bros. The Economist has found that women under 45 actually make up a larger share of his support than men in the same age group do. Recent polling shows that Sanders is the most popular candidate amongst Hispanic voters. Last month’s Gallup poll indicates he has a higher favourability ranking amongst non-whites than whites. Plus, new data from the Pew Center indicates that less than half of Bernie supporters are actually white.

Despite there being a preponderance of evidence showing Sanders' base to be actually diverse, people are still trying to resurrect the “Bernie Bro” myth. Recently, an MSNBC pundit (and 1%er) smugly opined, “At this point, if you’re still supporting Sanders as opposed to Warren... you’re kinda showing your sexism.”

It’s a handy smear that de-legitimises Bernie’s entire base of support. It dismisses them wholesale as sexist, while at the same time serving to virtue-signal how “woke” his critics actually are. Even worse, it serves to erase the women and people of color who support him based on his policies and vision. The recent endorsements by freshman congress-women Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have surely shocked Democrats subscribing to the conventional wisdom that Bernie is too old, white, and male to appeal to young left-leaning women of color. 

To many, Bernie Sanders’ candidacy represents a break from the status quo and an authenticity rarely seen in the sphere of DC politics. For me, Sanders inhabits a healthy distrust of capitalism and imperialism, a theory of change that goes beyond incrementalism and reformism. Young women like me shouldn’t be chastised for caring about something other than petty partisan politics and impeachment proceedings, especially when the climate crisis and unending exploitation threatens to swallow entire peoples and lands whole.

It’s past time we put the “Bernie Bro” myth to rest, and began talking about real shit.