Message and Uptake in Bernie Sanders' 2020 Political Campaign

BA Thesis Sam van Alebeek Student number: 2013688 Online Culture: Art, Media and Society / Digital Media Department of Culture Studies School of Humanities and Digital Sciences June 2020 Supervisor: Ico Maly Second reader: Mingyi Hou

1 Abstract

Bernie Sanders is a well-known politician who was running for the Democratic Party nomination in the 2020 U.S. presidential elections. He refers to himself as a Democratic socialist in a country where socialism is surrounded by a negative realm. Despite this, Sanders has managed to become a force to be reckoned with and has gained the support of many ordinary citizens as well as tons of celebrities. The purpose of this study is to research how Sanders’ message is distributed and how uptake is caused on various online channels. Previous research has been performed on politics and message, however, Sanders’ campaign was organized through big organizing which set him apart from most other politicians. Sanders did not rely on big-dollar donors that fund the campaign from the top down. In contrast, he built a grassroots campaign that was ran mostly by volunteers and funded from the bottom up. This thesis is therefore relevant because of the research on a type of campaigning organized from a completely different approach. The research in this thesis has been carried out through digital ethnography by gathering data from the channels Sanders utilizes to spread his message and generate uptake. Next, this data was sorted and analyzed within a theoretical framework regarding message, big organizing, uptake, media, and (crowd)funding. It was found that despite the immense growth and success of Sanders’ movement, this was not enough to beat his rival Joe Biden, implicating that his big organizing campaign wasn’t big enough just yet.

2 Table of contents

Abstract ...... 2

Chapter 1: Introduction ...... 4

2.1 Digital Ethnography ...... 7

2.2 Case Study and Data ...... 10

Chapter 3: Feel the Bern. The Uptake of Bernie Sanders’ Message on Social Media ...... 12

3.1 Theoretical Background on Message Politics and Bernie Sanders’ Message ...... 12

3.2 Bernie Sanders’ Representation in Mainstream Media ...... 14

3.3 Bernie Sanders’ Image and Message on Social Media ...... 15

3.4 Social Media and Political Revolution ...... 18

3.5 Bernie Sanders’ Support on Social Media...... 19

Chapter 4: ‘My friends, I’m asking you...’: The Role of Newsletters in Sanders’ Campaign ...... 23

4.1 Big Organizing Through Newsletters ...... 23

4.2 Characteristics of the Newsletters ...... 25

Chapter 5: Volunteers and the Bernie App: BERN ...... 32

5.1 The Importance of Volunteers ...... 32

5.2 Gathering Volunteers and BERN ...... 32

5.3 Volunteer-Organized Events ...... 34

Chapter 6: Conclusion and Discussion ...... 35

References ...... 37

3 Chapter 1: Introduction

The United States presidential election is a recurring event with an immense amount of media coverage worldwide. In 2016, Donald Trump, who was representing the Republicans won the election over Hillary Clinton, who was representing the Democrats (Presidential Election Results: Donald J. Trump Wins, 2017). In that year, Clinton was a huge favorite in the Democratic Party and the hopes for her to win over Trump were high. As written in a New York Times article from March 2015: “Mrs. Clinton, many Democrats say, is simply too big to fail.” (Confessore, Haberman & Martin, 2015). In that time, there was a significant difference in the amount of money the Republican state parties had raised ($350 million) compared to what the Democrats had raised ($215 million). Still, Clinton would be the one to solve that issue since, as predicted in that time, “no other candidate combines her ties to big donors with her appeal to small ones.” (Confessore, Haberman & Martin, 2015). In 2016, Hillary Clinton was the best contender to be battling Donald Trump for the victory of the elections.

Nonetheless, despite Clinton’s popularity and hopes to win the election, there was another Democratic contender: Bernie Sanders. Sanders is a U.S. Senator from Vermont (Meet Bernie, n.d.). He was elected in 2006 to “the U.S. Senate after 16 years as Vermont’s sole congressman in the House of Representatives.”, and is currently “serving his third term in the U.S. Senate after winning re- election in 2018 with 67 percent of the vote.” (Meet Bernie, n.d.). In Congress, Sanders has focused on “the shrinking middle class and growing gap between the rich and everyone else.” (Meet Bernie, n.d.). In the run for the 2016 Democratic nomination, the race was not as close as the one in 2008 between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, but in 2016, Bernie Sanders did get rather close to Hillary Clinton (Parlapiano & Yourish, 2016). Despite all of Sanders’ efforts, it was not enough and he eventually had to drop out.

For the Democratic election of 2020, Clinton was not running which seemed to be the time for Sanders to run for the Democratic Party. Sanders did however decide to drop out of the race for the presidential elections on April 8, 2020. In the live streamed video where he announced the suspension of his campaign, he said that despite everything that was achieved, continuing the campaign with the aim to run for the Democratic Party and beat Joe Biden was not realistic any more. He does explain that it was never just about the campaign, but rather about the movement. A movement that believed that change does not come from the top-down, but from the bottom-up. With this, he emphasizes that while the campaign has come to an end, the movement is continuing (Bernie Sanders, 2020).

Before Sanders decided to drop out, the fact that he seemed to continue to be a strong contender was striking because his socialist ideas (and socialism in general) are rather unpopular in the United States. As described in an article in The New Yorker, Sanders is in some ways running “against the so-called Democratic establishment and has never really become a Democrat, and he

4 wants to transform the economy as utterly as he can” (Chotiner, 2020). This would make him the most left-wing candidate for the Presidential Elections that has ever been nominated by any major party (Chotiner, 2020). As Chotiner writes: “He seems very shrewd about that, because on the one hand, clearly, a lot of his policies are popular. On the other hand, as we know from polls, most Americans don’t like the idea of socialism.” (2020).

This is where it gets interesting since it is remarkable that someone who stands for socialist ideas that are so unpopular, still gains large numbers of supporters and is being a strong contender for the Democratic party in the 2020 elections. Sanders’ approach to campaigning is quite striking since the main focus of his campaign has been put on social media and gaining donations that will help fund his candidacy through these platforms.

For the past decade, social media has continuously grown to become a vital aspect of our everyday life and, as a result of this, in politics as well. The relevance of social media in presidential elections has correspondingly caused a demand for new campaign strategies. As mentioned in an article by Penney:

The increasing centrality of social media promotion has focused attention on the participatory role of citizen-supporters, who not only receive campaign messages via platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram but also co-create and circulate them as a means of contributing to the visibility and outreach of their favored candidates. (2017)

In his 2016 campaign, Sanders was able to fill in the gap that existed within his campaign strategies by not only building a formal organization but circulating more informal content and letting pro-Sanders groups spread this content via social media (Penney, 2017). Creating this platform has been a key factor in Sanders’ campaign to gain supporters, as well as donations.

These donations are a crucial part of Sanders’ campaign because money in general is of crucial importance in political campaigns. In the 2012 election cycle, congressional campaigns spent $3.7 billion (Center for Responsive Politics, 2013, as cited in Kalla & Broockman, 2015). These huge amounts of money are collected through wealthy interest groups, who typically have different priorities and preferences than most U.S. citizens (Kalla & Broockman, 2015). This phenomenon of wealthy donors supporting a campaign is typical for what Bond & Exley (2016) call ‘small organizing’. What occurs in small organizing is that the people or companies who provide a politician with a lot of money for a campaign will influence a politician’s perspective (Bond & Exley, 2016, p. 70). Moreover, the time spent on this is at the expense of building a base with and being more accountable to “your people” (Bond & Exley, 2016, p. 70). When this happens, it eventually results in a situation were “too many elected officials are basing important decisions not on what would be best for all Americans but on what they

5 imagine would appeal to a small number of swing voters usually at the center-right of the political debate.” (Bond & Exley, 2016, p. 3). In contrast, Sanders’ campaign is built on a system of big organizing. Sanders’ campaign explicitly denied funds from so-called super-PAC’s and chose to be funded with small donations from ‘the people’ only. The way Sanders’ campaign is based on big organizing and how this works in practice will be elaborated on more extensively later on in this thesis. In short, big organizing is the opposite of small organizing because instead of funding a campaign top-down, in big organizing, a campaign is organized and funded bottom-up. Bernie Sanders’ 2020 campaign, his message, and the uptake of his message are what is researched in this thesis, with the focus on the way he utilizes social media platforms. Previous research has been done on this topic regarding campaigns that are based on small organizing. Still, there is a lack of existing academic literature on the way this works when the campaign is ran by big organizing where the campaign is not funded by big-dollar donors, and where volunteers are the ones building a grassroots campaign to spread a politician’s message and raise money to fund the campaign. This thesis attempts to fill this gap by doing research on the way Bernie Sanders shares his message and how this creates uptake through big-organizing, with a grassroots campaign that is organized bottom-up. The main question that this thesis aims to answer is:

In what way does Bernie Sanders’ message and approach of utilizing social media as a part of his campaign in the 2020 U.S. elections increase his visibility and popularity among U.S. citizens?

