To steal an insightful point from @zeynep, Bernie Sanders has a movement, while everyone else has supporters. The vehemence and at times toxicity of interactions online is due to people believing in The Cause, not because Sanders encourages attacks, or attracts the worst people
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There is one other candidate with a movement, in my opinion—Tulsi Gabbard! But it is too fringe right now to be visible online
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The Sanders campaign is the kernel of an ambitious ideological project that has gotten people fired up and offered them a comprehensive worldview and narrative of transformational societal change. That's just not true for a Buttigieg, or Warren, or Biden
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Anyway, when they think the fate of the Universe is at stake, people get spicy online. It sucks, especially on a medium like this that rewards strife, but I don't think it reflects at some rot deep within the Sanders campaign, let alone the candidate himself
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The thing to judge Sanders on personally is if he will be able to take this movement and grow it into an electoral majority, a ruling majority, and ultimately a unifying national vision that transcends faction. But building a movement is an impressive start.
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I encourage anyone who can to go to a Bernie rally (or a Trump rally, for that matter!) and compare the feeling to other political events. This is not to paint a false equivalence between Trump and Sanders, but to stress that a movement is a powerful force in American politics.
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