It's not often a political meme will completely and utterly flip alignments, but such is the case with Dark Brandon, a meme series with anti-Joe Biden roots that has now become part of his 2024 campaign for presidential reelection following his announcement yesterday.
On Tuesday, the Biden campaign released a video featuring the current President as he declared his intent to run once again next year, subsequently launching its official website where supporters can purchase several items with the "Dark Brandon" meme on it, including a shirt and a coffee mug.
If you're unaware, Dark Brandon started as a mix of the Let's Go Brandon and Dark MAGA memes, both of which originated in conservative circles as a means to criticize Biden and praise his political opponent, Donald Trump.
In 2021, Chinese artist Yang Quan then posted images of Biden looking like a warlord with villainous glowing eyes, but the images had the unintended effect of making Biden seem cool to many, particularly to more left-leaning Democrats who weren't enthused about the President up to that point.
From there, multiple instances where Biden seemed tough were co-opted into the "Dark Brandon" lore, and soon, even prominent Democratic politicians were posting Dark Brandon in appreciation of the President.
Journalists, including Vox's Aja Romano, are on record saying they believe the embrace of Dark Brandon by the Biden campaign could serve as a way to energize the online base ahead of 2024.
This could be useful for Biden, who ahead of the 2020 election enjoyed little enthusiastic support online, as many Democrats on the internet were famously more excited for some of the other potential Democratic nominees, particularly Bernie Sanders.
Display Comments