[ad_1]
The next morning and again on Tuesday night, Trump confirmed Sanders' founded suspicions on a series of tweets on the fly, claiming that the network had "stuffed" the room, applauding many responses from the Vermont Independent, "with Bernie's supporters, "after early, about 10 hours earlier, called it" so weird to watch Crazy Bernie on Fox News ".
Indeed, the view of a democrat – and even less of a democratic socialist who is running for the presidential election of the party – in a place so closely aligned with the Trump administration is unusual. Sanders' decision to tread these uneven boards upset more than a few liberal commentators, who feared that its mere presence would give the network undeserved credibility. For Trump, however, the worsening notes in his tweets foreshadow a new, wider conflict: here, for the first time, one of the candidates seeking to deny him a second term appeared on his stage in front of him. an audience, Trump views as his own, and presented a flawless record against him.
Sanders, who wrapped up his four-day journey in five Upper Midwest states with the Fox News event, thinks his route to the White House goes directly through Trump Country. And he will not be discouraged by a rowdy president or anxious Democrats that his focus on the region risks playing what they see as a distorted reading of the 2016 election – a suggestion that "anxiety "led the voters to Trump and not to the president. open calls to resentment based on race. Hillary Clinton, after all, won nationally with unionized households (51% versus 42% of Trump) and voters earning less than $ 50,000 a year, according to polls conducted at the polls.
"I can understand why people voted for Trump on the basis of his remarks (in 2016)," Sanders told his supporters at a windswept gathering in Madison, Wisconsin last Friday. "And the reason is that in Wisconsin and across the country, there are a lot of people suffering, there is a lot of suffering there."
It was an argument that Sanders repeated throughout the trip, one of the foundations of the belief that at least the outside ranks of Trump's base, a cohort considered by some Democrats to be too distant to be reconquered, are there to take it – if only democrats confront them to the reality of Trump's record in power.
"Trump lied when he said that he would listen to their pain," Sanders said. "Our work in this campaign is therefore to reach the families of workers who are suffering and to work with them to finally create a government and an economy that works for all of us and not just for the 1%. Americans – They are tired of being lied to. "
For many leftists, especially those in the trenches, Sanders' point of view is recognizable. And this is consistent with their own analysis of the 2016 election, according to which a decisive, albeit relatively modest, number of frustrated contradictory voters either opted for Trump's right-wing populism or stayed home. due to the absence of alternative left.
"If you go to a state that was won by Trump, you have to take into account what pushed voters to do it," said Sanders' assistant before his speech in Warren, Michigan. "If you're in Green Bay, Wisconsin, if you're in Kalamazoo, Michigan, if you're in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, you know what NAFTA has done to your community, you know what these tax bills have done for you .. community. "
A few minutes later, Sanders spoke for the first time against the renegotiated version of the trade agreement by Trump, the United States-Mexico-Canada agreement of the administration.
"I challenge Donald Trump, for once in your life, keep your campaign promises," said Sanders. "Go back to the NAFTA drawing board, do not send this treaty to Congress unless it provides for strong and quick enforcement mechanisms to increase workers' wages and prevent companies to outsource US jobs in Mexico. "
But the underlying logic, defended both by Sanders' campaign and by the candidate himself, according to which some Trump voters can be dismissed and brought back from the other side of the aisle, remains largely unproven in the last election.
The Democrats reconquered the House in mid-2018 – and claimed or retained Governor's mansions in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania – by assembling a coalition of overpowered moderate liberals. But Trump himself did not appear on the ballot and most of the progressive candidates backed by Sanders either lost their primaries or fell victim in November to the kind of attacks likely to be perpetrated against any candidate for the Democratic presidency.
In Florida, African-American Democratic presidential nominee Andrew Gillum led most polls leading up to polling day, ahead of former Democratic senator Bill Nelson, who is a white man. But they both lost to their Republican opponents, who got Trump's addition at the eleventh hour. Nelson finally won more votes than Gillum, the former mayor of Tallahassee, endorsed before the primary.
Back in the north, Democratic candidates across the primary field are beginning to redouble their efforts to rebuild the so-called "blue wall" that Trump broke in 2016. Pete Buttigieg, the young mayor of South Bend, in 39, Indiana, presented an overview of his own argument at the official kickoff of his campaign this weekend.
"A myth is being sold to industrial and rural communities," Buttigieg said, leaving the name of the best-known unnamed salesman, "the myth that we can stop the clock and restart it."
"It comes from people who think that the only way to reach communities like ours is to feel and nostalgia," he continued, "selling an impossible promise to return to a bygone era that had never been as big as the one announced at the beginning ".
But Sanders was the most direct. In an April 8 note from his campaign directors, it was clear that "the 2020 Electoral College map shows that the most direct path to a Democratic victory is collapsing in Wisconsin, the United States. Michigan and Pennsylvania "- three states that Clinton lost in 2016 less than 78,000 combined votes.
Democratic pollster Celinda Lake sees opportunities and risks in Sanders' tactics.
"The irony," said Lake, "is that Sanders was the future in 2016, but he must be careful not to be the past in 2020."
But she praised her approach, saying that he "understands" why people chose Trump, as a practical decision.
"It's really good that Bernie Sanders said that because I think every candidate will have to end up saying it," Lake told CNN. For Democrats, she added, "I think it's the beginning of saying," I understand what you voted for, you did not have it and I propose something that will give you what which you need. "But just telling voters that they were wrong is not a very effective way to convince them."
Sanders' combative performance at Bethlehem City Hall, where he was confronted with a mix of standard campaign issues and Trump's talking points, will encourage his loyalists. He also pointed to the theory, outlined a day earlier by campaign leader Faiz Shakir in Pittsburgh, that Sanders would be the best-equipped Democratic candidate to withstand the upcoming Republican attack.
"Donald Trump will say that every candidate is a" socialist. "Whether you're Kamala Harris or Pete Buttigieg or whoever else, he'll say that about you," Shakir said, saying Sanders – who is quite happy to talk about his democratic socialism when asked, will not "flinch" in front of the line.
"When will that (response to the GOP attacks) come out of the mouth of the candidate, who will the voters trust and believe in?" Asked Shakir before answering his own question: "On this point I think when Bernie Sanders says these things, people will say, "Yes, I believe he's going to do these things."
[ad_2]
Source link