6 Chapter 2: Methodology & Data 2.1 Digital Ethnography As a result of the nature of this research, this thesis consists of an ethnographic case study between January 2020 and April 2020. This is because, in this thesis, research is done on the popularity of Bernie Sanders and how it is possible that an outsider like him has been so successful in the U.S. elections. Before entering the digital field, I reviewed academic and non-academic literature covering this subject matter. The main part of this research is based on a digital ethnographic approach of the data collected on various digital platforms. The literature I have reviewed provided me with extra insights into the data that I had collected, creating clear and solid research. Digital ethnography is a rather recent approach for doing research (See Varis, 2014 for an overview). To be able to define and explain digital ethnography, one has to start with ethnography and ethnographic fieldwork first. When one wants to research activities or actions that are second nature to people, this calls for a very specific type of research. In the type of research like I carried out, one cannot just ask people why it is that Bernie Sanders, a social democrat, has now all of a sudden become popular and expect to be given knowledge. The answers of individuals are – in an ethnographic paradigm – data. Data that needs to be analyzed. To analyze why Bernie Sanders’ campaign succeeds in mobilizing masses and was successful in this day and age – especially considering the anti-socialist history in the U.S. - ethnography is a promising research paradigm. Ethnography is not only useful to study people and their actions but maybe most importantly to analyze meaning in context. “Ethnographic fieldwork is aimed at finding out things that are often not seen as important but belong to the implicit structures of people’s life.” (Blommaert & Dong, 2010, p. 4). It allows us to understand the meaning of Sanders’ mobilization in context, not by asking for knowledge, but by analyzing how people create meaning through language in specific contexts. Dell Hymes elaborates on this in his book, saying that “it is clear that ethnography involves participation and observation.” (1996, p. 4). In other words, by making use of participation and observation within the method of ethnographic fieldwork, one can explore these aspects of people’s lives and their actions which are interesting to research. The origin of ethnography lies within anthropology and, as Blommaert & Dong describe: “These anthropological roots provide a specific direction to ethnography, one that situates deeply and inextricably in social life and offers a particular and distinct ontology and epistemology to ethnography. Ethnography contains a perspective on language which differs from that of many other branches of the study of language.” (Blommaert & Dong, 2010, p. 9). This applies to this research since the language that Bernie Sanders uses on his social media platforms carries a certain meaning in a specific context: ‘message’. In politics, message is key. Lempert & Silverstein define this message as follows: “It is the politician’s publicly imaginable ‘character’ presented to an electorate, with a biography and a moral

7 profile crafted out of issues rendered of interest in the public sphere.” (2012, p. 1). In this meaning of the word, message does not revolve only around the actual words one communicates, it also refers to the politician’s persona that “becomes visible as a collage-in-motion of communicative Issue events: through becoming identified in this way with Issues, he or she acquires a political persona.” (Lempert & Silverstein, 2012, p. 2). Thus, the language Bernie Sanders uses in the context of social media and the hybrid media system in particular (Chadwick, 2017) is determinative for his “message”. When researching this, ethnography allows for a divergent research outlook. As a result of this, it provides a completely different angle of incidence when studying language in relation to people. Furthermore, in the digital environment this thesis focuses on, the key factor to research the message that is produced by Sanders is uptake, because “one cannot read of the consequences of cultural products from the products themselves. Studying the effects, and thus the actual uptake (…) is thus of crucial importance.” (Maly, 2018). The importance of the uptake of Sanders’ message refers to: (1) the fact that within the digital ecology users are not only consumers but also (re)producers of discourse, so-called prosumers and (2) that algorithms and the interfaces of digital media play an important role in the dissemination and reproduction of ideas. Uptake through human and non-human actors (from bots over the algorithms organizing the communication on a platform) has become a crucial part of any political and metapolitical battle. (Maly, forthcoming) Within the research of the message of Sanders and its impact, uptake plays a crucial role. This is because users and algorithms have the power to create this uptake and determine how far a message is spread. Digital ethnography is incredibly important in this case since it allows one to study the uptake of the message Sanders is producing towards his followers and the rest of the world. Now that digital media has started to play a big role in our everyday lives and especially in politics, doing ethnographic research on this calls for a specific approach. Digital ethnography is the “ethnographic research on online practices and communications, and on offline practices shaped by digitalization,” and “has become increasingly popular in the recent years with the growing influence and presence of the internet in people’s everyday lives.” (Varis, 2014). The roots of digital ethnography lay in traditional ethnographic fieldwork, but digital ethnography is a specific approach that comes with an updated understanding of context. As Postill and Pink cite in their article, “Hine has suggested that undertaking internet ethnography need not involve the ethnographer travelling physically to a field site when internet ethnography is focused around a certain media event.” (Hine, in Postill & Pink, 2012, p. 123). In the case of researching Sanders’ social media strategies and uptake, one does not need to physically be present to perform the ethnographic research, this can happen in an online setting. As Varis explains, in the digital world, data is stored on large scales, making huge amounts of information

8 available to research. This creates opportunities for researchers, but especially seen from an ethnographic tradition this can be problematic as well when the data is taken out of its context (2014). As Varis describes it: “a ‘log’ of communication only serves as ethnographic data if it is understood in its context.” (2014). When applying digital ethnography in one’s research, it is important to know what one has to keep in mind when making use of this approach. As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, in comparison to traditional ethnographic research, digital ethnography faces several challenges regarding contextualization (Varis, 2014). First of all, the replicability and scalability of digital communication “bear upon the ethnographically important notion of indexicality (…) and contextualization in online communication” (Varis, 2014). Indexicality is a “meaning that emerges out of text-context relations. Apart from (often) having a denotational meaning, linguistic and other signs are indexical in that they suggest metapragmatic, metalinguistic, metadiscursive features of meaning.” (Indexicality, n.d.). Message is thus to be understood in its social, cultural, political, and technological context. Indexical signs do not have to be words, the candidate image, his style, gestures, and intonation all contribute to the candidate’s message. At the same time, many words – think of socialism in the US - are indeed indexical denotations (Horst & Miller, 2012, p. 51). Within digital platforms, there is a risk of context collapse where “the uptake for which communications have been designed may not be clear or transparent at all.” (Varis, 2014). The data I researched did not always reach its designated audience and was shared on channels where the context was not relevant for the content. On top of this, when studying social media platforms, these online environments cannot be taken as self-explanatory contexts, but need to be researched for locally specific meanings and appropriations (Varis, 2014). In digital ethnography, there are ethical concerns to keep in mind as well regarding the privacy of the data that was used in this thesis. Online information can easily be traced, even when informants’ names and information are anonymized. Researchers should thus be very careful when using online sources and carefully consider how they should use the data and present it. Especially because what is considered public and what is considered private depends in many cases on the beholder (Varis, 2014). In my research, the data that I have collected, including responses and comments from accounts other than the platforms of Sanders, will only literally be included in the data analysis when it concerns an account that is specifically dedicated to politics or the U.S. 2020 elections with a large number of followers, and when the name or username is relevant to the argument. However, when it concerns a personal account with few followers, the account and content will be fully anonymized so that the content cannot be traced back to the person who posted it. Another factor that is important in digital ethnography is to not focus solely on the digital, but on other aspects of people’s lives as well. As described in the book Digital Ethnography: Principles and Practice, “(…) relationships cannot be purely digital. We therefore need to look beyond the digital to

9 understand how they are played out.” (Pink et al., 2016, p. 10). To be able to fully comprehend the following of Bernie Sanders and uptake of his online content, it is important to understand the offline aspects of his campaign strategies as well. As I did not participate in the campaign, I have to make do with interviews of staff members, volunteers, and campaigners talking about the offline organization of the campaign. Furthermore, it is important to understand that an online environment differs from an offline environment. Online, one can observe and be a ‘fly on the wall’ without anyone noticing, in contrast to traditional ethnography. On top of this, one has to keep in mind that posts on digital platforms can be edited and that these kinds of digital traces do provide interesting insights. Lastly, in a digital environment, data is available all the time and can be viewed on any sort of device. However, a pitfall to this is that the information can be misleading or only provide partial information, resulting in the research being less credible (Varis, 2014). In the case of my research, it was therefore important to not only look at a specific post but to analyze it within its context and meaning as well. To illustrate, a response of @People4Bernie to a tweet by Sanders carries a different meaning than a response from for instance an ordinary person supporting Sanders, because @People4Bernie has a big following and is dedicated solely to supporting Bernie Sanders. It is therefore important to take all of these factors into account when performing digital ethnography.

