“Feel the Bern”: what one candidate can do to change how people think

A Harvard University survey reveals that 51 percent of Americans aged between 18 and 29 reject capitalism, the cornerstone on which the United States is built. The data could be seen to both reflect the support among younger voters for Bernie Sanders, far and away the most left-leaning presidential hopeful ever, as well as their online participation in activism, albeit often reduced to clicktivism, or as some would have it, slacktivism through sites such as Change.org or Avaaz. In some countries, like Spain, there is agreement in some circles that internet opinion is largely leftist.

Are Americans influenced politically by the internet? The Harvard survey also shows that young people also reject socialism. But the fact that 33 percent of those surveyed also said they identified with socialism more than with capitalism, regardless of their ideological connotations, is food for thought, and would surely have Senator Joe McCarthy spinning in his grave.

Looking into the survey more closely, we see that 41 percent of those aged between 18 and 20 support socialist ideas, as do 50 percent of Democrats, 54 percent of Clinton supporters, 38 percent of Hispanics, and 39 percent of African Americans, while 56 percent of university graduates are more attracted by free market thinking, along with 43 percent of whites, 49 percent of men, 46 percent of southerners, 45 percent of those from the west, and 54 percent of Republicans.

The data would seem to show that in a hyperconnected society where you can do your bit by at a click of the mouse, a growing number of young people want to do something about capitalism rather than rejecting it outright: they associate the free market with inequality, marginalization, lack of access to affordable housing, food, and health. In short, they are rejecting the status quo, and see the internet as the place to discuss these issues.

They’re not so much critical of capitalism per se, but the way the free market operates today. But one thing is clear, the internet is not the place to sing the praises of capitalism: the term increasingly tends to be used, even among conservatives, to criticize what is wrong with the free market, such as crony capitalism.

That said, young Americans are not about to start singing the praises of the centrally planned economy. Over the course of his campaign, Sanders, has insisted on calling himself a democratic socialist (a provocation in the United States), clearly shows that the so-called millennial generation is attracted to a line of political thinking that went out of fashion several decades ago. All it takes now is for a bird to settle on Sanders’ atrium while his is giving a speech and half the country goes wild.

Are we about to witness a revolution in the way people think about politics in the United States based on access to information online? Or is this simply a side effect of a brilliantly thought out online campaign by one politician?

But the so-called Sanders effect on the youth, that “feel the Bern” factor that makes some people see him as a 21st century left-wing version of Ronald Reagan that Clinton underestimated when planning her campaign (see how he trolls her on Twitter) could also end up evaporating once the primaries are over.

But even if Sanders doesn’t win the Democratic Party nomination, could he influence how US voters think in the future? For the moment, presidential candidates’ use of the internet has largely demonstrated the supremacy of analytics.

At the same time, Sanders’ campaign also exploited a different series of values, a different way of communicating and applying political ideas that traditionally are a long way from the way most people, young or old, think. Could a significant number of US voters end up being happy to be dubbed socialist, a term adopted by a candidate who used the internet to get his message across? Regardless of whether he wins the nomination, which seems unlikely at this point, nevertheless, this campaign has been a milestone that will be studied for many years to come.

(En español, aquí)