This is a reasonable example of how the appeal of Trump is explained to UK audiences, and how the dichotomy between Trump and Sanders is explained. What do you think - it is fair?
You’re making us watch a video to participate? Can’t you give a synopsis?
No, I’m not making you. The points are various, illustrated and interview based. And generally entertaining.
The battleground is jobs - keeping and returning ‘American jobs’ and who you happen to think is the least of the two evils (Sanders or trump) in that regard. It’s mostly ‘working class’ jobs as well, manufacturing, etc. Trade deals are evil.
Not much else matters but if you throw something in the mix about secure borders or corporate greed it can’t hurt.
Interesting to hear working class Americans express their concerns and fears.
Gah I can’t even watch Trump any more. My bullshit meter has been pegged enough.
But I can answer based on your synopsis. There’s not even a question in my mind; Sanders has the strength of his convictions and says what he means. Trump…doesn’t. On either count.
If by some miracle Bernie were to be elected, I’d at least have some hope for the future of the country. If it were Trump, my only hope would be that his administration would only last four years (assuming that he wasn’t impeached or hadn’t already run the country into the ground by then).
P.S. I doubt you’ll get many Trumpist answers, owing to the fact that there are very few on the board, mostly only devil’s advocates paying lip service.
Yep, I phrased the OP badly. Thanks for replying.
I’m not a Trump supporter but I did watch the video. Basically, Trump and Sanders are both using opposition to free trade as a centerpiece of their plans to keep jobs in America. The video is not wrong. Seems fair to me.
I agree with what Johnny Ace said above – I would far, far rather have President Sanders than President Trump. A Sanders administration would make essentially no progress toward much of anything, but at least we wouldn’t go backward. A Trump administration could be a total disaster.
That being said–there are a lot of similarities between the two campaigns in terms of rhetoric and reason-for-being.
Both argue that manufacturing jobs which have been lost are somehow going to come back, if we only do the right thing on trade.
Both are at heart populists who assure supporters that “someone else” is responsible for their current problems–Wall Street and the 1% in the case of Sanders, China and immigration in the case of Trump (“We’re going to make college free and we’re going to make Wall Street pay for it” compared to “We’re going to build a wall and we’re going to make Mexico pay for it”).
Both appeal, or say they appeal, to a lot of disaffected folks who don’t usually vote.
Neither seems able to broaden his appeal much beyond white Americans (though for very different reasons); neither is very good at seeing or acknowledging nuance; neither has much use for the “establishment.”
Are there differences? Of course. Plenty. As I said, I’d much rather President Sanders than President Trump. But the campaigns do have a lot in common.