Bernie Sanders’s Destructive Ego Problem

Photo by Gage Skidmore/ CC BY-SA2.0

In the beginning ... Bernie Sanders was the well-mannered newly minted Democratic opponent appearing to understand he could make his points without knocking the block off the person with the strongest chance to win the nomination. He gave the impression that there was mutual respect, as did Hillary Clinton, and his initial demeanor earned him respect. Remember the man who declined to go after Secretary Clinton in the first Democratic debate saying, "This may not be great politics. But I think the Secretary is right and that is that the American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails".

But Sanders, the underdog, has kept winning primary elections. With each win his crowds have grown larger, and he has grown angrier. A new Sanders has emerged creating a distinctly, and to any Democrat, uncomfortable similarity between him and Donald Trump. Each one knows how to ignite the passionate support of large crowds that in turn inflate their candidate egos - no matter what. Bernie has called his campaign a revolution. Trump calls his a movement. They each consider themselves outsiders focused on disruption, and it doesn't seem to bother Sanders a bit that he's feeding Donald Trump real ammunition to use against Clinton. Who cares, he's basically said. It's about me now.

At this point, Sanders ego seems to be driving his battle to win a nomination that's now all but unobtainable. The delegate math won't add up unless a miracle steps in. But you'd never know that by listening to Sanders. After a loss in the Virginia Primary and a win in Oregon, he continued to talk about winning. He told a California crowd, "Before we can defeat Donald Trump we have to defeat Secretary Clinton". The crowd went wild, and so it seems has Sanders. He's gone full throttle against the Democratic party and Clinton, apparently unconcerned about its impact on the November election.

“Bernie the Maverick” has come out. The Independent he always was seems to be the Independent he wants to remain, despite taking on the Democratic mantel to run for President. Sounds too Trumpish for comfort. Especially when refusing to condemn the violence his supporters took part in at the Nevada Democratic Convention last weekend. 

Sanders has a right to make his case. He is committed to doing so. But I now see a man increasingly caught up in himself and his crowds rather than fighting a statesman like battle to achieve his goals. It gives a more egocentric tone to his continued attacks on Clinton while building unreal expectations among his supporters.

Clinton needs less than a hundred votes to secure the Democratic nomination. It's turned Sanders into an angry man fighting the establishment and vowing to take his angry fight to the convention. What ever happened to the pull it together positively Bernie?

The Power of Oft Repeated Negatives

Photo by Gage Skidmore/CC BY-SA2.0

Can the politics of negative be turned into the politics of positive with Donald Trump as the Republican nominee for president? Trump has achieved what I predicted last summer. He outboxed all the other contenders running for the office and fought his way to the top using some of the most negative and repulsive words, phrases and language ever heard from politicians. Trump has effectively manipulated the negative, seamlessly creating an explosive platform of its own.

We've learned a lot about negative rhetoric these past ten months, in part because we've heard so much of it. For some of us, it's a giant turn off. For others, it seems to be a giant turn on that unleashes pent up ... well a lot of things.

What Trump has done and continues to masterfully do is, in part, counterintuitive to effective political and business communication. Normally, if your goal is to consistently project the positive, you’re strongly advised to not repeat the negative. And with good reason. If a negative word or statement slips into what's supposed to be a positive message, you can get away with it once. Maybe. If you repeat the negative a second time, it remains in people's minds. If you repeat that negative thought or phrase a third time, it's pretty much in our minds for good. 

Trump is flipping the tables by using negative thoughts to produce positive results. He must have carefully studied a phenomenon called the Illusion of Truth Effect identified by researchers at the University of California Santa Barbara. They proved that any statement we speak, see, hear or read regularly is viewed as more valid than one we’re only exposed to occasionally. It makes no difference whether the information is true or false. The only thing that matters is how often we’re exposed to it.  

If you underscore the exposure of Trump's negative messages, supported by all forms of media and repeated by him on his frequently used Twitter account, we can better understand what has brought his campaign to where it is today. And if we pile on those large rallies where he's the only one on stage throwing his body language into every word while surrounded by thousands of cheering fans ... you have a spectacle that for some will be hard to forget. Especially if you're continually reminded of it.

The saddest part of Trump's negative style of running for president of the United States is that it deprives us of all the good that comes with strength derived from positive.

His mantra has been "win at any cost". And it has cost.