--- title: Bernie Sanders Inspired the Alt-Left, the Democrat Alt-Right description: After I wrote that Bernie Sanders forced Hillary Clinton too far left, his supporters attacked me without the decency of the candidate canonical: https://time.com/4593753/bernie-sanders-alt-left/ author: Gil Troy article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-12-07T17:28:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:04:21.877Z article:section: Ideas og:title: The Bernie Sanders–Fueled Alt-Left Viciously Attacked Me og:description: "How could these bullies defend Bernie Sanders’ decent campaign so indecently?" og:url: https://time.com/4593753/bernie-sanders-alt-left/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt267cad426139ae55/6988b21acf40a8e514c45cb1/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-alt-right-left-donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4928 og:image:height: 2772 og:image:alt: Bernie Sanders campaigns for Democrats in Colorado og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Bernie Sanders–Fueled Alt-Left Viciously Attacked Me twitter:description: "How could these bullies defend Bernie Sanders’ decent campaign so indecently?" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt267cad426139ae55/6988b21acf40a8e514c45cb1/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-alt-right-left-donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Bernie Sanders–Fueled Alt-Left Viciously Attacked Me > Sponsored content. 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It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ## Video: Inside Bernie Sanders Supporters' Last Stand [Watch (HLS stream): Inside Bernie Sanders Supporters' Last Stand](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/7sYkQW1v.m3u8) (6:37)  _Published 2016-07-29. What was supposed to be a unifying week for the Democratic Party, culminating in the historic nomination of a woman for president, instead was beset by anguish and protests as Bernie Sanders’ faithful refused to accept Clinton’s victory._ by [Gil Troy](https://time.com/author/gil-troy/) ## Gil Troy Dec 7, 2016 5:28 PM UTC  Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders speaks during a rally in support of Hillary Clinton on Nov. 5, 2016, in Colorado Springs Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders speaks during a rally in support of Hillary Clinton on Nov. 5, 2016, in Colorado Springs Stacie Scott—Colorado Springs Gazette/TNS/Getty Images by [Gil Troy](https://time.com/author/gil-troy/) ## Gil Troy Dec 7, 2016 5:28 PM UTC Recently, I wrote that [Bernie Sanders’ 2016 campaign](http://time.com/4569766/bernie-sanders-ralph-nader-2016/), like [Pat Buchanan’s 1992 insurgency](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,975088,00.html) and [Ted Kennedy’s 1980 rebellion](http://content.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1918908%5F1927125,00.html), pushed [Hillary Clinton](http://time.com/time-person-of-the-year-2016-hillary-clinton-runner-up) so far to the Democratic Party’s extreme left, it became difficult for her to recover votes in the center for the general campaign. I called this one of many reasons why Clinton lost. For having done so, I received hundreds of obscenity-laden tweets, emails and Facebook posts condemning me, my looks, my suits, my intelligence, my professional judgment, my integrity, my motives, my religion. Some of these messages threatened violence and even mentioned my office address, trying to intimidate me. But they were not sent by members of the [alt-right](http://time.com/4569895/donald-trump-stephen-bannon-alt-right/), the proudly bigoted conservative movement well known for its anger and trolling. Instead, they came from Sanders supporters — misreading my analysis as an advocacy piece — who felt I’d blamed their hero for Hillary Clinton’s failures. Beyond the obscene attacks, I was called a “paid Shill,” an “enormous hack with tenure.” Tweeters and Facebookers wrote: “Thanks TIME and thanks Gil Troy for being stalwarts of the American Dark Ages”; “run back to Palestine”; “only a beanie wearing kyke could write something so wrong and misguided”; “now I have to vomit.” (I confess, however, that I laughed when someone said, “This guy @GilTroy is so wrong about stuff it’s amazing he wasn’t working for the Clinton campaign.”) Amid this barrage, I wondered: How could these bullies defend Bernie Sanders’ decent campaign so indecently? How does calling me a “kyke” (again, their spelling) and a “greedy Jew” help this Jewish politician? And how could they applaud Clinton’s ad that showed how Donald Trump’s insults about women’s looks harmed young girls’ body image, and then mock someone’s looks? How dare they denounce Trump’s boorishness? These supposed enemies of the alt-right were enjoying the same Internet-enabled anonymous power-rush of their opponents. They shirked responsibility for the words they post, the hate they spew, the democratic dialogue they demean. Their sense of injury trumped all. If Barack Obama’s election in 2008 ultimately launched the