Thread by @AmericasCousin

#NotMeUs -- Why do they hate?

Because we're an asset. Now we're the target. And we're the headline. All week.

Rude "bros" is the strategy coordinated in tandem with Warren's gut wrenching hit job. Provoke into anger then embarrass for anger... which further
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provokes. There will be preening celebrities, op-eds, and undisclosed paid surrogates echoing the same narrative.
They want to shame us.

It's well known in strategy in politics that one of the best tactics is to turn an opponent's biggest strength into weakness.
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That is what adversaries are attempting to do here with their supporter-maligning. The candidate with the most committed enthusiastic support won almost every presidential election in the past 40 years. Reagan, Bill Clinton, GWB, Obama, Trump. Poll after poll shows
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Sanders has the most committed supporters in this primary. Being inspired leads to the motivation that forms massive volunteer muscle operations on which other campaigns would have to waste millions. It grants wide amplification of Bernie's important
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message for a unified multiracial working class coalition. So the tactic being used to stop this movement is to smear it as a pack of "undesirables" to limit its growth. They want people to feel "icky" for supporting Bernie. Constantly asking us to apologize for
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strangers we never met. For who we are. Wanting us to ask our own representative to lecture us. How degrading is that? It only further reinforces the false narrative that we need to be lectured.

"A prospective next leader of the free world owes me an apology
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right now because I had a bad day online." = Entitlement Alert.

We know who we are. We're a movement that's 59% female/NB and ~55% persons of color. We're Latino Black, white, Asian, mixed-race, Semitic, able-bodied/disabled, LGBTQIA+, waitresses, janitors, scholars,
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working-class, middle-class, even a few class traitors, veterans, parents, grandchilden, activists, artists, scientists, true believers in the possibility of a better country. We know that resource-seizing corruption deprives our communities & families. We know it's not
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our neighbors with a different walk of life. We know it's not whatever smut an over-Botoxed anchorman on cable news tell us it is.

We tolerate no hate and no bigotry. If that were our belief system, there's no shortage of other options for that.
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We don't support any goals that aren't just.

We know it and they know it.

The narrative of shame being used is a lie. It's information warfare. We can respond until our fingers fall off but they'll insist we're a snakebasket of deplorables.
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Facts don't matter to them. Does anyone seriously think a perception management expert like Neera Tanden doesn't already know the actual stats? She knows we're diverse. And disproportionately suffering. She can read numbers. It's her job to know things like
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that. It's also her job to amplify a narrative that serves a specific rational purpose--limit the contagious uplifting solidarity animating spirit. Of course we have intense and unwavering support for Senator Sanders. Who else in presidential politics speaks for us?
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No one. No other candidate intends to realize a first world health care system. No other candidate considers climate change a higher priority than their craven ambition. No other candidate isn't cynically resigned to corruption and inhumanity as permanent facts of
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life. No other candidate understands or cares about the struggle.

No other campaign has true meaning.

So, of course we celebrate his accomplishments. How could anyone not? We know true empathy when we see it. It can't be faked or appropriated into pretentious
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50-page plans that no one reads--campaign props for a "smarter than thou" luxury brand.

It's natural and healthy for people to have figures in their lives who motivate them. We all have deep connections to favorite artists, actresses (not Warren, lol), athletes,
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historical figures, professors, ancestors, philosophers, activists, writers, change-makers. Of course Sen. Sanders is in that category. Of course there's passionate support. This is not a "cult." It's a movement.

Be proud. No need to apologize.
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Supporters of other candidates (blue checks w. agendas notwithstanding) are human too. They're moved on an instinctual level by many attributes of a figure that speaks to them. They believe their rep has good intentions. They don't care what's in subsection 83, what
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they said 40 years ago, what McKinsey actually does, how they voted, how many combs they threw, what % of them voted for Obama, how many rallies they held for Hillary. They picked their team and like who they've chosen, warts and all. So did we.
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And that means they're unpersuadable, especially in dopamine sugar high "I owned you" Twitterworld. If someone enjoys a real good faith debate, great. Pie fights? Not so much. But who can resist. They are fun.

The best target audience for social media discussion
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is the quiet readers who are undecided. Aim for that vote! Not the jerk who called you a sexist/racist because you don't like corporate private servants. You can just block.
Arguments on those issues in politics are almost always in bad faith.

I'm not anyone's
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adviser or babysitter, but I wanted to share some thoughts that others might find useful. We ourselves are the storyline now. The spotlight is on.

I think we can all face it with pride.

✊

-Brian

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