Trump and Sanders

Trump supporters have a grievance and they think Trump may be the solution.   They are angry and resentful over changes in America that are displacing them. The traditional social order of white, male, Christian, heterosexual primacy is eroding.  They have become one group of many, and less special, and political correctness requires them to suck it up and give overt respect to the people stepping into their space.   The threat to this come from below.

   ***from foreign workers in low-wage countries

   ***from immigrants competing in the work force

   ***from poor people getting public benefits, including eduction and health care

   ***from different cultures and languages which seek equal status and respect,

       thus eroding the special place of traditional social hierarchy

   ***from foreign countries who no longer give America "respect" as the sole economic

       and military hegemonic power

Bad immigrants, low-wage workers, Mexico, Muslims

The threats come from below, either from the weak or from upstarts daring to threaten the mighty.   Trump punches down.   Trump endlessly picks on Jeb Bush, the weakling, the loser.   He disses Carly, the ugly CEO who failed twice.  Rubio is a "little boy" who "sweats a lot."  When Cruz moved from acolyte to rival (i.e. became an upstart) Trump smashed him, the interloper Canadian everyone hates.

Pundits have thought they were criticizing Trump for being a bully, which they think is beneath him.   They miss the point.   Trump punching down is his brand.  It doesn't diminish him.  It confirms his role.   He protects himself--and will protect America--from threats.  You spray for cockroaches and ants; it isn't wrong; it's common sense!

Trump punches down.

Bush: loser cockroach

Meanwhile, Sanders supporters have a grievance and they think Sanders may be the solution.   I met Sanders supporters at rallies, primarily college kids from Harvard and MIT and other fancy schools around New Hampshire, students who skipped classes to drive to see the man himself.   (In 1968 my roommate skipped classes and shaved his beard to be "clean for Gene", i.e. Eugene McCarthy.  I didn't.  I stayed at school, did my papers and read my books.  I regret the choice.  But I am making up for it now.)   

Plus, I participate in a long running e-mail conversation with my fellow college alums, a great many of whom support Sanders.  And at home I live and converse within a circle of liberal, environmentalist, college educated, professional people, lots of Democrats, and they generally like Sanders.

What is their grievance and what is the solution?   They are angry about the corrupting influence of big money throughout our political system.   They don't like Super PACS, they don't like tax breaks for big companies and the very wealthy, they don't like the carried-interest tax loophole, they don't like financial and pharmaceutical companies paying big money to former legislators to give speeches, they don't like K Street, they don't like financial executives escaping prosecution, they don't like lobbyists writing legislation.  They think the system is rigged for the benefit of the powerful against the interests of everyone below.  

They resent the power of the one percent at the top, and Sanders is the solution because Sanders is uncompromised by money and Sanders punches up.

Jeremiad: the corrupting influence of money

(From their point of view Hillary is a weak and unsatisfactory alternative to Sanders.  Sure, she is better than Trump or Cruz or Rubio or whomever, but Hillary isn't at war with the one percent.  She and Bill are well inside it and they are very comfortable--way too comfortable--with the rich and powerful.  That's where they gave speeches for money and that's where the Clinton Foundation gets its dough.)

My liberal friends tell me that Trump voters will like Sanders and that Sanders has great crossover appeal.   I think not.   

The primary grievance for each set of supporters comes from opposite directions.   Trump is no enemy of the one percent.   They are winners.  He will appoint Carl Icahn to the Cabinet. Trump's tax plan doesn't punch up, except for the carried interest loophole, the bright shiny doomed sacrificial lamb that everyone knows is on notice.  Trump's tax plan cuts taxes on the wealthiest (as does the tax plan of every other Republican.)  

Trump punches down, and Sanders punches up.  Very different.