The Bernie meme lives on — in snowman form

The now-famous picture of Bernie Sanders at the 2021 inauguration. Image by Getty

By Irene Katz Connelly February 4, 2021

If you thought Bernie looked cold on Inauguration Day, wait until you see the snowmen.

After a nor’easter swept through large parts of the U.S. on Monday, many people built snowmen shaped like the Vermont senator, whose Burton parka and recycled mittens, aside from their other merits, were the inaugural outfit most easily rendered in the medium of frozen water.

In Brooklyn, which saw over a foot of snowfall this week, one man built an admirably accurate Sanders sculpture, complete with folding chair, manila envelope and mask.

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In Washington, D.C., a somewhat more scraggly Bernie popped up on a public bench, apparently taking a nap.

In fact, the Northeast is late to the Sanders snowman party. In snowier parts of the country, the senator’s image popped up in parks and yards just days after the inauguration.

Two kids in Utah created a colorful, masked Bernie snowman in their front yard. A teenager in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin created a cross-legged version in just an hour and a half. In Stevens Point, Wisconsin, local sculptor Jef Schobert, who displays custom snow sculptures outside his home every year, perched the senator on an ice throne. The senator even appeared outside several homes in the UK.

Sanders hasn’t commented publicly on the spate of snowmen — probably because he and his legendary parka are too busy grocery shopping.

Irene Katz Connelly is a staff writer at the Forward. You can contact her at connelly@forward.com. Follow her on Twitter at @katz_conn.

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