Bernie Sanders has a branding problem -- and Rachel Maddow is doing what she can to help.
If the Vermont senator is known for any one thing, it's this -- the man is unabashedly socialist, unlike so many on the left who claim to be liberal only to reveal their actual collectivist ardor when they get to gushing over Sanders.
On her MSNBC show last night, Maddow bludgeoned viewers repeatedly with a specific word to describe Sanders while somehow never once saying the word that comes to mind whenever Sanders is mentioned. Maddow did this in the context of describing the Sanders campaign moving events in Maine and Wisconsin to larger venues than initially planned due to Sanders drawing the biggest crowds so far in this presidential campaign --
MADDOW: I mean, except for campaign launch events like the big rally Hillary Clinton held in New York earlier this month, all the presidential candidates are attracting, you know, a couple of hundred people here, a few hundred people there, and that's normal at this stage in the election cycle. But Bernie Sanders is just blowing them out of the water -- and the Beltway (media) is ignoring it. And maybe they're right that when he turns out 3,000 people here and a thousand people there and 9,000 people here and another 3,000 people here, maybe they're right that this manifest enthusiasm for Bernie Sanders, it doesn't say anything specific or actionable about what's going to happen in the Democratic primary race, right? Maybe it's true, no matter how much enthusiasm, no matter how big the crowds, no matter how surprising the success of the campaign that Bernie Sanders is running, maybe the Beltway is right that he's still got miles to go before it would ever meaningfully affect the chances that Hillary Clinton will secure the Democratic nomination for president. Maybe they're right.
But what Bernie Sanders is doing is not nothing. And Bernie Sanders is and always has been a completely unreconstructed, unapologetic, out-loud, forceful liberal.
First red flag that goes up. Several more follow in rapid succession --
MADDOW: And so if you are a liberal, the success that Bernie Sanders is achieving as a campaigner this year, it has to be heartening, right? I mean, you're not alone! The biggest crowds anybody is turning out in the presidential race on either side of the aisle are for the most liberal guy in the race by a mile. The most liberal guy to run at least since Dennis Kucinich and I'd actually like to see that fight, I bet Bernie might win.
The "most liberal guy" to run since Norman Thomas back in '48! A perennial candidate, Thomas was also a socialist, though Maddow would probably describe him as "progressive" --
MADDOW: So maybe transactionally ....
Yes, she actually says things like this --
... what's going on in the campaign trail doesn't mean anything in terms of big-scale electoral politics yet. But it means something in terms of the popularity of liberal ideas and enthusiasm for an unapologetically, out-loud liberal message. And so maybe the Beltway won't talk about it. But if you are a liberal, this feels good, right? And if you know some liberals, this is why they've been in a good mood.
For those at home not keeping count, that's eight references to Sanders as "liberal" and to "liberal ideas" and "liberals" in Maddow's audience buoyed by the Sanders' surge -- all in just under a minute. Even for the aspiring Maoists at MSNBC, this may well qualify as a record.
The love that dare not speak its name, and from cable's first openly gay anchor, no less -- Maddow for Sanders' socialism. She prefers instead to label him with the less alarming "liberal," seeing how he's gaining momentum and many Americans are becoming familiar with Sanders for the first time. When better to engage in aggressive branding?
It was clearly too much to expect Maddow to point out a major reason why Sanders is drawing much bigger crowds than Clinton -- the stark contrast between his unscripted authenticity and her farcical attempts to appear genuine.