2.2 Case Study and Data A key factor of ethnography is that it is an inductive science: “it works from empirical evidence towards theory, not the other way around.” (Blommaert & Dong, 2010). This means that the researcher first collects data on which a theory can be built through the careful analysis of data. This is what I have done in my research as well. Next to my literature review, I have started observing the different – official and unofficial - social media accounts of Bernie Sanders’ campaign. To be able to theorize my findings, I first needed to do research and analyze data from Sanders’ Twitter, Instagram, and email newsletters on which the theory regarding the popularity of Sanders could be built. Part of inductive science is a case method. This is “a methodology in which one uses case analyses to demonstrate a theory.” (Blommaert & Dong, 2010). Case method in turn derives from the evidential or conjectural paradigm. Evidential since empirical facts are being used as a starting point, conjectural since these empirical facts are viewed as a probable meaning of something, which creates hypotheses that can be verified (Blommaert & Dong, 2010). The findings that resulted from the collected data from Twitter, Instagram, and the newsletters from Sanders provided me with a probable meaning, especially when taking the uptake I discussed above into account. As a result of this, the data allowed me to develop a theory that can be supported by academic literature. In this thesis, I made use of a particular method within digital ethnography: (participant) observation. I collected screenshots of various tweets of Sanders contributing to his “message”. I

10 collected dozens of screenshots in the time from January 4, 2020 until April 8, 2020 when Sanders suspended his campaign. With the use of this technique, I was able to collect data from various accounts related to Sanders on Twitter, accounts that are dedicated especially to Sanders such as @People4Bernie, as well as accounts such as @JusticeDems who support Sanders but are not official campaign instruments. Furthermore, I returned to these tweets every 5 to 10 minutes to see how fast accounts like @People4Bernie responded, and what type of content they responded with. The analysis of a concrete emblematic example from this can be found in Chapter 3. This concerns a tweet from Sanders where @People4Bernie responded fairly quickly, namely after 16 minutes. This is ‘live ethnography’, where there occurs “close, real-time, observation and logging of a wide range of newspaper, broadcast and online material, including citizen opinion expressed and coordinated through online network sites.” (Chadwick, 2017, as cited in Maly, 2019). Live ethnography is an effective way to research uptake of a social media post. Another example and a different type of data that I collected were the official campaign newsletters that were emailed as part of Bernie Sanders’ campaign as well. I screenshotted and saved all of the emails to be able to find patterns within these newsletter emails. The act of participation that I performed included becoming a member of the community surrounding Bernie Sanders by following his social media platforms and subscribing to newsletters. Most of the collected data was made public through accounts of Sanders himself, his party, or groups and people that support him. This data is public and visible to anyone and is shared by many. I made sure to return to specific posts and collect new data on them, to be certain that in case there were any changes to the post, I would be aware and record them. Moreover, by not only collecting data from Sanders himself but from other social media accounts as well, I strove to gather an image as complete as possible. When performing ethnographic fieldwork, there are three stages that one has to go through. The first stage occurs before the actual fieldwork where there are preparation and documentation, the second stage happens during the fieldwork procedures, and the last stage occurs after the fieldwork where there are post-fieldwork analysis and writing. (Blommaert & Dong, 2010). During my research, the first stage consisted of doing research about the elections in the United States, Bernie Sanders, the Democratic party, and gaining knowledge about this. The second stage included the actual collection of the data on Sanders’ social media platforms. Lastly, in the third stage, I analyzed the collected data which I built a theory on.

11 Chapter 3: Feel the Bern. The Uptake of Bernie Sanders’ Message on Social Media

3.1 Theoretical Background on Message Politics and Bernie Sanders’ Message Bernie Sanders has a clear political message which characterizes him and his movement. As Bond & Exley describe in their book, what set Sanders apart from the beginning of his campaign in 2016 was “his message and his authenticity as a messenger.” (2016, p.11). Message is a key factor in politics in general. Within this framework, message does not just refer to the literal communication of a politician on topics and issues, to the content as such. As Lempert and Silverstein explain: Rather, our approach to Message politics centers on three related perspectives: (1) the semiotic analysis of occasions of communication and how they seem to accomplish the social ends they do or fail to do; (2) the political sociology of institutionalized communicative genres (…) and (3) the cultural analysis of the values that underlie Message performance (…).”. (2012, p. 27) These perspectives are important when studying message because they grasp the multiple aspects of message politics regarding style, identity, and message. This links back to who a politician addresses and whom he does not address in a specific context and how he does this. To be able to “maintain the momentum of their Message” (Lempert & Silverstein, 2012, p. 35), a politician needs to create a base of supporters who can contribute to help the campaign. Sanders has received quite some support from celebrities who support his ideas. Celebrities supporting Bernie Sanders range from actress Jane Fonda (Mindock, 2020) and musician Kim Gordon (Reed, 2020) to rapper Cardi B and pop star Ariana Grande (Cranley, 2020). These particular celebrities, among many others, have been quite vocal about the support of Sanders’ ideas, continuing to further spread Sanders’ message. Message is better understood as the politician’s ‘brand’. It refers to a politician’s “identity and personal values through selectively taking up some issues and avoiding others, (…).” (Lempert & Silverstein, 2012, p. 2). Message can be defined as “the politician’s publicly imaginable ‘character’ presented to an electorate, with a biography and a moral profile crafted out of issues rendered of interest in the public sphere.” (Lempert & Silverstein, 2012, p. 1). Politicians create this message when they choose the themes that “they believe will maximize their vote share, given potential public opinion and their dynamics of the race.” (Simon, 2002, p. 35). The path that determines the message especially in the pre-digital age moved as an information flow from the politician to the public, where it has an influence. Of course, this flow was always mediated and thus also constructed by media – the so-called messengers of message. Through all kinds of reception research, the reception of the message then moved back to the politician as a strategic foresight, after which the politician and its campaign team could potentially alter the message, depending on the public opinion and on mass media coverage. Message is thus not just about how the politician and his team are communicating, but external factors like the media influence a politician’s message as well (Simon, 2002, p. 36). To put

12 this in practice, a politician has to navigate oneself “on message” and stay there for the message to do its work in opinion polls and at the ballot box (Lempert & Silverstein, 2012, p. 62). In politics, message has been professionally shaped into a brand (Lempert & Silverstein, 2012, p. 63), making it an effective factor influencing a political election. This branding of politics came with the rising influence of communication specialists and marketeers and so-called ‘small organizing’. In the digital era, message politics has somewhat changed. For one, next to mass media and the politician, we now see an enormous amount of new messengers of message operating on different scales and thus having different reach. How a candidate is received on Twitter, how many followers he or she has, and if they are trending or not, is all part of the message now. At the same time, digital media also allow new ways of organizing, funding, and getting feedback which also contributes to the way message is constructed. In the case of Bernie Sanders, digital media-enabled him to communicate and fund a more radical democratic socialist image. In an article by Joel Stein, he states that Sanders’ message “can fit on a Post-it note: The rich are screwing you.” (2016). Sanders presents himself as the voice of all Americans, not just the rich. The reason why this is so important is because Sanders grew up in a working-class family in Brooklyn himself and his father was an immigrant from Poland (Geller, 2019). Sanders’ early life is important because it sets himself and his ideas apart from other politicians. Sanders has said that to him “democratic socialism means democracy,” and that “it means creating a government that represents all of us, not just the wealthiest people in the country.” (Gaudiano, 2015). He regularly refers to Scandinavian countries as an example of these ideas. This is because in general in the U.S., socialism is frequently negatively associated with the Soviet Union (Niemietz, 2017). By naming Scandinavian countries as an example, Sanders transforms this hostile image of socialism. Sanders is saying that: “we should look to countries like Denmark, like Sweden and Norway, and learn from what they have accomplished for their working people,”, adding that “the U.S. should treat health care as a right, provide higher education for free, protect the environment and reduce childhood poverty.” (Gaudiano, 2015). What sets Sanders’ message apart from others is that he does not aim to only change a single thing. He aims to change the system. Bond & Exley elaborate on this a little more in detail: He outlined the radical solutions our moment calls for, not the tepid incrementalist compromises that most politicians think are all that is feasible. Bernie didn’t talk about education tax credits or even debt-free college. He demanded free college tuition. He didn’t advocate for complicated health insurance schemes, he said “health care is a human right”. Bernie called for an end to mass incarceration, not incremental changes in sentencing laws. He had no ten-point plan to regulate fracking to the point that it wouldn’t be feasible in most places in the United States. He simply said we should ban fracking When it came to the

13 deportation of children, he couldn’t have been clearer. “I will not deport children from the United States of America,” he said. (2016, p. 11) Sanders thus presents a clear message: “Together we are building a movement to fight for economic, racial, social and environmental justice for all.” (Issues, n.d.).

