Will Sanders' Supporters Ultimately Back Trump?

[_The CCC]

NAFTA like any trade agreement can be renegotiated.

TPP is still in the negotiation stage.

There has been a net negative immigration for many years now.

[_EAllusion]

I think a lot of union members of the rust belt who have been financially hammered by NAFTA, TPP, and outright illegal immigration will come to understand that Trump is the only candidate who supports their interests.

Trump has moved the GOP even further to the party of working class men and women rather than the party of big businessmen and financial elites. This is ironic since Trump is among those elites but he's shown very clearly that his heart lies with common working people and he puts Americans first.

People remember that WJC, who Hillary wants to put in charge of the economy, signed NAFTA, the results of which even Bernie Sanders admitted have been catastrophic to the American worker.

If protectionism was your issue of choice, the Democratic party better represents your interests and there are many more Democrats to find who are protectionists than Republicans. Trump is an outlier on this issue within the Republican party. He's shown there is an appetite for it among Republicans, especially among poorly educated, working class whites that increasingly dominate the party, but he's no more a protectionist than someone like Bernie Sanders is.

Now, there's something to be said for the "Only Nixon can go to China" effect. If you want to move the nation in favor of protectionism, you want to take people who aren't protectionists and move them into your camp or neutralize them. Since there's a lot more ground to be made up among Republicans, if Trump can alter the course of public opinion on them, he's going to do more for protectionism than someone like Sanders can. This is why Obama did more for the popularity of Bush era War on Terrorism policies than any Republican ever could have hoped to have done.

Democratic leadership is still oriented towards free trade, even if the majority of Democrats aren't and the rank and file politicians are more protectionist. So there's work to be done on the Democratic side as well if that is your issue.

Protectionism is bad. That is all.

[_EAllusion]

Also, I'm not sure if you can predict any particular policy outcome from Trump being elected. He contradicts himself so frequently, sometimes multiple times in a day, that it is virtually impossible to figure out what he might actually support with any degree of certainty. He's so full of bluster and the most ridiculously transparent pandering imaginable that it's hard to drill down to what he might actually think, if anything. I think you can make some educated guesses. He does have a history of economic liberalism in his comments that suggest he might really support protectionism (along with national health care, higher min wages, etc.), but you're really chancing it if you're voting for him because you think he's on your side on that issue.

[_AmyJo]

My cousin and her husband, both retired English teachers in the Morridor, were/are Bernie supporters who don't want Hilary or Trump for president. Not sure which way they'll be voting since Bernie's not going to be on the ballot in November. They are hopeful he'll be on as an independent 3rd party candidate. I don't think that will help his cause any, and will siphon votes from Trump and Hilary but not enough to defeat either.

She also wonders whether the powers-that-be will instigate something to bring Trump down, similar to JFK when he was in office, presuming he becomes elected?

The GOP doesn't really want him there for all their hyperbole. She noted they got very quiet all of a sudden when it became apparent he was the presumptive nominee. She said "Too Quiet." ....

[_EAllusion]

My cousin and her husband, both retired English teachers in the Morridor, were/are Bernie supporters who don't want Hilary or Trump for president. Not sure which way they'll be voting since Bernie's not going to be on the ballot in November. They are hopeful he'll be on as an independent 3rd party candidate. I don't think that will help his cause any, and will siphon votes from Trump and Hilary but not enough to defeat either.

She also wonders whether the powers-that-be will instigate something to bring Trump down, similar to JFK when he was in office, presuming he becomes elected?

The GOP doesn't really want him there for all their hyperbole. She noted they got very quiet all of a sudden when it became apparent he was the presumptive nominee. She said "Too Quiet." ....

Uh, so your friend is a JFK conspraicy theorist who thinks Republicans are conspiring to assassinate Trump?

Anti-Trump rhetoric quieted down among Republicans, relatively speaking, after he secured the presumptive nomination because people are loyal to the party as a means of retaining organizational power. That loyalty runs so deep that people who despise Trump will line right up behind him and stand for things they allegedly hate.

That people like George W. Bush and Mitt Romney are opting out of that is virtually unheard of.

[_Brackite]

Will Sanders' Supporters Back Trump?

It not like they could actually do a viable write-in vote for Birkenstocks or Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy. So, will they back Trump in answer to Hillary?

Hi moksha,

I think that a few of the Sanders' Supporters will end up voting for Trump, and a few of the other Sanders' Supporters will end up voting for a third-party candidate. However, most of the Sanders' Supporters are in non-swing states. Hillary has managed to win over Bernie in North Carolina, Virginia, Florida, and Ohio, which are all swing states. In the Democratic Florida Primary, Hillary got 64.44% of the vote. Link
According to the RCP Average, Hillary Clinton is up by +2.0 over Trump from Florida. Link
And the Latino population is increasing in that state. Link

[_Kevin Graham]

Protectionism is bad. That is all.

Always?

[_MsJack]

I (finally) graduated with my MA in American religious history a few weeks ago. I also graduated from the Republican party while I was at it. I am disgusted with the party for rallying behind Trump and disgusted with the party heads (like Mike Huckabee) who have been saying that, if people like me aren't going to support Trump, we should just leave the party. K. Bye.

I have voted Republican in every election since I turned 18 in 2000 and was serving as a Republican election judge in Cook County (Chicago), which badly needs Republican election judges. But people like me don't matter to the party. All that matters is electing their Oompa-Loompa-hued misogyny boy-king.

I refuse to vote for Clinton, either. I don't think she's "as bad as Trump;" of the two, I'd prefer her in the White House because I think she's less likely to start World War III. But she is definitely too bad for me to vote for, and if Democrats cared more about picking up the votes of people like me, they'd not have nominated her.

I'll probably cast my vote for the Libertarian nominee. Of course, I live in Hillary's original home state of Illinois, which has zero chance of becoming a swing state (and if it does become a swing state, then she's lost separately and apart from anything I could do), so my vote is more about principle.

[_EAllusion]

Protectionism is bad. That is all.

Always?

Almost always. The exception would be when there is significant asymmetric economic regulations between nations where one nation allows a broad range of labor and environmental abuses. Though calling tarrifs in that situation "protectionism" is a matter of categorical debate. We'll say yes, it is.

[_Themis]

I refuse to vote for Clinton, either. I don't think she's "as bad as Trump;" of the two, I'd prefer her in the White House because I think she's less likely to start World War III. But she is definitely too bad for me to vote for, and if Democrats cared more about picking up the votes of people like me, they'd not have nominated her.

Quite the dilemma. If Trump gets in it may have a strong message for democrats about getting better leadership, but it also sends a message to republicans that Trump was the right choice. The same problem reversed. I would suggest the lesser of two evils. Sometimes the status quo is better then the alternative, when the alternative is Trump.