Courtesy of Mish.
Conventional wisdom of Republican leadership is dead wrong.
As I have stated, Donald Trump would beat Hillary Clinton, but but Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio likely cannot. Additional evidence supporting that view comes from the very place Republicans most need to pick up votes: Democrats.
A Sanders-Trump switch may be far-fetched, but negative views of Hillary Clinton have some voters weighing their options.
Please consider The Bernie Sanders Voters Who Would Pick Trump Over Clinton.
In this most bizarre of presidential election cycles, every day seems to bring another jaw-dropping development. Donald Trump on the size of his genitals, Ben Carson and the Egyptian pyramids, Bernie Sanders’ socialist revolution, Hillary Clinton and the cloth she used to wipe her private email server clean.
But it’s not just the candidates who have raised eyebrows in 2016. The latest startling phenomenon is the voter who is feeling the Bern, but also has eyes for the Donald.
This week the Guardian sought out Sanders fans who are contemplating switching their allegiance to Trump if Hillary Clinton secures the Democratic nomination.
Almost 700 people replied to the call-out, and some 500 of them said they were thinking the unthinkable: a Sanders-Trump switch.
The Guardian call-out was not a poll, but controlled surveys by polling companies have identified this small but not insignificant slice of the Sanders crowd who would consider backing Trump.
Almost one in 10 Sanders supporters apparently think Trump is next best thing to their candidate, and certainly better than Clinton.
A woman, 55, who described herself as a homemaker, said: “Both Trump and Sanders are non-establishment candidates who are not bought by the special interests that have control over policy and legislation because of their ‘bribes’.”
One male Sanders fan wrote: “Trump is an obnoxious vulgar blowhard who says foolish things. However, unlike Clinton – but like Sanders – at least he is an outsider who understands that the government and the economy are broken.”
They explained their unconventional position by expressing a variety of passionately held views on their shared commitment for protecting workers and against new wars, on their zeal for an alternative to the establishment, and on their desire to support anyone but Hillary Clinton.
A 29-year-old female data processor wrote: “As horrific as Donald Trump is, and he is a horrible, racist, misogynist idiot, I don’t think Hillary Clinton is any better. I feel like with Trump, he could at least inspire a revolution, even if it is against him. I prefer chaos to stagnation.”
Commonly expressed criticisms of Clinton were that she is a war-monger, that she is corrupt and “owned by Wall Street”, that her policies are Republican in all but name and that she is an establishment insider while Sanders and Trump are both outsiders.
Bernie-Trump Demographics
That percentage alone could easily tip the election. And it doesn’t stop there. There are many independents in the anti-war camp who are certain that Hillary or Cruz will lead the US into another war, but Trump might not.
As much as I despise Trump’s trade policies, I despise war-mongering more. The more you like wars the more you should vote for Cruz, Rubio, or Hillary. Those are my views. I don’t ask you to have them.