3.2 Bernie Sanders’ Representation in Mainstream Media Although Bernie Sanders’ message is incredibly clear and has not changed for dozens of years (Bond & Exley, 2016, p. 12), the way Sanders and his message are presented by Donald Trump and in mainstream media differs immensely. By the following channels, Sanders is presented as an outsider. Firstly, Donald Trump has a clear opinion of Sanders. Trump frames Sanders’ plans as crazy by calling him ‘Crazy Bernie Sanders’. With this, he creates a negative idea around Sanders and his plans. Moreover, he refers to Sanders as ‘Socialist Bernie Sanders’ as well and considers him part of the radical left (The Intercept, 2020). By doing this, Trump anticipates the negative realm surrounding socialism in the U.S. trying to make sure that certain parts of the US electorate will never vote for him. Secondly, CNN seems to be more fond of Joe Biden winning the Democratic nomination. When entering ‘Bernie Sanders’ in the search bar, most articles concern the elections in general and articles about Joe Biden. Only a small part of the articles displayed when entering this search term is about Sanders himself (Breaking News, Latest News and Videos, n.d.). Moreover, when the articles do concern Sanders in particular, they tend to contain a more critical note. For example, the news outlet writes that there are “many reasons Sanders fell short to Joe Biden.”, and then continues to name five of these reasons (Enten, 2020). Another example of this critical note towards Sanders was when Sanders had announced the suspension of his campaign. The news outlet wrote that “Bernie Sanders bowed to the inevitable, and math, on Wednesday as he announced the end of his 2020 Democratic presidential campaign.” (Cillizza, 2020). Thirdly, Fox News does provide a lot more coverage about Sanders (Bernie Sanders, n.d.). Moreover, the tone of the articles that discuss Sanders and his campaign seem to be less critical than CNN and does report a bit more objective. This is rather interesting because Fox News is known as a conservative medium. However, Sanders seems to have gained some popularity among the audience of Fox News in general as well, as can be seen by for instance taking his message to Fox News in March 2020 (Buncombe, 2020). Nonetheless, Fox News generally does stress the small chance Sanders had to beat Biden for the Democratic nomination (Steinhauser & Ward, 2020). Finally, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah is known for its use of irony and humorous way of sharing information. The show does not present Sanders as a serious contender for the Democratic nomination. The Daily Show expresses that what Sanders aims to accomplish, is almost impossible. On top of this, Trevor Noah jokes about Sanders’ hairstyle and describes it as if he rubbed a balloon over

14 his head. Moreover, Noah humorously imitates Sanders’ voice and grumpy tone. Despite this, The Daily Show does not necessarily portray Sanders in an incredibly negative way. The show does for instance joke about the big “list of enemies” Sanders has created for himself (The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, 2020). Thus, The Daily Show does suggest that what Sanders is aiming for, might be a bit too much.

3.3 Bernie Sanders’ Image and Message on Social Media In contrast to the grumpy, crazy and radical image most messengers of message seem to create of Bernie, the image that Bernie Sanders presents on his social media channels and his website is incredibly friendly and down-to-earth. The central message of his campaign is the idea of building a movement and fighting for a political revolution. Looking at Sanders’ website, phrases like “Not me. Us.” and “This is your movement.” (Figure 1), are key examples (www.berniesanders.com.) that illustrate Sanders’ message. The term message in politics, as I have already stressed, does not refer to what someone is saying literally, but it is “the politician’s publicly imaginable ‘character’ presented to an electorate, with a biography and a moral profile crafted out of issues rendered of interest in the public sphere.” (Lempert & Silverstein, 2012, p. 1). It is important to stay true to this ‘character’ because otherwise, one will be “off-message” (Lempert & Silverstein, 2012, p. 4). In the case of Sanders, his message builds trust. As Bond and Exley describe it, the main reason that people trust Bernie is because “he has been saying the same thing for thirty years.” (2016, p. 12). Bernie Sanders communicates ‘authenticity’. In the heart of the capitalist world, here is a grumpy democratic socialist consistently fighting for the same goals and saying the same things throughout his whole career. And now he explicitly claims that he alone cannot change the US and he is building a movement around him.

Figure 1: The emphasis on the words “your” and “us” on www.berniesanders.com.

On Sanders’ social media channels, this message is supported even more. For instance, the banner of his Twitter contains the quote “Not me. Us.” with a picture where Sanders - who is speaking to hundreds of people - is hardly noticeable and the focus is clearly on the people he is speaking to (Figure

15 2). Moreover, his Instagram contains saved Story Highlights titled “Justice for All”, “Medicare for All”, and “College for All” (Figure 3). When analyzing the website and social media channels, one can notice that Sanders emphasizes the concept of ‘for all’ and ‘us’. This fits within Sanders’ message. His main message is that with the movement he is building, he wants to achieve “economic, racial, social and environmental justice for all.” (Issues, n.d.). On top of this, on his website, he has listed issues he wants to address and things he wants to achieve. Examples of this are Green New Deal, Medicare For All, A Welcoming and Safe America for All, College For All, Housing for All, Justice and Safety for All, Women’s Rights, LGBTQ+ Equality, Jobs for All, and many more (Issues, n.d.). His image – the grumpy, old but principled and socialist Bernie – matches the issues he fights for, and his track record as a politician. At the same time, this message also fits the message of ‘socialist Sanders’ which in the U.S. is not necessarily an advantage.

Figure 2: The emphasis on the word “us” in the banner of Bernie Sanders’ Twitter account (Bernie Sanders, n.d.).

Important to note is that these goals that Sanders has in mind do not only revolve around the presidential elections in particular but rather aim to build a long-term movement for the future. In the 2016 elections, Sanders was not destined to even be a serious contender for the White House, however, he called for a political revolution (Bond & Exley, 2016, p. xix) where a lot of rules were broken and conventional wisdom was challenged (Bond & Exley, 2016, p. xiii). Moreover, as Bond & Exley describe: Bernie began the race fairly late in the game, with 3 percent name recognition, no money, and all kinds of baggage that pundits believed would disqualify him out of hand. By the time the Iowa primary came, Bernie was surging in the national polls. He went on to win twenty-two states and received an astonishing 46 percent of the pledged delegates for the nomination. (2016, p. 183) Thus, although the odds were never in Sanders’ favor to begin with, he created a huge movement where the idea was that if people wanted a change in all of these issues, a political revolution had to take place (Bond & Exley, 2016, p. 5). This is in line with the socialist idea that a social revolution is necessary to be able to change society in a structural way (Revolutionary socialism, n.d.). As described

16 in Jacobin: “For revolutionary socialists, it is crucial to actively participate in those and other progressive movements, even if limited to the terms of what those movements seek to achieve. (…), underlining the systemic nature of the different kinds of oppression against which each of those movements are fighting.” (Farber, 2019). The fact that despite dropping out of the 2020 presidential elections, his movement and the political revolution continue (Continuing the Political Revolution, n.d.), demonstrates this social revolution and Sanders’ sincerity, as it also supports the idea that he is a radical socialist.

Figure 3: The emphasis on the concept “for all” on Bernie Sanders’ Instagram account (Bernie Sanders, n.d.).

The message that Sanders aims to create political change for everyone goes in line with the socialist ideology. Socialism can be defined as “a set of political and economic theories based on the belief that everyone has an equal right to a share of a country’s wealth and that the government should own and control the main industries.” (Socialism, n.d.). Socialism used to be unpopular in the U.S. where it was not a good thing to be associated with socialism (Vermeulen, 2016). A big reason why that is, is because of the Red Scare in the U.S. after World War II had ended. During that time, politicians created a fear of communism and especially communism within the government. During those years, Republican Senator Joseph R. McCarty of Wisconsin spent years trying to “expose communists and other left-wing “loyalty risks” in the U.S. government.” (Joseph McCarthy, 2009). Because the situation during this time was so tense, many Americans indeed believed that their government was full of traitors and spies, causing many people to lose their jobs. McCarthy was so intimidating that few people dared to speak up against him until he turned against the Army (Joseph McCarthy, 2009). The impact of McCarthy during this time lead to McCarthyism, which “was part of a long, ignoble American tradition of repressing the rights of free association, inquiry, and advocacy of those who would threaten the status quo of America’s stratified political economic system.” (Price, 2004, p. 2), also including socialism (Price, 2004, p. 15). Even though socialism remains unpopular among Republicans, a shift has seemed to occur in the attitude of Democrats on socialism. In a study from 2018, 57% of Democrats had a positive view of socialism and only 16% of Republicans did (Newport, 2018). The fact that 57% of Democrats think positively about socialism is huge. The unpopularity of socialism in the U.S. is understandable though, looking at its history in the U.S., and because socialism goes against capitalism – a key value in

17 American history. “Socialists see capitalist exploitation of people and the planet as the root of injustice. Hence, they advocate not incremental, but deep, structural change.” (Hannan, 2018). This is exactly what Sanders’ is doing by addressing all of these issues and wanting change for all, for everyone. In a 2020 debate, he mentions that even today, people in the U.S. are in many ways living in a socialist society. However, many are unaware because, as Sanders states: “there is socialism for the rich and rugged individualism for the poor.” (Democracy Now!, 2020). Thus, despite the generally negative attitude towards socialism, Bernie Sanders does manage to bring his message across to millions of people.

3.4 Social Media and Political Revolution Just because mainstream media are not necessarily very open to Bernie Sanders’ message, digital media are of key importance. As mentioned earlier in this chapter, the way Sanders is covered in mainstream media is not always accurate and objective. However, the transformation of the media field as we know it provides the opportunity for the public to gain more power in media (Chadwick, 2011, p. 5), creating a power shift where outsiders like Sanders have more possibilities, creating an equal playing field. On social media platforms, Sanders and his team have a specific way of sharing information and making sure that that information is distributed to as many people as possible. There are various official social media accounts on multiple social media platforms. On Twitter, there are two different accounts that he utilizes: @SenSanders, which has 9.5 million followers (Bernie Sanders, n.d.). and @BernieSanders, with 11.7 million followers (Bernie Sanders, n.d.). The second account contains the following bio: “U.S. Senator from Vermont and candidate for President of the United States”, and is the one that visitors on Sanders’ website are directed to (Bernie Sanders, n.d.). This account is a key vehicle of Sanders’ campaign. Sanders’ campaign team is quite active on this account. To illustrate: 8 tweets were posted on April 1st, 11 on April 2nd, 7 on April 3rd, 10 on April 4th, 4 on April 5th, 4 on April 6th, and 9 on April 7th (including original tweets and retweets). The tweets mostly contain information about the ideas Sanders stands for and what he would change, were he to become elected as president of the United States (Bernie Sanders, n.d.). On Instagram, there is one official account: @berniesanders, where he has 4.9 million followers. Approximately once a day, a photo or video is posted here (Bernie Sanders, n.d.). Moreover, Sanders’ campaign team makes active use of Facebook as well, with multiple posts a day. The official page is called ‘Bernie Sanders’ and has roughly 5.5 million likes (Bernie Sanders, n.d.). Lastly, there is an official YouTube channel called ‘Bernie Sanders’ as well. This channel contains various types of content, including ‘virtual town halls’, live streams, and campaign videos (Bernie Sanders, n.d.).

18 The importance of all the social media channels and pages of Sanders’ campaign was elaborated on by Mia Fermindoza, video director of the Bernie Sanders 2020 campaign, in an interview with the Washington Post. She said that their job is “just to make sure that Bernie always has the ability to talk to people without having to rely on the media logic of the mainstream.” (Stanley-Becker, 2020). This mainstream media logic is still important in today’s hybrid media system, however, their impact is changing. These ‘old’ media are evolving and changing through time and ‘new’ media, which are driven primarily through the internet, are becoming part of a new mainstream (Chadwick, 2011, p. 5). This hybrid media system “creates subtle but important shifts in the balance of power shaping news production.” (Chadwick, 2011, p. 6). As a result of this, politicians are no longer only dependent on the mainstream, ‘old’ media to gain visibility. Instead, they can create their own channels where they can start a movement like Sanders is doing as well. This is particularly important for Sanders because of the way he is presented in the mainstream media. As I elaborated earlier on in this chapter, Donald Trump and the mainstream media present Sanders as an outsider with crazy ideas. Consequently, this causes Sanders to be viewed as less credible. As a result of this, he needs to make use of his own social media channels to be able to get his message across to as many people as possible and to make sure that he is presented in the right way. Social media channels make Bernie Sanders’ campaign possible.

3.5 Bernie Sanders’ Support on Social Media On top of Bernie Sanders’ official social media accounts, there is also a community on social media that supports him and spreads the message even further. This partially responsible for the uptake and the ability to place the ideas of Sanders on the map and present it to a bigger audience that would perhaps not instantly be interested. This is incredibly important because “uptake through human and non- human actors (from bots over the algorithms organizing the communication on a platform) has become a crucial part of any political and metapolitical battle.” (Maly, forthcoming). A big account that contributes to the uptake of Sanders’ message is @People4Bernie. This is a verified account with a following of more than 235.000 people that supports Sanders and his ideas (People for Bernie, n.d.). When looking at Sanders’ tweets, the top comment is very often from this particular account. “People for Bernie” (@People4Bernie) is always rather quick to respond and due to the number of likes the response receives, it is put on top of all the responses. An example that illustrates this practice is a tweet from Sanders surrounding the events that happened between the United States and Iran at the beginning of 2020 (Figure 4). The tweet was posted on January 3rd, 2020 at 7:43 pm and @People4Bernie were quick to respond after 16 minutes, at 7:59 pm. The post is supportive of Sanders’ words and attempts to evoke people to support the campaign by adding a link to www.berniesanders.com with options to volunteer (Figure 4).

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Figure 4: Tweet from Bernie Sanders on January 3rd plus the response from “People for Bernie”.

Whereas @People4Bernie is a verified account with a large following, there are countless other accounts on Twitter that are dedicated to supporting Sanders. These accounts are focused on specific ethnicities, religions, professions, generations, states, and more. A couple of examples of these accounts are “Latinos for Bernie”, “Millennials for Bernie”, “Atlanta For Bernie 2020”, “Organizers for Bernie 2020”, “Arabs For Bernie”, “Jews for Bernie”, “NY For Sanders #Bernie2020”, “Artists For Bernie Sanders”, “Labor for Bernie”, “Bay Area for Bernie” & “CA for Bernie” (https://twitter.com/). Taking a look at one of these accounts in particular, “Latinos for Bernie” (which in May 2020 had been renamed “Latinos contra Trump”), one can notice the enthusiasm within an account like this. The admin(s) of this account post(s) multiple times a day and has collected over 44.000 followers. Moreover, the general attitude of Latinos towards Sanders is positive and Sanders receives lots of support from them (Latinos contra Trump, n.d.). This support has developed due to various reasons, though an important factor in this is “his ambitious immigration platform. Sanders has also taken some of the most liberal stances on immigration of any Democrat, policies that Latino staff, including some undocumented members of the campaign, helped to shape.” (Gambino, 2020). A Twitter account like this can make a big impact in the community it is directed at. All of these accounts are focused on spreading the message of Sanders within a context that matches their interests and concerns. The presence of these groups creates the feeling of a small-scale community within the bigger community of Bernie Sanders, constructing familiarity and a more personal feel among the followers of these accounts. Moreover, these specific accounts are incredibly important for uptake since they address a very specific type of social group. On top of all the accounts that are dedicated to supporting Sanders specifically, there are also several general accounts that share and support Sanders’ message but are not solely dedicated to him and his campaign. I will name and explain a couple of these accounts.

20 The first one is the account of the Democratic Socialists of America. Sanders of course is a Democratic Socialist, and this account supports him by sharing his ideas and retweeting his tweets (DSA, n.d.). This is by far not the only thing the Democratic Socialists do, though. Democratic Socialists for Bernie is a campaign by the Democratic Socialists to “bring together the “us” that will put Bernie in the White House,” and then aim to “transform our economy and politics into a true democracy, where ordinary people have everything they need to live free and flourishing lives.” (Democratic Socialists for Bernie, n.d.). The Democratic Socialists have dedicated an entire website to Sanders where they announce events that they have organized. Moreover, there are ways one can get involved in the community, there is the possibility of becoming a member, and one can donate money to support the campaign (Democratic Socialists for Bernie, n.d.). Another key factor within the Democratic Socialists of America is that they make it possible for people outside of the U.S. to contribute as well. The conventional page to sign up to become a member only allows U.S. credit cards, however, people based outside of the U.S. can fill in a form with a money order and become a member as well (FAQ, 2020). The second account that supports Sanders is the one of Our Revolution (Our Revolution, n.d.) who are “building a national grassroots movement of local groups powerful enough to win progressive issue fights, elect progressive champions, transform the Democratic Party, and get big money out of politics.” (Mission, n.d.). One can become a member of Our Revolution by either making a donation or attending an event organized by Our Revolution (Join Our Revolution, n.d.). Our Revolution has endorsed many candidates to “city halls, county commissions, Congress, and more.” (Endorsements, n.d.). The third example of a community of people supporting Sanders are the “Justice Democrats” (Justice Democrats, n.d.), which is related to Our Revolution as well. The main difference between the two is that Our Revolution is focusing on local and state elections, whereas Justice Democrats are recruiting and supporting progressive Democrats on a national level. The Justice Democrats say that it is “time to usher in a new generation of diverse working class leaders into the Democratic Party. A Democratic Party that fights for its voters, not corporate donors.” (Justice Democrats | It’s #OurTime, n.d.). The mission of the Justice Democrats is “to elect a mission-driven caucus in Congress that will fight for solutions that match the scale of our many crises (…)” (Mission for Justice, n.d.). This is achieved through small-dollar donations as well and is in line with the message of Sanders. The Justice Democrats are closely connected to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortex (Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez, n.d.), who is a congresswoman representing the 14th District of New York (Biography, 2020), and whose campaign is endorsed by (among others) The People for Bernie (About, n.d.). Alexandria Ocasio-Cortex, also known as and from now on referred to as AOC, is a key figure in Sanders’ campaign. AOC was working as a waitress in a restaurant not long ago. However, the Justice Democrats started a

