we may not realize it

"Nobody who works 40 hours a week should be living in poverty."
-- Bernie Sanders, U.S. Senator


"It is only by selection, by elimination, and by emphasis that we get at the real meaning of things."
-- Georgia O'Keefe, American painter


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4 Reader Comments


"Donald Trump Wins Nevada Caucuses, Collecting Third Straight Victory"


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(RCH, Minnesota)


Once again, ditch the bigotry and you have a candidate who is clearly anti-TPP, anti-illegal immigration, who wants to end the stupidity in the Middle East and who holds out some sliver of hope to the Middle and Lower classes who have been left behind that they will actually get the same deal that the top dogs do. 


Would I vote for him?  Never, but people have to understand his broad appeal.  The Democratic establishment is as much to blame for Trump as the Republican establishment is.







(RM, Vermont)


Trump is not a neo-con, nor is he a conservative, but he gives those factions just enough taste that they feel they can [support him].  He makes no specific proposals, only policy goals.  So there is not much out there for his opponents to try to pick apart.


As Jimmy Carter observed, Trump is malleable.  While his starting point may appear to be a conservative approach, he would quickly abandon conservative dogma that doesn't work. 


Other than Sanders, he is the only one out there proposing any reversal of the de-industrialization of the country, with the related loss of high paying jobs for blue collar people.


Can you imagine who would be in the GOP lead if he were not in the running.


We need a dose of either Trump or Sanders to start to purge the system, now rife with corruption.


What an election season.  







(Maro, Massachusetts)


One of the folks commenting here suggests that "[I]f Americans go in the voting booth and vote for Trump and he wins the nomination then America got the person they wanted to lead the nation.  Don't blame Trump.  Blame the voter."


No.  Blame the ruling elites in both parties who have focused all of their heart and soul on serving the insatiable needs of what Bernie Sanders calls the billionaire class.


A friend offered the following assessment...


"I'm getting more into why Trump is a successful candidate. ...Those voters have been maligned, mocked, and marginalized by the entertainment industry...and by the gatekeepers to opportunity. 


Trump, by having simplistic answers for everything, by drawing ire with racist comments..., by sporting aggressively unhip hair, is staking out his territory. 


He's made common cause with the Americans who feel scorned, left behind, and devalued. 
Trump is telegraphing that he values them and he knows what it's like to be looked down on by elite [jerks].  It is a winning message."







(Rob Campbell, Western Mass.)


It occurs to me that too many readers of the NYT are too heavily invested in political party to see that (at our core) the majority of people don't care about political party.


Both Trump and Sanders are independents.  While it is true that both have aligned themselves to one side or the other, Sanders is a self-declared independent and Trump is a de facto independent.  IMO this is incredibly refreshing.


We may not realize it at this time, but the election of one of these candidates as President might just prove to be the best thing the US has ever done politically.


Just sayin' - take the blinkers off.





---------------------- {Reader Comments / the New York Times}


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