Big Brother Bernie: How Sanders' New Creepy Campaign Tool Reeks of Desperation

I don't remember signing up for this! 

If you're like any average American, you'll feel this exact way at some point over the next six months. Inevitably, you will be checking you daily e-mail when out of the blue comes something from some company that was simply unsolicited. After cursing under your breath for a few seconds, you'll finally must up enough energy to hit the unsubscribe button, thereby removing the invasion until inevitably the next one arrives in your inbox in a few months' time. But in the meantime, you can, at least, go back to a sense of normality, never having to worry again about how and what that mystery company got your email address. 

Now, imagine if you knew who put you on that spam email list. How would you respond?

That is the question that now faces this country as late Saturday evening NBC News reported that Senator Bernie Sanders would be releasing a new data app where users could input perspective supporters' contact information without their knowledge or consent and that these individuals would then be contacted by the campaign. According to the article: 

The online tool allows everyday supporters to contribute to the campaign’s voter database by logging names and background information of anyone from a family member to a stranger met at a bus stop. It matches each name to a voter record before noting their level of support, priority issue and even union membership.

Once again, Bernie Sanders proves he doesn't understand consent in the #MeToo era.

But this should come as no surprise as Sanders has always struggled to connect with those beyond college students and the White working-class. His last week was horrendous as he bombed the She the People Town Hall Event in Austin on Thursday and then his campaign adviser Nina Turner did Sanders no favors on AM Joy on Sunday when she too was forced to admit that Sanders had no real policies that would positively benefit people of color. With polls now showing that Sanders trails Joe Biden and that his support is plummeting among all voters, it shouldn't be a revelation that instead of sitting down and listening to concerns of people of color and adjusting his campaign strategy accordingly, Bernie Sanders is simply doubling down on his rhetoric and appealing simply and directly to his base, whom he knows loves his tried-and-true generic talking points.

Sound familiar?

And just like everyone's least favorite Oompa Loompa, Bernie Sanders also thinks that there somehow, some way must be more of his base that agrees with his ideas and the question is simply how to find them. Hence, the need for his new, super-stalky app. Because rather than going out into diverse communities, Sanders can now have his hip, millennial, White college grads simply go through their phone contacts and upload all the information into one, centralized location. Because, again, Sanders assumes that everyone is like his core group of supporters and that they simply need an email from a buddy and that they'll magically come around and support him. It's the same kind of delusion that convinces Sanders that he can win over West Virginians at a health care town hall or the student body at Liberty University. For Bernie Sanders, his message has never been wrong but rather his audience hasn't been right. For him to complete his political revolution, he simply needs to find his people and bring them into the fray.

But what Sanders doesn't understand is that outside of his base, America just isn't that into Bernie Sanders. The She the People audience doesn't boo Bernie Sanders because he marched with King, they boo Bernie Sanders because he hasn't done a single thing in 50 years for people of color since he marched with King. It's why Sanders goes to diverse cities like North Charleston and Chicago yet amazingly draws crowds that look like the cast of The OC. Sanders simply cannot connect with people of color, especially women of color who now constitute the Democratic base with which 94% of them voted for Hillary Clinton. At the end of the day, Bernie Sanders knows his message only resonates with a select population and that population can be found via text messages and emails. While other campaigns will be going door-to-door in communities that look like America, Bernie Sanders' campaign will be sending text messages and emails from their air conditioned offices.

And Bernie Sanders wouldn't have it any other way.

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