21 movement where people that play an important role within their community could be nominated to run for Congress. AOC was nominated for this and was recruited to run for Congress (Before Alexandria Was Known As AOC, There Was A Movement That Recruited Her To Run, 2019). AOC plays such a vital role in Sanders’ campaign because of her popularity. In June 2018, she was elected to represent New York’s 14th District and since then she has “pressured 2020 presidential candidates into supporting her Green New Deal, made campaign-finance reform go viral and helped activists banish Amazon from Queens with a couple of tweets.” (Alter, 2019). In recent memory, no lawmaker has “translated so few votes into so much political and social capital so quickly.”. Moreover, she has a big social media following where she is extremely influential (Alter, 2019). In other words, she is incredibly popular. And because of this popularity and her continuous support for Sanders, she has become an important factor in his movement by for instance joining him in his comeback rally in New York (Aratani, 2019). Bernie Sanders thus has a clear and consistent message that he communicates through his social media channels. This is important because his representation in mainstream media is not always accurate. Many mainstream media do not support his message and view socialism negatively. However, due to the hybridized media system (Chadwick, 2015), Sanders is still able to spread his message. On social media, he receives support from channels and individuals supporting his ideas. In this hybrid media system, Sanders utilizes the anti-brand brand which is constructed by various actors who spread his message (Lempert & Silverstein, 2012, p. 56).

22 Chapter 4: ‘My friends, I’m asking you...’: The Role of Newsletters in Sanders’ Campaign

4.1 Big Organizing Through Newsletters A foundational tool of Bernie Sanders’ campaign strategy is newsletters. These newsletters are a key example of big organizing in Sanders’ campaign. In their book Rules for Revolutionaries, Bond & Exley (whom both worked for Bernie Sanders’ 2016 campaign team) define big organizing as “a way to understand mass revolutionary organizing that’s relevant today.”, and as something that “leaders do in movements that mobilize millions of people.” (2016, p. 1). Big organizing used to be the norm, more concretely, from unions to the new social movements, every transformational movement was powered by mass organizing. However, over the years, big organizing was displaced by small organizing where an increasingly small number of mega-corporations hold power (Bond & Exley, 2016, p. 1). Small organizing is directly related to the professionalization of political consultancy (Lempert & Silverstein, 2012, p. 49). In other words, whereas small organizing works from the top-down, big organizing works from the bottom-up. The difference between the earlier movements is that big organizing is now enabled by digitalization. Sanders’ campaign reintroduced big organizing by mobilizing millions of people to volunteer or donate money to support his campaign. One can sign up for these newsletters on www.berniesanders.com “to tell Bernie you’re in!”. One way how Sanders’ followers find their way to the website through advertisements on Facebook and Instagram. The advertisement library of Bernie Sanders on Facebook shows a huge amount of advertisements, which are targeted to specific areas or states in the United States (Ad Library, n.d.).

Figure 1: Example of an advertisement on Facebook, plus an analysis of the results of one of the different versions (Ad Library, n.d.)

23 Figure 5 shows an example of an advertisement on Facebook where Sanders asks Facebook-users for a “small favor” to add their name to support the campaign. When clicking on the link, one is redirected to a form on Sanders’ website where one can add their information and optionally choose to donate money to the campaign (Add your name to endorse our campaign, n.d.). Moreover, the advertisement is effective in another way as well. The sentence used at the beginning of the advertisement - “I got a small favor to ask of you” - has become a signature phrase for Sanders, and has become a huge internet meme (Sung, 2020). This particular advertisement on its own has 34 different versions and a total of 434 of identical campaigns were distributed on Facebook with different geographical target groups. A total amount of $13,570,105 was spent on Facebook and Instagram advertisements in the period between May 2018 and May 2020 (Figure 6) (Ad Library, n.d.).

Figure 2: Total amount of dollars spent on Facebook and Instagram advertisements (Ad Library, n.d.)

Interesting to note is that when people enter the main page of the website, the box where people can sign up is the first thing they see, next to a picture of Sanders, and above the ‘about’ box where one is redirected to Sanders’ story (Figure 7). By doing this, people do not have to look through the entire website to sign up for the newsletter or find relevant information. They can easily and quickly fill in their personal information, and receive all the information that they need. Important to note as well is that the ‘Donate’ button and the button to sign-up are both red, while no other links or buttons on the website are. This draws one’s attention directly to these buttons (Figure 6). The interface of the website is thus designed in a way to attract visitors to the pages that are most important for the campaign.

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Figure 7: Main page of www.berniesanders.com

4.2 Characteristics of the Newsletters When having signed up for the newsletters, one receives them rather regularly, almost daily even. The newsletters seem intended to update Sanders’ followers and nearly always ask for a small contribution to support the campaign. What is particularly noticeable and striking is that the newsletters have an informal style and are quite to the point with expressing their means.

Figure 8: Email subjects from week 11 of 2020.

The first aspect in which this can be seen is by the email subjects that are used. Taking the four newsletters that I received in week 11 of 2020 (March 9 – March 15), one notices a similar style and pattern in all of the subjects. The email subjects from this week are: “What I just told the press about our campaign”, “I hope you are doing well”, “I will explain more shortly.”, and “everything is changing” (Figure 8). There is a casualness here. The salutation starts with ‘I’ and the style is personal and informal. The ‘I’ makes readers feel like just one person is addressing them, and creates the illusion that Sanders is addressing them personally. Moreover, the subjects do not quite preview what might be the content of the newsletter itself, evoking a sort of curiosity and making the receiver want to read the entire email. Secondly, the informality in the emails can be noticed by the language-use in the actual newsletters as well. Almost all of the emails are acknowledged with “Friends” (Figure 9). This is of course a very personal and informal way of approaching one’s followers, and refers to the aim of creating the (feel of a) close-knit community, a friendly feel that Sanders wants to express towards his

25 followers. His message – is about building a movement – aligns with his language use and contribution to the construction of a feeling of being part of a movement. This is what Bond & Exley write in their book as well: If you choose the small-dollar path, the people you get money from will also play a part in determining your objectives, strategies, and messaging: If you find it hard to fundraise from your mass base, then probably there is a problem with your leadership or your plan or both! You will then have to keep changing until you connect with and finally communicate in a meaningful way with the people you are proposing to serve. The time you spend with your base will allow you to get to know your people better. You will be able to use that time to recruit amazing leaders out of your base. By relying on those leaders, you will find that you need fewer resources to get much more done than you could have relying solely on paid staff. (2016, p. 70) The way Sanders’ team approaches the newsletter readers and the language style that is used in these emails. For instance, the words ‘Friends’, ‘I’ and ‘We’ that are reoccurring in Sanders’ emails, are related to the fact that Sanders’ is campaigning bottom-up, instead of top-down, linking back to big organizing. Moreover, some emails do not even have a salutation at all. This can be illustrated with an example from March 6, 2020. On this day, an email was sent regarding a risk that was taken budget- wise. The writer of the email skipped the acknowledgment and started directly with “I had to make a very tough decision.” (Figure 10). This is proof of the informal style the newsletters consist of because a formal email would always include a proper acknowledgment. Moreover, an email formulated like this gives the reader the idea that they are receiving exclusive, inside information directly from Sanders – the I - containing updates about what is going on behind the scenes of the campaign. This supports the feeling of being part of a movement and the informality and familiarity between Sanders and the reader as well.

Figure 9: Salutation in email with “Friends -”.

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Figure 10: No acknowledgment in the email, straight to the point.

