Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Why So Many Americans find Trump and Sanders Appealing
Townhall.com ^ | February 9, 2016 | Peter Morici

Posted on 02/09/2016 10:11:23 AM PST by Kaslin

America is witnessing a political Supernova--voter flirtation with Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders--because both political parties have failed ordinary folks.

To listen to the Obama administration and its apologists in the media, Americans are witnessing the second age of Pericles. The economy has added jobs for 64 straight months, unemployment at 4.9 percent is approaching pre-recession lows, and nominal wages are rising again.

Prairie muffins!

During Ronald Reagan's presidency, jobs growth was twice the pace President Obama has accomplished, and the official unemployment rate is so low because 7 million American men ages 25 to 54 have quit looking for work altogether and don't get counted.

No surprise, family incomes, after accounting for inflation, are down $1650 on Obama's watch, and the averages hardly tell the whole story.

Bankers and corporate elites are doing great--look at what Marissa Mayer pays herself to run Yahoo into the ground--but most young people are taking a terrible beating--in no small measure for what the economy and Washington has done to them.

At Obama's behest, most have taken out huge debt to obtain college degrees that leave psychology majors serving coffee at Starbucks, philosophy majors dispensing wisdom from the front seats of cabs, and business majors demonstrating the features of an iPhone at Verizon stores.

You simply don't need to spend four years in my classroom to do those jobs. If you spend that much time with my liberal colleagues, you will leave college with a strong suspicion that things are so bad because the establishment--led by the Democratic and Republican Party elites--has stacked the deck against you.

Unable to find satisfying and adequately paying work, buy a home or afford a decent apartment and now forced to purchase expensive and often inadequate insurance on Affordable Care Act exchanges, it is no surprise that many young people--including young women--reject Hillary Clinton's clarion call to continue the Obama revolution. And they find Sanders' message to break up the big banks, scuttle the present health system in favor of a British-style national health service, and generally reorder America's economic system darn appealing.

After all when the devil you know is squeezing you poor, embracing the devil you don't know offers at least some prospect for relief.

The GOP establishment offers threadbare bromides--free trade, tax cuts and deregulation--that have been tried and failed.

The recently implemented South Korea free trade deal was supposed to deliver great opportunities for new employment through new exports but instead it has killed 130,000 American jobs. And does anyone really believe lower taxes will keep Ford from moving car production to Mexico, or that the banks can be trusted to keep financial markets safe and the broader economy from another Great Recession?

Enter Donald Trump--whose free floating populism is derided by establishment conservatives like the editors of the National Review.

Trump's message is simple--America is broke, Obama has changed the country for the worse and political correctness and statism have failed.

His prescriptions are sometimes outrageous and his rhetoric even worse, but his real appeal to the nation is he ran enterprises that made his employees and investors--read constituents--better off.

That is something neither Barack Obama nor George W. Bush can claim.

Americans are smarter than the political establishment gives them credit. Confronted with long deteriorating conditions, they do not easily accept that more of the same--read Hillary Clinton--or advocates of the status quo ex ante--the gaggle of GOP establishment candidates promising to resurrect the failed policies of his predecessor--is a smart move.

If nothing else, Sanders and Trump offer what has not been tried before and failed


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: berniesanders; donaldtrumps; jobsandeconomy
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-22 next last

1 posted on 02/09/2016 10:11:23 AM PST by Kaslin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Overwhelming Majority of Americans Believe that Both Parties Are Too Corrupt to Change Anything … “This, In Fact, Is A Revolution”

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2016/02/overwhelming-majority-americans-believe-parties-corrupt-change-anything-americans-want-revolution.html

Question is will it be an Electoral Revolution or the other kind?


2 posted on 02/09/2016 10:14:23 AM PST by MNJohnnie ( Tyranny, like Hell, is not easily conquered)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin
Americans are smarter than the political establishment gives them credit.

Ain't no one backing Bernie cause they're smart. LMAO.

3 posted on 02/09/2016 10:15:09 AM PST by Impy (They pull a knife, you pull a gun. That's the CHICAGO WAY, and that's how you beat the rats!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Mad as Hell?


4 posted on 02/09/2016 10:15:12 AM PST by TornadoAlley3 ( I'm Proud To Be An Okie From Muskogee)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Poorly written, and inaccurate in places.

” The GOP establishment offers threadbare bromides—free trade, tax cuts and deregulation—that have been tried and failed. “

These have worked everywhere in the world when applied.


