A year ago, six months ago, even three months ago the notion would have seemed utterly preposterous, but now we have to face up to the real possibility that the Dems will nominate Sanders for POTUS and the Pubs will nominate Trump. Seriously.
What would the debates between them be like? Trump is such an outsider that he does not even speak the same language as the professional pols. Sanders certainly does, but his political world-view is so alien from the Dem Establishment’s that this will be the first time the viewers have heard from it in such a setting. And each candidate’s world-view is so alien to the other’s that it will be like we have a Martian on one side arguing from an assumed paradigm of Blue and Orange Morality and a Venusian on the other side arguing from Lettuce and Cabbage Morality. Will they just talk past each other? Will either be able to engage meaningfully with anything the other says?
Trump will mock Sanders for his age, though with only five years between them, that won’t be reasonable. Trump will make veiled allusions to Sanders being Jewish as if that is something shameful, which again won’t be reasonable. Trump will refer repeatedly to ‘honeymooning in the USSR’ and Socialism: unreasonable.
Trump may also claim that Sanders has run nothing (except the city of Burlington, Vermont, which Trump will make clear is about the same thing as ‘nothing’). Trump will claim that he, by virtue of his running his own business (into the ground several times, but who’d counting?) is better fitted to run the USA. That will be a little less unreasonable, though unlikely to be true.
Sanders will mostly avoid saying anything about Trump, and will try to stick to his issues and what he’d like to change.
Trump will continue to use short words and short sentences so the short-minded supporters continue to support Trump. Exs - “Congress is stupid. Bernie’s ideas are stupid ideas from a stupid old man. Breaking up banks is a stupid idea.”
He won’t offer any reason WHY all these ideas are stupid because he doesn’t have to. People cheer when he does this all the time.
Actually I found the initial “Blue vs Orange” phrase intriguing, because I thought it was a reference to the stages of moral development in the psychological model of Spiral Dynamics. There Blue represents the earlier Mythic stage of ethnocentric and authoritative morals (usually religious) and Orange represents the next step of world centric and rational morality.
I was going to argue that Bernie is quite obviously coming from a Green developmental level, being pluralistic, ecological and against greed or dogma.
I’d also say that Trump is a weird creature bringing a mix of both Blue authoritarianism, Orange capitalism and channeling the lower levels of the psyche known as Red, with his appeals to fear and anger combined with his gorilla like shows of dominance.
First of all, don’t think that Sanders isn’t going to go on the offensive. He’s not doing so against Clinton, but that’s because he’s smart enough to see that Clinton and him are basically allies. But that’s not true of Trump, and he’s already going on the offensive against him. The only difference in a debate would be greater publicity.
In a debate, both of them would get in dings that their own bases will appreciate. But Sanders will also get in some dings that will be appreciated by those in neither base, and even some that Trump’s own supporters will appreciate, like potty humor. He’s capable of operating on Trump’s level. Trump, however, is incapable of operating on Sanders’ level.
I would love to see them campaign against each other for the entertainment value. It’s also hilarious that if they were to be the nominees Muslims would have the choice of voting for Trump or a Jew. I would even be rooting for it to happen if it wasn’t for the small factor that one of these two demagogues would end up as our president as a result.
Donald will mention Bernie’s incontinence. Bernie will get his hands tangled gesturing in response, soak the stage, and SNL will be awesome for the next 3 weeks.
[shrug] “Demagogue” is no disqualifying factor in and of itself. Demagoguery is often dishonest and cynical and anti-intellectual, but it is not essentially a dishonest or cynical or anti-intellectual thing, and in Sanders’ case, at least, we can be sure it ain’t. People call him a lot of things, but never “dishonest” or “insincere” or “stupid.”
No, we can’t be sure. He panders to ignorance and stupidity as much or more than any politician around. His supporters think of themselves as more sophisticated than their critics, sure, but that’s just what their imagination poops out after digesting his catch phrases.
Most of his entire platform is an example to one degree or another.
Examples include his opposition to GMO technology, and his position which advocates simultaneously phasing out nuclear energy, and reducing carbon emissions, which is just ludicrous. Both of these positions pander to ignorance based fears.
I can’t find anything in his platform about nuclear energy or GMO. What he does say under “Combating Climate Change to Save the Planet” makes a lot of sense, as does what he says under “Improving the Rural Economy.”
And the intro is a disgusting diatribe vilifying energy industries. It sounds like it’s straight out of the mouth of a sixteen year old gutter punk who just got back from a Rainbow Gathering. Next he will tell you how the FBI was listening in on their drum circle from the satellites because Occupy. Whatever energy we have in the future, it will be produced by industry, not those who stand on the sidelines ranting about industry.
