With #DemExit now once again being thrust about all over social media and certain sites, I think [View all]
looking at its true history could prove to be somewhat fruitful. I was asked by The Magistrate to turn a reply to another thread into an OP, and well, here it is.....
I am NOT seeking to re-litigate 2016 at all. Hell, I was 18 years old when that campaign first started in 2015, and had never even heard of DU at that point. I am merely showing the origin of the meme because it is now, once again, coming to the fore and is VERY relevant for the 2020 campaign, especially in regards to the general election.
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#DemExit has been around as a true mass-traction meme since July 2016.
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/demexit
About
#DemExit is a social media campaign and political movement encouraging Bernie Sanders supporters to leave the Democratic Party in protest of Hillary Clinton's nomination in the 2016 United States presidential election.
Origin
On July 12th, 2016, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders formally endorsed rival Hillary Clinton for president against Republican candidate Donald Trump in the upcoming general election. That day, political news blogger Harlan Hill published an article titled "The Death of a Revolution and #DemExit," noting that millions of Democrats would be considering leaving the political party to protest Clinton's candidacy.
Spread
The same day, the /r/DemExit subreddit was launched for discussions about the political movement. On July 22nd, 2016, Wikileaks published a collection of nearly 20,000 e-mails exchanged among key staff members within the Democratic National Committee (DNC), the governing body of the United States Democratic Party, as well as unofficial correspondences with members of the press, between January 2015 and May 2016. In the emails, high ranking members of the DNC discuss various tactics to undermine the campaign of Bernie Sanders in order to secure Hillary Clinton’s victory in the primaries. On July 24th, Redditor staomeel submitted a post titled "If the DNC nominates Hillary Clinton for President. I can no longer support Democrats #DemExit," to /r/SandersForPresident. The following day, Sanders was booed by supporters after calling for them to support Hillary Clinton in the upcoming general election (shown below).
Also on July 25th, Fox News broadcast a news segment about the the DNC protests, featuring an interview with an anti-Hillary protester who announced that 13 million people would be leaving the Democratic Party on Thursday in light of the DNC email leak (shown below). Later that day, a post about the planned #DemExit event was submitted to the /rSandersForPresident subreddit, where it accumulated upwards of 4,600 votes (91% upvoted) and 620 comments over then next four days. On July 26th, Redditor LuddieStreak submitted a post encouraging viewers to leave the Democratic Party titled "#DemExit" to the /r/SandersForPresident subreddit, where it received more than 2,500 votes (93% upvoted) and 400 comments in 72 hours. The same day, 2016 Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein posted a tweet encouraging people to leave the "neoliberal Democratic Party" with the "#DemExit" hashtag (shown below). Meanwhile, hundreds of Sanders delegates staged a walkout en masse following the roll call vote to nominate Hillary Clinton for president at the Democratic National Convention (shown below). On July 29th, Salon published a listicle titled "10 Reasons Why #DemExit Is Serious," which subsequently reached the front page of /r/politics.
snip (referenced links can be found at the top link above)
my thoughts
It was all a VERY coordinated operation IMHO.
I think it was aided by Russian media, networks, and deeply embedded shills and trolls (and their associated bot farms) seeking to sow division within our Party. It was also amplified from its genesis by the Trump campaign and other Republican forces and agents. In fact as you will see below, they likely started the entire thing or at least came in on the ground floor.
Jill Stein and Wikileaks were huge players in both its spread and also as coordinated sources of extreme discontent, which was then amplified and turned into a truly divisive force.
Harlan Hill, the erstwhile pro-Sanders blogger (and ex Democratic Party operative who also worked in the UK and the EU) who kicked it all off (see above, unfortunately the original article is gone and even the Internet Archive is scrubbed, if someone with greater IT skills that I posses could find it, that would so aid in this attempt to show the history in full) had a VERY curious turn in his career right before this all went down......
look who he went to work for in June/July 2016 or so:
https://harlanhill.com/
AND
much more recently:
Real News Insights with Harlan Hill and Lara Trump
Donald J Trump <<< on the official Trump YouTube channel
298K subscribers
Since the first day I took office, Democrats have been trying to impeach. This is a COUP!
snip
finally:
Here is a Fox News interview RIGHT BEFORE Hill started the #DemExit meme:
It is classic non-linear warfare/reflexive control tactics.
Create a fog of war, destroy valid measurements and norms, zig when all else in a normal predictive system says you will ZAG. A specialty of reflexive control is to use TRUSTED sources and leaders to sheepdog the intended group through the paradigmatic change, especially when that change involves a drastic re-targeting.
Non-Linear Warfare and Reflexive Control - NATO Defense College
http://www.ndc.nato.int/news/news.php?icode=877
What is Hybrid Warfare?
https://globalsecurityreview.com/hybrid-and-non-linear-warfare-systematically-erases-the-divide-between-war-peace/
Redefining Hybrid Warfare: Russia’s Nonlinear War against the West
http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1538&context=jss
Putin’s Way of War
The ‘War’ in Russia’s ‘Hybrid Warfare’
https://www.academia.edu/24314231/Putins_Way_of_War
The Hidden Author of Putinism
How Vladislav Surkov invented the new Russia
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/11/hidden-author-putinism-russia-vladislav-surkov/382489/
“I am the author, or one of the authors, of the new Russian system,” Vladislav Surkov told us by way of introduction. On this spring day in 2013, he was wearing a white shirt and a leather jacket that was part Joy Division and part 1930s commissar. “My portfolio at the Kremlin and in government has included ideology, media, political parties, religion, modernization, innovation, foreign relations, and ...”—here he pauses and smiles—“modern art.” He offers to not make a speech, instead welcoming the Ph.D. students, professors, journalists, and politicians gathered in an auditorium at the London School of Economics to pose questions and have an open discussion. After the first question, he talks for almost 45 minutes, leaving hardly any time for questions after all. It’s his political system in miniature: democratic rhetoric and undemocratic intent.
If I were to vote in a presidentialprimary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
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