Bernie Sanders Has a Secret Weapon, and the Media Elites Just Don’t Get It

[Fawke Em]

What actual voters think about Tuesday’s debate, however, might be quite different. Michael Tomasky, the political columnist at the Daily Beast, seems to be the only mainstream commentator who broke from the herd to make this point. Citing the results of two separate focus groups whose opinions had not been influenced by the media’s post-mortem declarations, Tomasky wrote, “There’s reason to believe that people watching at home didn’t share the media’s overwhelming verdict” that “Clinton crushed it.” On the contrary, both focus groups thought Sanders had won.

Leaving aside the simplistic focus on who won or lost, Sanders clearly appealed to many people Tuesday night, and his secret weapon helps explain why. That secret weapon is the gift of plain speech. This gift is less about the content of Sanders’s remarks, though that matters, than it is about the way he delivers them—he uses the kind of language ordinary people use themselves and speaks with a passion that makes it clear he genuinely believes what he’s saying.

Agree with his specific ideas and policies or not, Sanders was the only person on that stage Tuesday night who talked like a real person, not a calculating politician or policy wonk. Sanders didn’t talk about a “five-point plan,” like Clinton did in describing her proposal to reform banking regulation, or try to cram statistics into every answer like former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley did. Sanders didn’t mince words (“of course” he’d shut down the NSA’s domestic surveillance program) or run away from what he believes in (democratic socialism, as manifested in Scandinavia). He embraced his beliefs and actions and explained them in straightforward terms: yes, he had a different voting record on guns, because he represented a rural state where guns play a different role in daily life than they do in urban areas, but he was still tough enough to receive a grade of D-minus from the National Rifle Association. You might like that answer or not like it, but at least you can understand it.

Maybe the reason today’s media elites miss this aspect of Sanders’s appeal is that they’ve been on the inside of the political carnival looking out for so long that they’ve forgotten that debates, campaigns, and elections are not for them, they’re for the public. Most media elites are so distanced from ordinary people, and have been rubbing shoulders with conventional politicians for so long, that they don’t really get how alien and off-putting most politicians sound to the average person.

http://www.thenation.com/article/bernie-sanders-has-a-secret-weapon-and-the-media-elites-just-dont-get-it/

[tblue37]

1. K&R. nt

[Uncle Joe]

2. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Fawke Em.

[colsohlibgal]

3. Surprising

Thought Michael was Hillary guy, if he is it's quite sporting of him to not be delusional like a lot of the National pundits.

[Unknown Beatle]

4. Do you mean the same media elites that are bought

by the same corporations that also bought Hillary?

[Fawke Em]

6. Yes. Those would be the ones.

[Utopian Leftist]

5. Does it never occur to these dimwitted "media elites"

that the average person is smart enough to no longer fear the Wizard of Oz behind his curtain, pulling his little levers? THE TRUTH DOES NOT HAVE TO BE SOLD TO US!

(BERNIE IS GIVING THAT AWAY FOR FREE, TOO!) Bernie's honesty is what they fear most of all.

We don't need any more Used-Car Salespeople as President. No more negotiators with the TeaDevils. We need leaders. We the people get it and more are getting it by the hour: Progress is always made by those who emancipate themselves from the false intellectual bonds of their respective cultures. Shake off the dogma we've all been sold, a new day rises. The idea that the Powers That Be must always be lavishly rewarded and obeyed is the first casualty of the New World Order. The absurd myth that a healthy middle-class is created by redistributing wealth upwards and expecting it to "trickle-down" is the second casualty. When the message gets spread a little wider, that we have all been lied to on such a massive scale, that in fact the opposite is and has always been true: that a healthy middle class depends on everyone at the bottom having their needs met, first? When this is known? Then comes the revolution! Worldwide. Because we the people won't take it anymore. We won't allow them to destroy what's left of the planet just so a very few can live like kings until they destroy themselves.

Bernie is their worst fear, unfolding in front of their eyes. Excuse me if I don't give a shit.

[azmom]

7. [phone]

[WillyT]

8. HUGE K & R !!! - THANK YOU !!!