Important to note here as well is the emphasis on the community-feeling which is created by this informality. The emails are thus not only trying to get people to donate money or to inform them, they also have a ‘phatic’ meaning. Phatic forms of interaction are according to Varis & Blommaert as follows: “(…) ‘seen as (and characterized by) relatively low levels of ‘information’ and ‘meaning’.” (2015, p. 31). The phatic function that is present in this type of communication “is the language function which stresses on the presence of contact between the sender (speaker) and the receiver (hearer) of the message.” (Jakobson, 1960, as cited in Jumanto, 2014). With the phatic discourse within the newsletters, the feeling is created that Sanders is not above his followers and that the entire campaign does not revolve around him. Instead, the focus is placed on the fact that his campaign is funded bottom-up and not top-down and it aims to create a familiar feeling between the reader and Sanders. It contributes to creating a shared group identity and belonging. In the newsletters, the text “Paid for by Bernie 2020 (not the billionaires)” is added to clearly show that his followers are the ones contributing to and funding the campaign (Figure 11).

Figure 11: Text indicating that the campaign is paid for by Bernie Sanders and his followers, and not by billionaires.

Furthermore, the content of the newsletters is rather standard and does not differentiate often. The newsletters come across as honest, are short, to the point, and written in a style that is comprehensible for many. This links back to phatic communication because the content of the newsletters reflects the use of this phatic form of communication where the messages that are being communicated do not include much relevant content (Varis & Blommaert, 2015, p. 32) but they are crucial in building a feeling of belonging to the movement. The mails create a movement identity. There are basic elements that return in nearly every email.

27 (1) First of all, the emails start with a short explanation of the current state of events and how Bernie Sanders’ campaign is doing. This is particularly important because as Bond and Exley write, “If you want to overthrow the system, or any part of it, you still need to start with the people.” (2016, p. 67). In big organizing, the biggest motivation is the people, “(…) revolutions usually are begun with no central source of funding. Start with people, not with money” (Bond & Exley, 2016, p. 67). Providing people with regular and consistent updates and information, keeps possible voters and contributors interested and engaged. (2) Secondly, most emails then proceed to ask the reader to contribute $2.70 to support the campaign, making it very clear how every single contribution could make a difference. Adding to this, the emails all end with a big blue “CONTRIBUTE” button one can click (Figure 12) to be sent directly towards a webpage to donate and support the campaign. The default way to donate is via Apple Pay, however, one can donate by credit card or PayPal as well. One can select their preferred means of payment, fill in their personal details (including their US passport number), and donate. The way the newsletters are phrased invites the reader to contribute to the campaign. The newsletters give the reader the idea that they are doing something important and big because ultimately the supporters are the ones financing the campaign and determining Sanders’ success. Bond & Exley touch upon this in their book as well, saying that in 2012, “while the other campaign had big-dollar contributors and all of the resources that the establishment could muster, we had people. Lots of them.” (2016, p. 49). Sanders’ team has thus refined their ways of attracting people to contribute to the campaign. This is key because money is incredibly important in U.S. politics.

Figure 12: “CONTRIBUTE” button, which links directly to a webpage to donate to the campaign.

(3) Lastly, a key aspect is the regularity and quantity of the newsletters. I already shortly mentioned that one receives emails almost daily. This is a sign of repetition, which is an important factor when one wants a political campaign to grow (Bond & Exley, 2016, p. 153). The phatic communication and quantity of the newsletters relate to what Bond and Exley write about achieving something in big organizing, “we need to talk to everyone – not just narrow slices of assumed swing voters – about what we want to achieve.” (2016, p. 5). This is because Sanders’ campaign depends on small-dollar contributions (Bond & Exley, 2016, p. 65). The

28 campaign ultimately runs on crowdfunding: “the collective cooperation by people who pool their funds, usually via the Internet, to support efforts initiated by other people or organizations” (Dresner, 2014, p. xi). Crowdfunding links back to the concept of revolution that Bond & Exley describe, because “(…) revolutions usually are begun with no central source of funding. Start with people, not with money.” (2016, p. 67). Ultimately, the goal is to collect as many donations as possible to be able to run the campaign. This is in line with the many options to donate and contribute to the campaign that are present in the newsletters, as described in the previous paragraph. To illustrate this, within the first six weeks of Sanders’ campaign for the 2020 US elections, the newsletters helped raise more than $18 million and sign up 1 million volunteers (Stewart, 2019). Moreover, as stated by Gambino in The Guardian: in the first 24 hours of Sanders’ campaign, he raised $5.9 million (2019). These donations resulted from crowdfunding “are an early sign of the Vermont senator’s fundraising powers in what is expected to be a competitive – and expensive – primary race to clinch the Democratic nomination.” (Gambino, 2019). Now money is of course incredibly important in a political campaign because it allows a candidate to finance for instance advertising, among other things, leading to more support and more voters. As Philip Bump clarifies in an article based on the 2012 elections, especially in US politics, money practically buys votes. When a race grows tighter, each vote grows more expensive, meaning that the more important votes cost more. Moreover, the more a candidate outraised his opponent, the more likely he was to defeat the opponent. Thus, more money does indeed mean more votes (Bump, 2013). Nevertheless, money is not solely important to finance a campaign. How much money one’s campaign has managed to collect is used to measure one’s success. This can be illustrated with an example from a 2015 debate. During this debate, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton was continuously asked about her leaked emails. When it was Sanders’ turn to talk, he took the stage saying that “the American people are sick of hearing about your damn emails.” (Brown, 2015). Sanders’ campaign team then added a video of a part of the debate on their website as well, asking people to donate and contribute to the campaign. This quote by Sanders’ eventually resulted in $1.3 million in fundraisers in 4 hours after the start of the debate. There were 37,600 individual contributions, with an average donation of $34.58. At the peak, there was an average of 10.25 contributors per second (Brown, 2015). The success of Sanders in this debate was thus indicated by the number of financial contributions made. This example thus illustrates how success in U.S. politics is measured by the amounts of money that have been gathered. In this case, Sanders’ message was received well among many people watching the debate, resulting in a peak in the results of crowdfunding. Though, if the debate would have not had this result, it would have meant that Sanders’ message in that particular debate was not

29 as strong. This would then be communicated through media as well, where a medium is a messenger for message (Lempert & Silverstein, 2012, p. 55), resulting in a negative message for the politician. To research whether or not the quantity of the newsletters is influenced by Bernie Sanders’ popularity, I analyzed two weeks of Sanders’ campaign in 2020 more detailed. As one can tell from Figure 13, which is a poll comparing Bernie Sanders with Donald Trump, there are moments where Sanders’ popularity was rising and then falling again. From Monday, February 17th until Sunday, February 23rd (week 8), the score on the poll moved up quite rapidly. The week after, from Monday, February 24th until Sunday, March 1st (week 9), his popularity and the score on the poll were falling. The emails from this week described the importance of donations at that specific moment because super-PACs were overshadowing Sanders’ campaign. Comparing the quantity of the newsletters that were sent in those particular weeks, five emails were sent in week 8, where Sanders’ popularity was rising (Figure 14). However, in week 9, when Sanders’ popularity was falling, only two emails were sent (Figure 15). This illustrates a positive relation between Sanders’ popularity and the quantity of the newsletters. Periods were many newsletters are being shared align with a rise in the popularity of Bernie Sanders in the polls, and vice versa. Thus, the characteristics of the newsletters allow Bernie Sanders to generate contributions to his campaign. This is important because Sanders’ success is directly determined by the money he collects through donations. Sanders’ accomplishments in crowdfunding and big organizing are linked to the idea that people are listening to what he is saying and that his message works.

Figure 13: popularity poll, Bernie Sanders versus Donald Trump (General Election: Trump vs. Sanders, n.d.)

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Figure 14: Newsletters from week 8

Figure 15: Newsletters from week 9

31 Chapter 5: Volunteers and the Bernie App: BERN

5.1 The Importance of Volunteers In the previous chapters, I analyzed Bernie Sanders’ movement on social media and the way newsletters encourage readers to contribute to the campaign. However, an essential part of Sanders’ campaign has not been analyzed yet: Sanders’ volunteers. Traditionally in campaigns based on small organizing, a small group of professionals are leading the campaign and finding the funds. In big organizing, the plan is centralized but “volunteer leaders emerge by the thousands from every classroom, family, office, and work area, neighborhood, and prison block. (…) these leaders emerge ready to make change,” (Bond & Exley, 2016, p. 1). This is important because when one is working from the bottom up and is relying mostly on volunteers, as many people as possible are needed to spread the message as far as possible. As Napier stated: (…) elected officials are not the only players in the process. Others are equally important, and none is more important than the volunteer….the fund-raiser; the party officer; the volunteer who hands out literature, mans the phones, sends e-mails, provides public relations and legal advice; and those who just talk for the campaign. Without any of these components, a campaign cannot be successful. (2008) If one does not have the money to build an organization full of paid professionals, one needs to build a campaign based on volunteers to help run the campaign. To be able to upscale that campaign, one needs to put these volunteers in leadership positions. Concretely, in the campaign of Sanders, this means “volunteer leaders holding phone-banking parties, staging volunteer canvasses, and holding volunteer-led mass organizing meetings.” (Bond & Exley, 2016, p. 2). These volunteer movements are characteristics of a grassroots campaign, which is defined by Bergan & McKenna as a “type of movement or campaign that attempts to mobilize individuals to take some action to influence an outcome, often a political nature” (2016). Grassroots campaigns mobilize masses of people to participate in politics and are conducted through narrow communications, rather than broadcast media (Bergan & McKenna, 2016).

5.2 Gathering Volunteers and BERN People that are interested in volunteering for Bernie Sanders can sign up via www.berniesanders.com, allowing them to receive more information on how they can contribute to the campaign. People are lead to this website via Sanders’ numerous social media channels and newsletters, which I elaborated on in the previous chapters. However, to be able to directly communicate with Sanders’ supporters and allow anyone to volunteer to the campaign, the BERN app was created. BERN is described on Sanders’ website as “a grassroots movement in your pocket” (BERN: A grassroots movement in your pocket, n.d.). The way it works is easy: one can download the app from

32 the App Store or the Google Play Store. After this, the user is asked to add friends and share a video on why they support the movement in general with their undecided friends. The app will notify users to take action and contact friends when it is time to vote (BERN: A grassroots movement in your pocket, n.d.). This phenomenon is defined as “friend-to-friend canvassing”, meaning one talks to people they know about the election (Figure 16). By having conversations about certain issues with family and friends, “we can build the solidarity and long-lasting, collective power needed to take on the billionaire class and transform our country.” (Friend to Friend Canvass Guide, n.d.). This relates to what Bond and Exley state in their book: “We have to get as many people as possible engaged in the work of talking with voters.” (Bond & Exley, 2016, p. 5). BERN makes this possible because it helps volunteers track potential voters, “allowing them to log the name and background of anyone they talk to (…)”, besides, the app also helps volunteers to “know how to participate in the Democratic primary or caucus in their state and register voters.” (Chávez, 2019). This allows the campaign and the number of people contributing to it to grow.

Figure 16: Example of friend-to-friend canvassing (Bernie 2020 Inc., 2019)

On top of the app being incredibly useful, it is easy to use as well. BERN works just like any popular social media platform like Instagram or Facebook, with a clear menu with symbols to navigate to different pages (Figure 17). BERN is essentially a collection of everything supporters need to know and have access to in order to be able to support Sanders’ campaign. Furthermore, any content or video that one finds interesting can be shared by just one click. BERN makes it incredibly easy for anyone to volunteer and contribute to Bernie Sanders’ grassroots movement. BERN thus enables mobilization because it allows Sanders’ supporters to go “from being a passive collection of individuals to an active participant in public life”, with the app being a resource allowing this mobilization (Tilly, 1977, p. 3-26).

33

Figure 17: Menu of the BERN app (Bernie 2020 Inc., 2019)

5.3 Volunteer-Organized Events Besides contributing and volunteering through the BERN app, numerous real-life events are being organized to support Bernie Sanders’ campaign. In 2019, Sanders’ campaign kicked off with close to 5,000 house parties across the country (Chávez, 2019). A concrete example of a volunteer organizing events for Bernie Sanders is Elizabeth Ropp. She hosted the first Sanders house party in New Hampshire together with her husband (Guttenplan, 2015). Moreover, another example of volunteer- organized events is mentioned in an article by Holly Otterbein: “Thousands of the Vermont senator’s volunteers and aides in the state have knocked on 500,000-plus doors, two-thirds of which took place in February, according to his campaign. Those mega-fans helped propel his strong grassroots performances in Iowa and New Hampshire — and now appear poised to help him turn out the vote and clinch a victory in Nevada” (2020). These events that are organized by volunteers are so important in the campaign because among other aspects of a campaign, the volunteers are the ones “with clipboards working phone banks, keeping track of voter preferences, and making sure “leaners” and undecideds get plenty of follow-up.” (Guttenplan, 2015). Volunteers are thus essential to be able to reach as many people as possible and create communities that support Sanders and his ideas. As Guttenplan states: “Presidential campaigns are like icebergs. There’s the part you see (…). Then there’s the much larger part you can’t see (…).” (2015). In Sanders’ 2012 campaign, the majority of the volunteers contributing to the campaign “never saw the inside of a field office” (Bond & Exley, 2012, p. 49). This is vital because essentially, the volunteers are mostly managed by other volunteers and money plays no part in determining the size and impact of a grassroots campaign ran by volunteers (Bond & Exley, 2012, p. 62). The work that these volunteers do will eventually result in more people following Sanders on social media, signing up for newsletters, donating to the campaign, downloading the BERN app and contributing themselves. Volunteers thus build the campaign and make sure that more people become interested in contributing to the campaign themselves. The volunteers illustrate the mobilization that arises from the app and the campaign in general. This is how a grassroots campaign is built through big organizing.

34 Chapter 6: Conclusion and Discussion

In conclusion, Bernie Sanders has a clear and consistent message that he aims to spread as far as possible by creating uptake. Despite the unpopularity of his socialist ideas among most people in the U.S., Sanders has managed to create a widespread movement surrounding his message and goals. Sanders’ way of campaigning is unusual in politics nowadays, because he does not rely on small organizing and big-dollar donors to support his campaign. Instead, he relies on small donations through crowdfunding and has collected a large group of volunteers who support his campaign. Because this phenomenon of big organizing is currently rare in politics in the U.S., this has provided challenges as well as opportunities in his 2020 presidential campaign. Because Sanders relies mostly on his supporters and their loyalty, creating an active movement online is vital. Sanders’ campaign team has done this not only by creating accounts on every popular social media platform and gathering a large list of newsletter subscribers. Moreover, the BERN app has been created to support Sanders’ campaign as well. Sanders’ message is distributed via all of these various channels. The app allows users to easily see where and when volunteer-organized events are happening. Moreover, potential supporters are collected and users can easily share their opinions on politics and Sanders with friends and family. Subscribers to Sanders’ newsletters are updated frequently through phatic communication via email and are asked to contribute to the campaign. However, Sanders’ activity on social media channels is key. The way Sanders is represented in mainstream media as we know it, tends to be rather negative with his ideas being portrayed as unrealistic. This is why the presence of Sanders on social media is so important due to our contemporary hybrid media system, where mainstream media as we know it is shifting towards social media, causing a change in the power dynamics of these media (Chadwick, 2015). By making use of social media platforms and his app, Sanders has found a way to make his message heard and create uptake due to the support of countless accounts that are dedicated to him, and other organizations and politicians who support him. Besides spreading his message and creating uptake, a vital function of Sanders’ online activity is to gather contributions and donations to the campaign. Sanders often asks his supporters for their help by asking for a contribution as small as $2.70. Due to crowdfunding, Sanders can keep his campaign going, because money is incredibly important in U.S. politics. In U.S. politics, money determines your status and power. Not only does money allow for more advertising, it determines a politician’s success as well. In the case of small organizing, large sums of money are provided by few sources. This is not directly linked to the popularity of the politician among citizens. However, in big organizing, the money that is needed to fund the campaign derives directly from citizens supporting the politician. For this reason, the amount of money that is collected in big organizing says a lot about

35 the popularity of the politician. This is why Sanders eventually had to drop out of the presidential election in April 2020. Even though Sanders’ message had reached many, his online movement had created an immense uptake, lots of money had been collected through crowdfunding, and many volunteers spent their time campaigning, it was not enough to battle his competitor Joe Biden anymore. Nonetheless, Sanders has shown not only the U.S. but the entire world what is possible when you call for a big change to the entire system. And although big organizing has shown not to be big enough just yet, Bernie Sanders has proven that one does not need big-dollar donors to make a change. He has shown that with a clear and consistent message, volunteers, crowdfunding, and a well thought of and large-scale online movement, one can achieve a lot more than initially expected and make a change in favor of the people. An implication for future research is to analyze why and how Sanders’ campaign did not result in the nomination for the Democratic Party. When beginning this research, I could not predict what the outcome would be for Sanders. This is why the focus in this thesis was put on what Sanders did and how that affected his movement in the moment. However, an interesting implication for future research would be to take the results of the campaign into account and analyze what Sanders could have done differently to make the campaign successful enough to win the nomination for the Democratic Party in the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

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