Last summer I read an interview with Sociologist Jen Schradie about her book, The Revolution That Wasn’t. Schradie’s surprising thesis was that conservatives, not progressives, have become the dominant political activists on the internet. With far greater financial resources and a base much more focused on political power than policy specifics, conservative activists have been able to make much better use of social media than their counterparts on the left.
Yesterday, I stumbled upon what looks like pretty clear evidence of Schradie’s thesis. While helping a teenager set up a Twitter account I was shocked by Twitter’s suggestions for which Twitter accounts this teenager from Massachusetts with a strong interest in politics, government, and science & technology news (included in her just created profile) should consider following. The first twenty politically relevant Twitter accounts suggested by Twitter were as follows:
- Kellyanne Conway
- Jim Jordan
- Ron Desantis
- Devin Nunes
- Lindsey Graham
- Leader McConnell
- Michelle Obama
- Ben Carson
- Rand Paul
- Rep Matt Gaetz
- Ted Cruz
- Ted Cruz
- John Barrasso
- Doug Collins
- Mike Lee
- Chuck Grassley
- FOX News
- CT GOP
- Ned Lamont
- Barack Obama
I scrolled down for quite a while before finding ANY Democrats presently holding federal office and actually gave up before encountering a mainstream news source. The fact that KellyAnne Conway was #1 on this list ought to make honest people of every political persuasion nauseous. Equally distressing is the fact that the numerous Republicans appearing on this list just happen to be among the most corrupt, dishonest, and least intelligent right wingers in the country.
The perception that progressive activists have used social media to effectively create a powerful national movement has been greatly exaggerated. The reality is that conservatives have created and maintained firm control over their low-information voters and their ideological voters using the internet, while progressives have only been able to rally ideologically progressive voters and activists online, a group that does not include anywhere near a majority of likely Democratic voters. While low information conservative voters can be effectively persuaded and mobilized with symbolic, values-based appeals, average liberal voters demand policy specifics. (Grossman & Hopkins)
The apparent dominance of Bernie Sanders supporting progressives on social media never reflected dominance among Democratic voters. It reflected the news worthiness of progressive social media pronouncements, rhetoric, and arguments, not the sentiments of most Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters. This social media “false positive” of sorts hasn’t gone entirely unnoticed of course. Thoughtful analysts were pointing it out last year, but the most powerful evidence came when the Bernie Sanders internet powered fundraising and organizational juggernaut failed to produce the promised progressive turnout surge in the 2020 Democratic primaries. In fact, Democratic primary turnout has seen increases among more pragmatic, moderate Democratic voters instead. “[B]lack voters, moderates and suburbanites” have turned out in higher numbers to support Joe Biden, not Bernie Sanders.
The persistent belief by Sanders supporters that their candidate’s “revolution” is viable in 2020 is nurtured with cherry picked polling data promoted and disseminated online by progressives. I can tell you from considerable personal experience that evidence and clear explanation of this reality does not move progressives whose steady diet of online progressive propaganda is seemingly impossible to penetrate. Sadly, careful argument and clear evidence is little match for conservative internet trolls and tacticians who have little difficulty helping progressives nurture their delusions of grandeur. Right wing disinformation disseminators goad progressives online with all manner of technical and rhetorical manipulation.
Bottom line: Progressives and mainstream liberal Democrats need to wake up to the huge advantage that Republicans and conservative activists have online. Not even the giant gap between Bernie Sanders’ social media enthusiasm and his performance in primary elections will convert his diehard supporters. Only a much more concerted effort by Democrats to organize and mobilize Biden supporters online can blunt the Republicans online advantage and the counter-productive progressive agitation being fueled by the far left and right in the run up to the 2020 elections.