Stop saying that Bernie "yells", or I'm going to yell.

I feel so bad for Bernie, having a sore throat last night going into what was arguably the most important Democratic 2020 presidential candidates debate so far, as it was the first debate with all the major candidates on one stage, and also it was on regular, broadcast television. I know most of us have cable in 2019, but believe it or not, some people do not. This was the first televised debate of the 2020 Presidential campaign for all those people—their first chance to see the candidates and hear them argue for their platforms and vision for America. What a night for Bernie, the candidate with THE platform and vision for America, to lose his voice! But, bless him, bless him, bless him, he soldiered through it admirably.

Still, from the git-go, when I heard his voice, I thought, and worried, and still worry: uh oh, NO, not tonight! What is wrong with his voice? And will people understand that isn’t his regular voice? He literally wasn’t in full voice last night—yet he still, to use a baseball pitching term, had his “good stuff” in terms of his arguments, his substance. He has it all over the other candidates on that and always has. He set the table for the Democratic candidates’ platforms in 2020 and they just all walked to the table and sat down, eating from the idea and vision food he laid out for them.

Yet his voice was hoarse and somehow the camera angle and lighting also made his eyes seem a tad darty and wild, so all in all, I worry that the American people, who, honestly, are kind of a superficial lot in terms of what they go for in a Presidential candidate (and I say “they”, as I myself, though also an American, am the opposite: I read the small print on the ingredients label, and ignore the shiny packaging and branding on front), may have judged him harshly somehow based on his voice last night.

That said, though I’m at work and busy and thus haven’t had time to read much post-debate news, opinion, spin and chatter this morning, it seems that Bernie’s sore/hoarse throat is a topic and is, correctly, being characterized as such: a sore or hoarse throat. So, thank goodness, people get it. They understand it was a sore throat and not his regular voice!

That’s the good news, but the bad is, in the little bit I’ve had time to read thus far, people are joking, yet not joking, that it is because of all the “yelling” he does. I swear, if I have to hear one more person say that Bernie “yells”, I’m going to lose my rhymes-with-pit. He actually does NOT often even raise his voice. Biden, for example, has a much more wound-up debate style, and Warren—fuggedaboutit, she is amped up and wired for sound, baby. And what about Castro last night, he practically had to be restrained. Yet people constantly misinterpret Bernie as, quote, “yelling”.

I think people think anyone with a thick New York accent is “yelling”. I think people think anyone Jewish is “yelling”. It’s like, people who only eat Wonderbread, if they taste rye, they probably think it is a very strong bread. If they only eat vanilla ice cream, and they get a taste of mint chip or coffee, they think, wuuuu, that’s some strong stuff!

Interestingly, sociologically, politically and psychologically, I don’t think it is that Bernie yells a lot (because he does not). I think it is that he is talking about real change, and that scares people. That jars people. So they translate that in their brains to “he’s yelling—why is he yelling?”

Bernie doesn’t yell. Not very often anyway. I submit to you that he doesn’t “yell” as often as many of the other candidates up on that podium last night tend to. He normally speaks clearly, thoughtfully, never condescendingly, always like that favorite teacher who assumes you are intelligent enough to hear the whole, complex, nuanced, substantive, detailed truth and keep up. Yes, he’s passionate. Passion isn’t the same as “yelling”. Even that time, in the prior debate, when another candidate was saying something about how he couldn’t guarantee such-and-such would happen or wouldn’t happen under his particular (single payer, woot!) “Medicare for All” plan, and Bernie said, yes I can, “I wrote the damn bill!”, he didn’t yell. He said that very passionately but he wasn’t yelling.

I feel like this “Bernie yells” false narrative is strikingly similar to when Howard Dean was taken down for literally NOTHING when he emitted a slight little exuberant “Yeah!” at a high point of campaigning. That ended his run, basically. It was nothing, and certainly nothing bad. It is amazing how something that is literally nothing can take a candidate down, so I’m here to nip this “Bernie yells” nonsense in the bud. Just stop it. Or I’m going to yell at you. I’d be scared of THAT if I were you. Because I can unleash some fire and fury when I want to, kids. So lay off all the false narratives about Bernie and stick to substance. Which, by the way, he will wipe the floor with anyone who tries to mischaracterize him on. And they know it. So they are going with the “yelling”. That’s all they have. And it’s not even real.