February 26th, 2020 | Written By - Reema Gupta '22
“I have more than 10 million followers on Twitter, 99.9 percent of them are decent human beings, are working people, are people who believe in justice, compassion and love. And if there are a few people who make ugly remarks, who attack trade union leaders, I disown those people,” Bernie Sanders stated at the recent Democratic Nevada Primary Debate on February 19th. This was his response to Senator Warren’s remark on the “Culinary Union” harassment case. The Culinary Union is famous in Nevada for controlling the entire Vegas Strip, according to Politico, and was single handedly responsible for changing it to a democratic state in the 2016 elections. It has expressed multiple concerns with Sanders’ “Medicare for All” plan that would reform individual healthcare. The Culinary Union fears this would interrupt their current healthcare plan, as most of it is covered for every member on a corporate basis, rather than an individual. When the organization sent out a flyer highlighting this concern, Sanders’ supporters unleashed their opinions by using threats on Twitter, harmful emails, and even voicemails. Sanders addressed the situation by claiming that he condemns any harmful action against a union and that his campaign was built on unions, showing that he at least respects the union. However, he did not take any blame for the situation and only claimed that he doesn’t acknowledge them as his followers.
Another instance occurred last year. The Working Families Party (WFP) is a political party founded in 1998 with notable labor reform goals. However, according to CNN, when the WFP endorsed Senator Warren over Sanders in September, several of his Twitter supporters sent the institution harmful messages claiming they were “corrupt” and “bloodless scumbags;” these are just some of the thousands of harmful messages. One of the worst threats was reported by a WFP Spokeswoman who stated that they received a message from a user claiming that they “...wished she and her colleagues would all get cancer...’ Much of the bullying was from the Reddit page, “SandersForPresident,” which had 300,000 followers. One follower even called upon other supporters to “spy” on the WFP and hold riots. Sanders took action on Twitter by saying, “This campaign condemns racist bullying and harassment of any kind...We are building a multiracial movement for justice—that’s how we win the White House.”
While it is true that Bernie did not influence his followers to conduct threats on anyone, several others, including Pete Buttigieg, expressed their concerns over Sanders completely dismissing these strikes. While we should not blame Sanders, we can criticize his response. The Reddit page at the center of this debacle, “SandersForPresident” is still running despite multiple accusations of harassment and harmful political motives. By shutting down the webpage, Sanders would strengthen his relationship with the victim parties and better his political image. This “blame game” between a media personality and their fans is the center of Sanders’ campaign. But the biggest takeaway is: we should not blame the influencer, but rather their actions.
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