Bernie’s Out/No Refunds
April 10, 2020 — On Wednesday, April 8, Bernie Sanders withdrew from the Democratic Primary race for a second time. After a long, divisive, and often surprising campaign season marred by the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, Vice President Joe Biden finally emerged as the presumptive nominee from a cadre of 29 major candidates. Facing falling poll numbers, declining enthusiasm in primaries, and vast uncertainty resulting from the ongoing pandemic, Sanders called it quits to move on to disaster triage in the Senate.
The internet is currently overloaded with reactions, ranging from attacks on Sander’s legacy to loving memorializations of his campaign. Sanders has long been a polarizing figure in American politics, and was supported by a rough and tumble online coalition accused by some of toxic behavior. As a Senator and a presidential hopeful, Sanders inspired a vast memesphere for both his 2016 and 2020 campaigns, with young supporters turning out viral content for Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit and TikTok. This time, that coalition didn’t result in the electoral success needed to propel Sanders to the presidency. Some of his supporters are not taking it particularly well, while others are gracefully praising Sanders and moving on in support of Biden’s nomination. Although Sanders is out, the vast amount of online cultural conversation about him remains. Rather than labor in electoral predictions or regurgitate the countless op-eds and thinkpieces circulating, let’s get right into the memes, shall we?
#NoRefunds
Originally emerging after his defeat by Hilary Clinton in the 2016 Democratic Primary, the phrase “No Refunds” was used to mock the many individual donors to Sanders’ campaign. These small-dollar donations by 1.4 million people were celebrated by the Left, often a talking point in Sander’s public addresses, and used as a hammer against opponents in debates. “No Refunds” began circulating as Sander’s campaign lost steam after Super Tuesday, and intensified upon withdrawing from the race on April 8th. Just as the pejorative “Bernie Bro” designation followed Sanders’ campaign from 2016 to 2020, so did the pithy mockery of his vast fundraising apparatus, and the hopeful donors who built his coalition. When Bernie backed out, the hashtag #NoRefunds spread across all major social media platforms, as did a series of memes rubbing salt in the wound.
In early 2020, a popular new meme format emerged: I am once again asking. In a Dec 2019 fundraising video, Sanders directly addressed solicited donations from viewers on a cold winter day, looking both earnest and beleaguered in an unassuming hooded jacket. Sanders regularly used plain language and simple requests in advertisements like these, and both his supporters and detractors were quick to remix this content. Isolating a captioned still from the video, a Reddit poster spawned a new image template that would go on to be used for several months and draw press from outlets like Buzzfeed. On April 8th, the format would mutate yet again, being reused to comment, positively and negatively, about Sander’s withdrawal from the race. We expect variations on this format as long as Sander’s remains in the public eye.
Hot Takes from the Right
Sanders and his blueprint for a Democratic Socialist America was unpopular amongst conservatives and the far right. Derided by conservatives for his progressive economic policies, and hated by the far right for his Jewish ancestry and embrace of a multicultural coalition, Sanders was widely condemned as a crazy “communist.” Despite drawing sympathy in a tweet from Donald Trump and a call to his base, most on the right were glad to see Sanders go, mocking his loss to Joe Biden as they did with Hilary Clinton 2016.
Themes in right wing memes celebrating Sander’s withdrawal include references to popular culture, condemnations of his socialist economic policies, and topical jokes about COVID-19. Many incorporate the sexual assault allegations hanging above the head of presumptive nominee Joe Biden.
Join Us, Bernard
Sanders saw an unprecedented Facebook organizing campaign, a lion’s share of the attention on Reddit, massive viral enthusiasm from TikTok influencers, and relentless support on Twitter.
Just as they did after his loss in 2016, the online left regathers to discuss what’s next. As the Green Party circles the most disaffected Sanders supporters, and some farther left are suggesting starting a new party, it remains to be seen if the combustible #DemExit hashtag and memesphere will indeed signal a wide scale loss for the Democratic electorate, or it could be simple expressions of frustration with the American two party system. Or Russians, it always could be Russians.
As Sanders fades from the Democratic stage, attention now turns in full to Joe Biden. For several months, Biden has had a visibility, and a meme problem. After surviving a meme campaign suggesting he fatally contracted COVID-19, Biden amped up his media appearances, began regularly live streaming, and launched a podcast. It remains to be seen if his campaign will generate the memetic support seen by his former and future rivals in Sanders and Trump. Till then, much of the online left collectively presses F to pay their respect to Bernie Sanders, and welcome him into memetic immortality.
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Meme War Weekly is a newsletter addressing political messaging that comes from the wilds of the internet, produced by the Technology and Social Change Research Project at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy. Each week, we will look closely at the use of popular slogans and images and how they are shifting political conversations.
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