Third Rule of Power Tactics:
“Wherever possible, go outside the experience of your enemy.”
https://gobling.wordpress.com/2016/03/10/redux-revolution-alinsky-sanders-and-the-false-campaign/
Yellow Dog Democrats have seen this tactic invoked time after time. It produces incredulous confusion and rage. Take the fact that Bernie, a registered Independent, applies to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to run as a Democrat in the presidential race. Shortly after, his campaign is caught stealing voter data from Clinton’s camp. When confronted and punished, Bernie’s camp expresses outrage. It immediately files suit against the DNC. Simultaneously, his followers call for a hatchet job on the DNC chair, Debbie Wasserman Schultz. These are just the early days of the campaign.
As the Sanders’ operation coalesced, the attacks started. Clinton, organizations and individuals who endorsed her, individual supporters, the Democrat party and its elected officials, including such luminaries as Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. John Lewis – all were and are subjected to a barrage of vitriol by Bernie’s online team. The personal insults are extreme. Base name-calling, trolling and online harassment were – and are – the soup du jour of the “Bernie Bros”.
None of this is characteristic of the mild-mannered, typically polite Democrat. None of this resembles the usual Democratic primary race.
Sanders recruited individuals like Cornel West, whose notorious insults to Barack Obama date back for years; Killer Mike, who equated Clinton to her uterus; Nina Turner, former ally to her mentor Clinton, and now turncoat; and Tulsi Gabbard, who resigned from the DNC to champion Bernie.
Keep in mind that the candidate went on record to run a clean campaign at the start of these attacks, a pledge that either puts him at odds with his campaign or reveals his duplicity. The recent online assault launched against Senator Warren gives the impression that Sanders is complicit. The tweet below, posted after his loss in Massachusetts, includes him in its distribution list. Sanders was aware that the spiteful attack was planned and did not avert it.
These first three tactics achieve two objectives: freak-out mainstream Democrats and embolden Undecideds who believe there’s a “revolution” of amazing magnitude. What’s important to keep in mind is that the Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign is bouyed by “tactics” rather than policy. The intentional manipulation of digital media conveys a false sense of presence and popularity. The known dynamics of “herd mentality” apply to the online world just as they do in the real world.
Recognizing how the Sanders’ camp is deploying its forces and sending out its message provides a key for Clinton followers. There are three options: 1) take the bait and wrest with tactics; 2) counter it or; 3) ignore it. This Democratic presidential primary is all about strategy.
This is only the start of the Alinsky effect on Bernie’s machine and the Clinton operation.
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