The Real Reason Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump are so Popular

Reggie Fullwood

I hate to lump a good guy like Sen. Bernie Sanders in with The Donald, but for the sake of this article I will make an exception because it’s hard to separate their impact on the Presidential election.

Both candidates are extreme in many ways. For example, Hilary Clinton says that she wants to make college for affordable for Americans. Hell, Sanders says that he wants to make college free for all Americans.

Senator Ted Cruz says we should carefully monitor and detain Muslims coming into the United States, then Donald Trumps comes out with brilliant idea that we should completely ban Muslims from entering the country.

These are just two minor examples of how each candidate’spolicy views go far beyond what’s normally expectable by each party. Of course, a lot of the campaigning and platform positions taken during primary season is done to appeal to the hard-core voters that cast ballots during caucuses.

However, both Trump and Sanders have taken positions that are almost impossible to back away from. You can’t win the Republican nomination and say well, I am rethinking my position on immigration – we shouldn’t build a wall and stop Muslims from coming in. It just will not work – you lose too much credibility.

But let’s get to the core of the topic. Both Sanders and Trump appeal to the anti-establishment movement in this country. It’s basically a “rage against the machine.”
And let me give this disclaimer – this sentiment has very little to do with President Obama, and more to do with D.C. politics as a whole. People are fed up with the fact that very little gets done and that both parties share the blame.

So we talked about the anti-establishment movement, so now is the time to put Bernie on the shelf and focus on The Donald for a moment. Trump’s supporters are also frustrated white men that want to “take our country back.”

Which is hilarious to me. Every time I see one of those bumper stickers, my racist radar goes up. Take our country back from who? Are we talking about the black president, minorities in general, women, or even aliens?

Take the Oregon occupiers for a moment. Some number ofwhite men with military grade assault weapons took over a federal building under some misguided notion that they were protecting the constitution. Ummmm….. I obliviously missed something. I am certainly not a frustrated white man, but how does occupying a federal building “protect the constitution?”

Here is the worst part – you take over a building and immediately send police a list of the supplies that you will need, as if it’s a government sponsored camping trip.
The stupid list had over 50 items on it. How does one forcefully take over anything and then expect to be pampered and well fed during your occupancy? I am so confused. As the young folks say – that’s “cray cray!”

But back to Trump – these are the type of people that Trump has attracted with his racists views and ignorance.

Trump was even endorsed by super conservative Rev. Jerry Falwell, Jr. last week. Unbelievable! Even the religious right has lost their minds.

Polls say that Trump maybe gaining support with Republican evangelicals – I guess he started going to church recently and changed his position on abortion. Is that all it takes? But some Christian Conservatives totally disagree with Falwell’s endorsement.

Some feel that Falwell is playing politics and not focusing on what’s important – Christian values. Besides, doesn’t Trump fail one of the most basic Christian tests— humility and unselfishness? I read a funny quote on someone’s online blog. Then referring to the Falwell endorse, the writer said, “I think we know WWJD – not endorse Donald Trump.”

This is a guy that said that John McCain wasn’t a hero. He said how can you be a hero if you get captured by the enemy? In the normal world, supporters would have immediately lost all respect for their candidate. You just don’t degrade someone who fought for this country and was a prison of war. That’s just foul and not right, but guess what? Those comments didn’t hurt Trump at all.

We are truly in Bizarro World. Since when can a politician get away with being racist, arrogant, pompous, and just down right mean?
Sanders is almost the anti-Trump. He is a good guy with great ideas, but he may be too liberal to win a general election. So while Bernie “Feel the Bern” continues to appeal to liberals and anti-establishment voters, is he electable? Probably not.

This may be the strangest political season ever in the United States. As Albert Einstein once said, “Politics is more difficult than psychics.”

Signing off from Tallahassee,
Reggie Fullwood

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