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All reports are Bernie Sanders is about to announce his run for President. Before that happens, take a moment and ask yourself if you’ve ever reduced his supporters to “Bernie bros.” /1
The “Bernie Bro” narrative that started in October 2015 was deeply effective. The spread of social media gave it more traction than 2008’s “Obama Boys” and it persists to this day, even earning its own Wikipedia page. /2 en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernie_Bro
As “white man” became an epithet, Bernie’s identity was an easy target. His unflinching support of women’s issues, advocacy for racial justice, support for civil & LGBT rights, even his Jewishness, were all secondary to the image of “angry white male.” /3 currentaffairs.org/2017/09/how-id…
But using the term bro erases the huge number of women & people of color, who do not share, say, the center left positions of Gillibrand/Warren/Harris, center positions of Brown/Buttitieg/Castro, or center-right position of Klobuchar/Booker/Beto. /4 democraticunderground.com/12511271877
Is that not an act of racism and sexism - to use stereotypes to render huge swaths of marginalized communities invisible, simply because their existence doesn’t support a narrative? /5 
2020 candidates are using the wrong lessons from ‘16, which is to dismiss critics of troublesome records as Bernie bros & criticism as racist/sexist. Should ALL critics of Bernie be handily dismissed as ageist & anti-Semitic? Where does that leave us?/6 progressivearmy.com/2018/06/02/cla…
It should go without saying that a black politician is not necessarily the best politician to promote black interests, a female politician will not automatically serve women’s interests better than a man, & an LGBT politician wouldn’t always be superior on LGBT interests. /7
If we believe a candidate’s identity overrides their substantive beliefs & policies, a Ben Carson/Carly Fiorina ticket would have been a progressive dream ticket & 0 of the 8 LGBT folks who ran for office in CT in 2018 would be Republican (6 of 8 were)🥴/8 google.com/amp/s/www.nbcn…
Maybe we get to do deep dive into issues, inspect a candidate’s platform & record, & be permitted to present criticism w/o being shut down as divisive, bitter, & anti-[insert identity here]. Maybe that’s how we find the best candidate to take on Trump./9 google.com/amp/s/amp.theg…
