100,000 people have come to recent Bernie Sanders rallies. How does he do it?

[cal04]

(snip)
Bernie, of course, is Bernie Sanders, the senator from Vermont whose Democratic presidential campaign has brought more than 100,000 people to his rallies in recent weeks — making him the biggest draw on the campaign trail this year. The huge crowds are building via social media, word of mouth and promotion by like-minded local groups in each city that Sanders visits, without any paid advertising by the campaign.

Such turnout is no guarantee that Sanders will perform well in the crucial early nominating states — fellow Vermonter Howard Dean preached to similarly large and frenzied audiences in mostly liberal enclaves in 2003, only to collapse as the Iowa caucuses approached.

But it is drawing energy and attention away from Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton, whose largest crowd to date was 5,500, according to her campaign. And it is creating a network of small-scale donors and volunteers that could provide Sanders with the resources he will need to compete with Clinton in the weeks and months ahead.

(snip)
When Sanders came onstage, the cheers were deafening. His voice hoarse, the senator told the crowd, “This campaign is not a billionaire-funded campaign — it is a people-funded campaign.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-does-bernie-sanders-draw-huge-crowds-to-see-him/2015/08/11/4ae018f8-3fde-11e5-8d45-d815146f81fa_story.html

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. There are plenty of people who will simply discount these rallies, even proclaim that

'early rallies' don't matter at all, that 'smart' candidates save their big rallies for the end of the campaign, but I gotta say they're deluding themselves.

People like to vote for 'winners', to be on the 'winning team'. 'Nothing succeeds like success'.

Large rallies don't merely affect those who attend, they make other people sit up and take a look at the candidate. They ask themselves 'Who is this Bernie Sanders guy? Why are so many people going to see him?' And then they start googling him, and find out in many cases, that they really like his positions.

[Ed Suspicious]

3. This shit right here! /\ +1

[JackInGreen]

2. Dean didn't collapse

He was screamed from the field.

[haikugal]

4. Frenzied crowds....I don't see frenzy I see enthusiasm.

[arcane1]

5. It's amazing what integrity and honesty can accomplish. I wish we had more of it!

[oldandhappy]

6. How does he do it? He tells the truth.

[MisterP]

7. well, he has a clean record and his style is "pose a problem and pose a solution"

in an age where elections are more of a ritual to prop up a self-sustaining political class, where the two "sides" scream at each other and then pop the champagne at private parties once they're in, where campaigning is just "everything you want I'll support once I'm in power, that's why my platform's secret until 2017" and "ignore my record or you're a Nazi sexist" any actual difference is shocking

[hedda_foil]

10. ^^^ "in an age where elections are more of a ritual to prop up a self-sustaining political class"^^^

Well said. Very well said.

[olddots]

8. Bernie is refreshing

he has refreshed peoples taste in partisipatory government .

[jalan48]

9. If Bernie doesn't get the nomination there are going to be a lot of angry voters.

What will happen? Maybe the Sanders movement will have more in common with BLM than they thought they had. I don't see many of them quietly going away.

[fbc]

11. Bernie draws more than the NBA

He needs to move on to stadiums and NFL sized crowds.