The real answer: she’d become the candidate of minority voters on social justice issues while Bernie was hitting her as a corrupt Wall Street-loving champion of the “rigged” financial system that took advantage of working-class voters. Whether she was perceived as hostile to working- and middle-class whites or just indifferent, it wasn’t a big leap from “she doesn’t care about my job” to “she’d rather give my job to a minority of a foreigner than fight for me to keep it.”
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Meanwhile, Bernie had a message that was tailor-made for working-class whites. He’d take on the rich guys and the rigged game to deliver money and benefits to the working class. He’d kill trade deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership that workers and their union leaders believed would result in jobs being shipped overseas. He argued that his economic fairness doctrine was color-blind and would help everyone on the lower end of the scale. Trump was hammering home the same message in the Republican primary: He’d be for the white working-class stiff. He’d void or rewrite bad trade deals, and, going beyond Bernie, he’d protect their jobs against the encroachment of undocumented Mexican immigrants.
Allen, Jonathan and Amie Parnes. Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton’s Doomed Campaign. Crown; New York. 2017. p. 179–80
Bernie Is the Opponent Trump Wants
The president has a game plan to win the election. A Sanders nomination is just what he needs.
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If you hang out with young progressives, you might be under the impression that socialism is popular. It is, but only on the left. In the latest Gallup poll, taken in September, liberals and Democrats viewed socialism favorably, but Americans as a whole rejected it, 57 percent to 39 percent. In the same poll, respondents viewed capitalism favorably, 60 percent to 35 percent. A Harvard/New York Times poll, taken in July and August, found similar results: Americans endorsed capitalism, 57 percent to 37 percent, while rejecting socialism, 59 percent to 34 percent. Polls taken in May by the Pew Research Center, in March for the libertarian Cato Institute, and in December for Fox News yielded similar results. In every survey, socialism scores well among progressives but gets trounced, among voters as a whole, in a showdown with capitalism.
An American politician who believes deeply in socialism, as Sanders does, has every right to run as a socialist. But it’ll probably cost him. In November, a HarrisX survey asked, “Would you ever vote for a Socialist for elected office?” Liberals said they would. But 72 percent of registered voters, and even 64 percent of Democrats, said they wouldn’t. When voters were asked whether they would ever vote for a “Democratic Socialist”—Sanders’ preferred formulation—the percentage who said no dropped to 52. But that’s still a majority.
That number, 52 percent, is worse than it looks. It’s not just folks on the right. It includes 25 percent of Democrats and 29 percent of voters who “lean liberal.” Subtract those people from Democratic turnout, and you’re in trouble. Data for Progress, a left-leaning organization, found more encouraging numbers: In its survey, 62 percent of likely Democratic primary voters expressed a favorable opinion of “Democratic socialism.” But 17 percent, including 38 percent of Democratic primary voters who called themselves moderate or conservative, expressed an unfavorable opinion. That’s a segment of the electorate Democrats can ill afford to lose.
Trump is Growing Concerned About Bernie Sanders, While his Advisers Think the Vermont Senator Will be Easy to Beat
Trump and His Aides Focused for Now on 2 Rivals (Neither Is the Front-Runner)
When it comes to the Democratic presidential primary candidates, President Trump is worried about Mike Bloomberg while his campaign sees an opportunity in Bernie Sanders.