Bernie Sanders’ Lucky 27
by Daryl Parsons
(Feb. 29, 2016 14:45 ET) — Not sure if anyone has noticed, but the magic number “27” has made its way into Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign, and thus into American history. It started off as a statistical number read off during campaign rallies to illustrate how Sanders’ campaign took donations from regular working class people in America averaging a humble “$27 Bucks.” It is now a stable number during his campaign rallies.
The Luck 27 doesn’t only appear in crusty book-keeping accountings of donations. It has appeared in other ways as well. For instance, when Sanders mentions how long he and his wife have been married. The answer, 27-years. Any cosmic correlation going on here?
The symbolism peppered throughout the Sanders campaign pops up in other ways.
Another numerical coincidence was during the very first primary election in Iowa when Sanders lost to Hillary Clinton within 1% of her 49.9 to 49.6 victory. There, the magic number was 1%.
Historically, the 1% designation has been used to refer to how “99%” of the population in American have been subject to the economic and political system imbalance. That is, the majority of the wealth is focused in the top 1% of the population. This leaves the rest of the population, or 99%, having to fend for themselves while fighting over the scraps of society that are left to scrap over.
The 99%/1% symbolism made its debut during Sanders’ first campaign election results in Iowa where he lost within 1%. Quite symbolic given that Sanders’ issue based campaign has advocated against the economic and social inequality existing in America, or for 99% of the population.
His opponent Hillary Clinton, in contrast, won the Iowa election within the 1% range. That is, she benefits from only a %1 margin, the margin which the wealthy class of citizens in American exist over the rest of the population. Clinton has been viewed, and given how she has taken Wall Street money for her campaign, as an establishment candidate beholden to Wall Street money.
It will be interesting to see what other magic numbers appear for Sanders throughout the rest of his campaign.
For now, it looks like the Lucky 27 number will be sticking around for a while.
Already, ActBlue, the Sanders’ campaign online donation service provider, has included a special $27 button in the optional amounts to click-on when making a donation on the site. This makes it easier and fun for people to join the symbolic $27 donation revolution.
One thing is also certain. The ability of Sanders to summon his Lucky 27 donors has been unflinching.
Just this month for February 2016, Sanders campaign reported having received $36 Million in donations.
Contributing to this amount is the surge of donations Sanders received after his win in New Hampshire which crippled ActBlue’s website to a slow crawl. Nonetheless, the Sanders campaign reported receiving $5 Million within 24-hours after his New Hampshire win.
The Lucky 27 is also a routine ad-lib by Sanders supporters during rallies. During the campaign, Sanders would engage his supporters with the question, , “. . and do you know what the average donation was?” The supporters then in cadence sound-off with, “Twenty-seven dollars!”
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Bernie Sanders Collects $36 Million in February as Fund-Raising Successes Continue
by By Nicholas Confessore, The New York Times
(Feb. 29, 2016 10:11 AM ET) — Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont raised more than $36 million in February and was hoping to hit the $40 million mark by the end of the day on Monday, his campaign announced.