5 posted on 02/09/2016 10:17:30 AM PST by stephenjohnbanker (My Batting Average( 1,000) since Nov 2014 (GOPe is that easy to read))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Impy
Ain't no one backing Bernie cause they're smart.

They're smart enough to know who's gonna dispense the most gravy

6 posted on 02/09/2016 10:18:01 AM PST by nascarnation (Indict Hillary, Huma, and Chelsea; Deport Obama)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Impy

Same for Trump. He’s the Kardashian candidate.


7 posted on 02/09/2016 10:18:05 AM PST by demshateGod (Trump: We will have to leave borders behind and go for global unity)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Impy

People who vote for Sanders are either....

stupid

brainwashed

lazy POS.


8 posted on 02/09/2016 10:18:51 AM PST by stephenjohnbanker (My Batting Average( 1,000) since Nov 2014 (GOPe is that easy to read))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

I can see the appeal in Trump, but the appeal of Sanders completely eludes me, maybe that’s because my parents taught me the value of actually earning what I get.


9 posted on 02/09/2016 10:21:48 AM PST by Mastador1 (I'll take a bad dog over a good politician any day!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

“Why So Many Americans find Trump and Sanders Appealing”

Because we, as a nation, are progressively losing our morals, intellect, and sanity.


10 posted on 02/09/2016 10:23:27 AM PST by ETL (Ted Cruz 2016!! -- For a better, safer America)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: All
 photo poed.jpg

Help FR Continue the Conservative Fight!
Your Monthly and Quarterly Donations
Help To Keep FR In The Battle !!


Sponsoring FReepers are contributing
$10 Each time a New Monthly Donor signs up!
Get more bang for your FR buck!
Click Here To Sign Up Now!


11 posted on 02/09/2016 10:23:48 AM PST by musicman (Until I see the REAL Long Form Vault BC, he's just "PRES__ENT" Obama = Without "ID")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Yep, they blurt out everything people are wanting to hear, but have NO clear ideas of how to do what they are talking about.

To Sanders...everything will be free.
To Trump...everything will be great.

Meaningless.


12 posted on 02/09/2016 10:35:34 AM PST by luvie (Cruz or Lose! "Where the vision is lost, the people perish"--Proverbs 29:18)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: LUV W

Correct


13 posted on 02/09/2016 10:39:37 AM PST by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him. He got them and now we have to pay the consequences)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Both Trump and Sanders point out the corruption of the government. I agree with both of them on it.

The main difference is that some of us understand the failed experiment of socialism and communism. Be nice to the young who don’t get it. Explain it to them and give them books. They didn’t live through the Soviet Union. I have to explain it to my kids. Yes, life in Berntopia SOUNDS GREAT. Here is why it doesn’t work, has never worked, and can never work.


14 posted on 02/09/2016 10:44:44 AM PST by Yaelle
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin
I don't know what the rest of the article says, but the first sentence is good...."because both political parties have failed ordinary folks."
15 posted on 02/09/2016 10:45:09 AM PST by DannyTN
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

They are both railing against their parties, but the reasons they are liked have nothing to with one another.

Trump is popular because he is willing to make enemies with the Left and is willing to take the necessary measures against the illegal and Muslim hordes invading our country; the GOP-e is not.

Sanders is popular because millenials are stupid, lazy, and love free handouts, but his opinions don’t really differ all that much from the Hitlerbeast’s.


16 posted on 02/09/2016 10:46:48 AM PST by Objective Scrutator (All liberals are criminals, and all criminals are liberals)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Poor article, poorly written and void of facts. Pure BS.


17 posted on 02/09/2016 11:01:24 AM PST by mulligan (I)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: mulligan

All I am saying is that you are entitled to your opinion, Professor mulligan.


18 posted on 02/09/2016 11:08:30 AM PST by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him. He got them and now we have to pay the consequences)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: stephenjohnbanker

I smell some jealousy


19 posted on 02/09/2016 11:09:23 AM PST by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him. He got them and now we have to pay the consequences)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Impy
Ain't no one backing Bernie cause they're smart. LMAO.

Fer sher. Bernie backers are (among their other deficiencies) stupid, ignorant (not the curable kind of ignorance, but the militant arrogant kind where the ignoranus is unable to even comprehend he's ignorant), possessed of a bone deep sense of entitlement, and too lazy to do their own stealing.

20 posted on 02/09/2016 11:17:47 AM PST by from occupied ga (Your government is your most dangerous enemy)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-22 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson