It's becoming clearer and clearer. Trumps strongest supporters are men 50-64 with a high school education or less-- blue collar workers who are feeling screwed by the system.
A Wall Street Journal article describing Trump's supporters reports,
"The survey's most striking finding is the loss of optimism among white working-class voters with Republican leanings: 62% believe that the country has changed for the worse since the 1950s, and only 42% believe that America's best days lie ahead. Sixty-eight percent believe that hard work and determination are no guarantee of success for most people. In this respect, white working-class voters are in harmony with white college-educated voters (58%) and the electorate as a whole (64%). The long stagnation of wages and household incomes has eroded belief in the American dream."
Trump supporters are not tea-partiers-- only about 30% of them are.
These are people who have wised up that the system is betraying them. That puts them in the same thinking place as many of the supporters of Bernie Sanders. They are anti-immigrant because they feel that immigrants are taking away jobs from American workers.
The WSJ article observes,
"Since the late 1960s, white working-class voters have deserted the Democratic Party in droves and now form a key component of the Republican base. For most of this period, the Republican establishment has held these voters with social conservatism and a tough-sounding foreign policy. But now working-class voters are in full revolt against policies--trade treaties, immigration reform and crony capitalism, among others--that they see as inimical to their interests. "
The White men who repudiated the Democrats have now realized that neither party is on their side. The Donald offers them a way to stay conservative while allowing them to repudiate politics as usual and the gang of GOP presidential wannabes who are cookie-cutter versions of what they've been offered all their lives--- neocons and neoliberals who have screwed them reliably.
Bernie Sanders is offering a similar option on the left-- to people who are sick and tired of the regular neoliberal sellouts the Democratic party has served up for over 20 years.
I think it's possible Bernie Sanders could pick up a good chunk of the people who are supporting Trump. If Trump wins the primary, Bernie's positions could make the decision a tough one for possible Trump supporters. But Hillary's history, her donors and positions will drive the people angry about their financial situation and the decline of the middle class to Trump.
Trump is resonating with justifiably angry blue collar workers. With the mainstream media giving Trump 23 times the coverage Sanders is getting, it's no surprise that Trumps message is getting out more effectively.
I've written before about how the Democratic party leadership is anything but democratic, here: DNC Revealed as Un-democratic, Top-Down Authoritarian Election Rigging Fiefdom Run By Hillary Insiders.
Perhaps Bernie needs to take a lesson from Trump. Perhaps he should be showing more independence from the Democratic party, calling out the DINOs who sell out to corporations, who support TPP, who block GMO food labeling and unending war.
Meanwhile, just as the Democrats are doing all they can to prevent Bernie from winning the nomination, the GOP is doing all it can to block Trump from achieving victory. If the GOP succeeds and one of their standard hacks wins-- any of them-- then there will be an energized Trump base that just might choose Bernie over some corporate hack, like Cruz or Rubio. Bernie has a history, in Vermont, of picking up 20% or more of the Republican votes.
If Hillary wins, I wouldn't be surprised if some Bernie Sanders supporters shifted to Trump. And she will lose many of the youth voters who Sanders would bring out. I think, if the Democrats rig the primaries, as they've been doing, so Hillary wins, there's a good chance the angry middle class voter will come out in droves to support their one voice-- Trump.
The French just voted and there was a massive turnout, which basically told the far right party to go F themselves. That's a positive sign. It could happen in the US, especially if, on the left, the people have a populist candidate, like Sanders.
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