This year, instead of draining my bank account on Coachella tickets and sparkly hair extensions, I ended up somewhere way better, and way more free: Berniechella, where I got a front-row seat to the intersection of politics and the creator economy.
Hosted in the heart of downtown LA, the political rally wasn’t technically a music festival, but there was a stage, a crowd, and a pulse vibrating through the city that felt more like a concert than a protest.
As part of their nationwide “Organize for America” tour, Senator Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez weren’t just energizing voters, they were commanding an audience. By the fourth hour, 36,000 people had gathered. “There are people half a mile away!” Bernie shouted, calling it “the largest rally we have ever had.”
I watched it unfold from an elevated platform reserved for creators and new media journalists. Legacy outlets were confined to a separate, further, and less intimate zone. That separation wasn’t just physically real; it also felt symbolic. The establishment wasn’t just far from the action; it was entirely out of touch with it.
It’s rare at political events to see emerging media have better seats than the traditional outlets that tend to look down on them. And it makes sense: Bernie’s base probably isn’t getting their news from cable news. They’re watching TikTok, live streams, and memes.
What was happening on stage wasn’t just politics. It was also content, not in a cynical, overly-produced way, but in the sense that it was designed to resonate online as much as it did in person. Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez aren’t just politicians. They’re creators. They have followers, they have cultural capital, and more than that, they have credibility.
They’re influential not because of fancy lighting or sophisticated edits, but because they sound like they mean it, and the crowd believes them. In an attention economy, authenticity is everything.
When I spoke to Sanders himself, I asked the senator if he identified as a manfluencer. He didn’t disagree.
“Whatever that means, I’ll take it,” he shrugged, the voice of a man who’s been meme’d into infinity. I wanted to ask about the mittens, and whether they’d be back if we hit a recession this winter, but I only had time for one question, and I had to make it count.
So I asked him something more serious: what does he say to young men being radicalized by right-wing influencers?
His answer was pure Bernie, cutting through the noise with clarity and conviction. He didn’t just reject Trump’s idea of strength; he flipped it on its head.
“Men should not fall under this thing of ‘Oh, Trump is powerful,’” he said. “If Trump is powerful and strong, tell him to take on the insurance companies and lower the cost of healthcare. Tell him to take on the drug companies and the fossil fuel industries.”
He ended with a message that seemed to be resonating with voters worried about the future, given the size of the movement he and Ocasio-Cortez have built. “I think the strength that we need is to create an economy that works for all people. Let’s build an America that works for everyone.”
Time will tell if he converts legions of young men to change sides. But if the revolution is livestreamed, there’s a good chance he will bring many of these men into the fold.
– Liz Plank, Passionfruit Contributor
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