alt-right, [Donald Trump’s election in 2016](http://time.com/time-person-of-the-year-2016-donald-trump-choice/?xid=homepage) is launching the alt-left. Despite preaching to Republicans that Trump would have to accept the election results when he lost, these extremists reject the Trump upset as illegitimate. They are the ones who not only took to the streets but also turned violent in Oakland, Calif., and Portland. Their fury excuses anything, from vandalizing property potentially owned by Trump opponents in those liberal downtowns to rioting — despite not even voting. Of the 108 rioters Portland police arrested, [72 hadn’t voted](http://www.kptv.com/story/33717381/majority-of-arrested-portland-protesters-did-not-vote-in-election) and 36 weren’t even registered. Hillary Clinton defined the alt-right as rejecting “mainstream conservatism” and stewing in “prejudice and paranoia.” Now, resenting Trump’s rise, these #BernieOrBust and #NeverHillary followers reject mainstream liberalism. They call Clinton a “Republican” or a “neoliberal,” their all-purpose epithet for nonconservatives lacking their ideological purity. In many ways, this alt-left matches the alt-right. Sure, they differ on policy and live on either side of identity politics (although, unlike the Culture Warriors of the 1980s and ’90s, they fight less about economics). And condemning them equally doesn’t mean they’re equally dangerous, with the alt-right’s Hitlerism and hooliganism spiking since Trump’s election. Still, extreme liberalism and conservatism intersect in their economic populism and bullying tactics. They both obsess about Wall Street, the Big Banks, the Mainstream Media and what they see as the dysfunctional federal government. They refuse to learn from the Age of Clinton that bipartisan coalitions and centrist policies are possible and often beneficial. They ignore the real causes of middle-class distress including deindustrialization and the ease of importing now that it’s cheaper to transport things across the globe — the benefits of which they, as consumers, enjoy. And for their work, all they will do is strengthen Trump’s Right, as they browbeat their natural, more reasonable, allies as “neoliberals” and keep Trump and his followers feeling attacked, self-righteous, and thus, unwilling to temper or compromise. Given the high stakes — and self-destructiveness of these attacks — I tried reminding these virtual bullies of who they actually are in real life. I started with one Facebook account. In its first message, the person fumed: “Your TIME piece in regards to Bernie is a lame attempt at revising history. I’ve since read a few more of your postings. Your writing is awful. You suck. Retire.” The messages kept coming. But each post was less rabid, more substantive. Sensing an opening, I replied I was ignoring the first posting, adding: “You seem like a decent person but your first instinct was to do what most respondents did — bombard me with the ugliness we usually associate with Trump — and which Bernie avoided. Beyond that first belch of insults, we agree more than we disagree.” Suddenly the person behind the Internet’s camouflage emerged. “I’m very, very sorry,” he wrote. “I actually wish I could take that first response back.” Two warm exchanges later, he conceded, “Also, you don’t suck. And you shouldn’t retire.” Having cybersnooped him, I added: “Enjoy that new baby.” He replied with a photo of his newborn, and the elegant summation: “I second that. I’ll tell him about what a good guy Gil Troy is. Teach him not to overreact on social media like I did.” And, now a person, he signed the message, “Matt.” I saw how the Internet’s anonymity and the vehemence within each partisan tunnel demonizes any dissenters. Once we established a person-to-person connection, we discovered common ground, and changed tone. One interaction does not a revolution make — or, for that matter, prove that all people will come around. But it offers a potential template for American healing. As the alt-right and alt-left collide, we must re-engage one another as real people with real concerns, agreeing and disagreeing freely, substantively, respectfully. The American philosopher John Dewey taught: “Democracy begins in conversation.” Restoring the art of real, person-to-person, political conversations, will help get our democracy back, reminding decent people whose political sensibilities are offended by critical writers to respond with substantive arguments not demeaning insults, and seek common ground for the common good, not just partisan points to inflame your side. ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] Hillary Clinton came out of Philadelphia with a history of win, the first female nominee of the major political party. But something else happened at the Democratic Convention that could affect the general election and the future of the Democratic Party. And I vote that Hillary Clinton be selected as the nominee of the Democratic Party. [ APPLAUSE ] Running for President of the United States. [ APPLAUSE ] For many of Bernie Sanders' most committed supporters, defeat still didn't seem real until the Democratic Convention in Philadelphia. [ INAUDIBLE ] On the streets and in the convention hall, a deep suspicion of the democratic establishment and Hillary Clinton broke into the open. Bernie Sanders Bernie Sanders! Hilary, you can not lie to us. Bernie supporters, we see through you. We don't care about political facts. Do you understand? We don't our own research. We've rather have four years of a buffoon than eight years of a genocidal corporate war It's about continuing the fight that he started, and we can't do that if we keep giving the corrupt system what they want. Together we will? Shut it down! Together we [ CROSSTALK ] I did not participate in any of the protest here, I felt like our job inside was to be the delegates, was to cast the votes, and I feel like the people outside really had a purpose to spread the message, to express that anger, sadness, joy, whatever they were feeling, in that moment Further increasing tensions, Democratic Party emails reveal that many top officials favored Clinton over Sanders, a suspicion that many Sanders supporters held all along. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] When the gavel rang in the first day, spontaneous protest broke out in a rare show of disunion Within defines. Some of the unrest subsided when Sanders publicly threw his support behind content. Thank you. [ SOUND ] I love you Bernie. [ SOUND ] I understand That many people are disappointed about the final results of the nominating process. I think it's fair to say that no one is more disappointed than I am. Hillary Clinton will make an outstanding president and I am proud to stand with her tonight Thank you all very much. He's with her. He's with her. Initial roll call of all of our delegations. Still, when Clinton officially took the nomination on Tuesday. Hillary. For Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton. For President of the United States. Dozens of Sanders' delegates walked out en masse. [ SOUND ] This is what democracy looks like! [ SOUND ] We're not just here to celebrate the coronation of Hillary Clinton. We're here to push for change. National Nurses United endorsed Bernie. We haven not changed our position. There was that moment on Tuesday where we were like this person who absolutely love who we think would be a phenomenal president is not going to be president. You cannot prepare for that kind of heartbreak when you put so much time and effort into something you believe so strongly in. I vote for Bernie Sanders. And then it doesn't happen. Even though you know in the back of your mind that the delegate count wasn't there it still is so heart breaking . >> [ APPLAUSE ] We all need to be as vocal and as organized and as persistent as Bernie Sanders supporters have been during this election. [ APPLAUSE ] I knew coming here that there would be this pressure to unify as Democrats behind a candidate, and I really wasn't ready to unify. That's right, feel the Bern. When he said, yeah, Feel the burn. It was such a great moment for us. It was the first time while we were here that we really felt like, wow somebody actually cares. [ MUSIC ] And it was the first moment in the entire part of the The convention where I was like okay. I'm going to start opening my ears a little bit more and I'm going to approach people differently when I talk to these other delegates. There has never been a man or woman, not me, not Bill, nobody more qualified than Hilary Clinton To serve as the president of the United States of America. I have to work out in my mind some of these questions. But in the end, I'm gonna vote for Hillary. Because the other person which I will not mention, scares the hell out of me. I will probably. Take the leap and vote for Hillary. I can't stomach the idea of Donald Trump being President. I'm a Florida delegate like I said before, so that means I live in a swing state my vote, really it's important and I will vote for Hillary. Because I do not want there to be a Trump. Presidency. [ APPLAUSE ] And so, my friends, it is with humility, determination and boundless confidence in America's promise that I accept your nomination for President of the United States! I recognize this is a monumental moment. My best friend's daughter was in tears knowing that one day she can grow up and maybe be the president. I want her to walk the walk. She says she's gonna do these things. I want her to do them. We have to stay in this process to ensure that she actually follows through with the The things that she said she was going to do. While the large majority of Sanders supporters say in polls, and in the streets, they are ready to support Clinton in order to beat Donald Trump, the discord in Philadelphia showed that Sanders' political revolution will not end quietly. You put economic and social justice issues front and center, where they belong. Our country needs your idea, energy, and passion. We wrote it together. Now let's go out and make it happen together. 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