Bernie’s ability to weaponize his followers is the true source of his political strength.

5 min readMar 9, 2020

Bernie Bros take their direction straight from the top

We all know the real reason Bernie won’t try to rein in his minions — He can’t. And he doesn’t want the world to know he is powerless over them. More importantly, he is powerless without them.

Bernie’s ability to weaponize his followers is the true source of his political strength. In 2016 they bullied Hillary supporters out of public spaces and created the illusion that all the “energy and enthusiasm” was behind Bernie.

Everyone sees what they do to celebrities and surrogates who don’t toe the line. No one wants to challenge Bernie and incur their wrath. This includes journalists and even other Democrats. That’s why Bernie STILL hasn’t been vetted.

They even turned on AOC for laughing at a joke. She may be a “star” but without Bernie’s minions propping her up, she’s nothing. She’s going to have a tough reelect as it is. If they turn on her, she’s over. And she’s knows it. Don’t expect Alexandria Ocasio-Kardashian to step out of line again.

Bernie refuses to even acknowledge the problem. He says maybe it’s Russia. I thought Russia was a hoax, Bernie? Which is it? We know it isn’t Russia. They support him with AI, but that’s easy to spot. The personal vendettas against people like me? That’s all coming from inside the house.

The Bernie campaign’s new tactic is to mock us. “Someone was mean to me online and now I don’t want poor people to have healthcare” Broductio ad absurdum aside, it isn’t just “being mean” and it isn’t just online.

There are many threads detailing Bernie Bro behavior — I’ll link them at the end. It goes far beyond calling women fat and ugly. They’ve gotten dozens of people fired. Not for doing anything wrong but because their employer can’t deal with the onslaught of negative attention.

They dox people for crossing Bernie. Bernie’s campaign puts out the call from their official campaign blue checkmark accounts. There’s no way for him to pretend it’s rogue actors or that he doesn’t approve. He has the worst offenders on payroll. That’s why he hired them.

They reported Bravenek for “threatening” Bernie and she was interviewed by the FBI. They mentioned my name too, but doing this to a black woman in the era of “swatting” is deadly serious.

One of them says he’s watching my house. I didn’t believe him at first. They post my home address constantly trying to “prove” I don’t vote, so anyone could describe my street, but he has enough detail that I believe him now. And I do vote, I’m just not always living in DC.

Someone said “It can’t be that bad, Sally, you’re still on Twitter” Yes, I’m still here but many people are not. I’m in a unique position. I don’t have kids, or a job I can be fired from. But we shouldn’t have to get off Twitter just bc we don’t support their cult leader.

After Bernie got crushed on Super Tuesday, the writing is on the wall. He has no path to victory and they know it. But desperation has only made them worse. The Biden campaign caught this guy last night. Misusing the voter file is a felony.

That guy is in Bernie’s inner circle. There’s no denying it.

“Bernie, Inc.” is how we refer to cottage industry surrounding Bernie, the network of pseudo-journalists, “think” tanks, and other ventures who make money by fleecing his minions. The Intercept is the seminal actor in this space. Here they are signal boosting one of the more aggressive Bros.

This was a slight digression to show you what Bernie’s campaign is up to today. They let professional Bros carry out their deplorable campaign tactics so they don’t get their hands dirty. Is Bernie okay with this? Saying Biden’s stutter is evidence of dementia? He must be.

Bernie claims his surrogates are subject to abuse so “everyone does it” That is NOT the same thing. Brie Brie and Nina are public figures. Taking slings and arrows is part of the job. Bernie Bros are singular in how they seek out, attack and try to destroy private citizens.

Sadly, many people who should know better let him get away with it. Criticizing Bernie is not the same thing. Calling out Sirota is not the same thing. Defending ourselves is not the same thing. But journalists don’t want the Bros to turn on them.

Without his online army of guttersnipes, Bernie’s campaign wouldn’t have even gotten off the ground in 2016. They may have taken their marching orders from Putin, but they carried out their mission with Bernie’s blessing. He would be nothing without them and he knows it.

So don’t expect anything to change. Bernie knows his ability to weaponize his followers is the true, and only, source of his power. He needs them now more than ever. Especially since they’ve demonstrated time and again that they don’t actually vote.

“It’s all over but the shouting” as my mama would say. The shouting is going to get worse before it gets better.

The death throes of Bernie’s “movement” will be brutal.

A dying mule kicks the hardest. But it’s over, and everybody knows it.

And not a moment too soon.