Do You #FeelTheBern: Behind Bernie Sanders’ Quest To Take Over The White House

Author: David Perell URL: https://www.perell.com/blog/2016/3/14/do-you-feelthebern-behind-bernie-sanders-quest-to-takeover-the-white-house One-line: An early-Perell (2016) reading of the Sanders campaign through Marshall McLuhan’s “the medium is the message” — arguing that social platforms, not debate-stage performance, are the new arena of presidential politics, and that Sanders won youth trust by being unfiltered, direct, and authentic on Snapchat, Reddit, and YouTube.

Key claims

• The medium is the message. Following Marshall McLuhan’s 1964 Understanding Media, what is communicated matters less than the channel it travels through. From the telegraph to the internet, each medium has united people and encouraged participation — at the risk of toxic conformity.
• Debates were the 1960 inflection; social media is the 2016 one. The 1960 Nixon–Kennedy debate, watched by 74 million, made televised image central to politics (Nixon’s sweat vs. Kennedy’s confidence). Perell argues social networks will shape 2016 as profoundly as debates shaped 1960.
• Trust and quality are scarce in the mass-media age. Ad-dependent business models deliver “less signal and more noise.” Millennials skip the New York Times and Fox News in favor of close friends, YouTube personalities, and viral articles shared through social networks.
• Youth voters are decisive for Democrats. Obama took ~65% of the youth vote in 2008 and ~60% in 2012; no nominee reaches young voters without an elaborate social-media strategy. The internet lowers the cost of building a brand and tightens the candidate–voter connection.
• Platform shapes message. Bernie Sanders tunes his rhetoric to each medium — unfiltered and ephemeral on Snapchat (10-second clips), combative and responsive in a Reddit AMA (ISIS, GMO labeling, the military), more careful on YouTube/Facebook where content lives forever and is built to go viral.
• Direct, unfiltered access builds trust. Sanders’ reachability across the internet boosts relationships with voters and fuels admiration — scarce resources today. Direct communication, more than relatability, is what made him credible (cf. Platforms).

Notable quotes

“Societies have always been shaped more by the nature of the media by which men communicate than by the content of the communication.” — Marshall McLuhan

“Our world of abundance promises stronger opinions, louder voices and news that appeals to the lowest common denominator. News driven by ad-dependent business models deliver less signal and more noise.”

“Trust and quality are scarce in today’s mass media age. Millennials do not want to parse through the New York Times, or watch Fox News to receive their information.”

“Direct communication fuels voter trust and admiration, scarce resources in today’s world.”

“Social networks sit at the nexus of post-modern human conversation, thinking and decision making. As an extension of ourselves, social media will influence the 2016 presidential election as profoundly as presidential debates did in 1960.”

How it connects

• David Perell — another early-career Perell piece, applying a media-theory lens (McLuhan) to current events; prefigures his later writing-on-the-internet and platform themes.
• Marshall McLuhan — the intellectual spine of the essay: “the medium is the message,” the printed word’s visual bias vs. oral cultures’ reliance on speech.
• Bernie Sanders — the case study: a candidate who matched rhetoric to medium and won youth trust through unfiltered access.
• Platforms — the internet lowers the cost of brand-building and lets candidates reach voters directly, collapsing the gatekeepers of traditional media.

Kyle’s notes

Kyle: People liked Bernie Sanders for a lot of reasons, but in particular he was authentic and accessible. Even though he isn’t at all relatable (he’s just a grumpy old white guy), he answered every question and gave straightforward answers — and they just happened to be the answers people wanted to hear.