It’s absurd to suggest there’s any similarity at all between Democratic support for Bernie Sanders, a self-proclaimed revolutionary on the left, and the ugly Republican support for Donald Trump, a racist, right-wing blowhard ready to suspend the principles of democracy.
But that’s the simple-minded media explanation for the success of two radically different political candidates they didn’t see coming. They dismiss what they don’t understand with a cliché. Hey, it’s the Year of the Angry Voter.
The problem is like everything else about the two parties these days, Democratic anger and Republican anger are as different as day and night. It can produce lightness or darkness.
It can be a powerful political force for change when Democrats are angry about continuing social injustices and the slow pace of progress in this country to live up to American principles of equal rights and equal protection under the law regardless of gender, race, religion or economic status.
It’s just the opposite for Republicans to be angry because slowly but surely our nation is moving forward, not backward, to correct those injustices that have denied equal treatment to all those in our country who aren’t wealthy white male property owners like our founding fathers.
The Democratic debate in Milwaukee last week demonstrated how little difference there really was between Vermont Sen. Sanders, the 74-year-old hero of a new generation of voters, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the first woman with a realistic chance of being elected president.
Both had the same progressive agenda of moving America forward and reducing inequality by creating jobs, raising wages, expanding health care, regulating corporate and banking financial abuse, closing the enormous tax loopholes of the wealthy, reducing mass incarceration, ending racial disparities in policing and on and on.
Their only real difference was in tone. Sanders, who prides himself in being a revolutionary democratic socialist, is demanding it all happen because it’s right. Clinton presents herself as the experienced candidate who knows the practical steps in government to keep building on progressive change in the face of relentless Republican opposition.
|
|
The excited, young, idealistic voters Sanders is attracting to the Democratic Party care a lot more about what’s right than what’s practical. Democrats will be hard to beat if they continue to passionately engage both pools of supporters.
Republicans Attack the Republican Party
Republican leaders, on the other hand, are terrified by the success of Trump’s racist demagoguery and crude bombast within their party. Some ugly chickens have come home to roost as a result of Republicans quietly mining racism for votes ever since President Lyndon Johnson and Democrats embraced civil rights and voting rights.
Now Trump’s brazen, open appeal to racism and hatred among Republicans has made him the frontrunner for the nomination while other candidates struggle to attract even 10% of party support.
Even worse for Republican leaders today, Trump and the equally nasty No. 2 candidate, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, have turned the anger of Republican voters against the party itself.
Trump and Cruz attack the Republican Party establishment for betraying Republican voters. Republican leaders promised to end liberal progress in America and it hasn’t ended.
Despite Republicans fighting civil rights since the 1960s, not only do African Americans still have civil rights, but one of them was even elected president of the United States. Twice.
Republicans promised to fight abortion, but for more than 40 years women have had the right to decide for themselves whether they want to give birth when they become pregnant. Republicans say they oppose Obamacare, but the Affordable Care Act just keeps signing up millions of previously uninsured Americans for health care that is affordable.
Republicans say they’ll secure the Mexican border, but a Trump voter in New Hampshire talked about how angry he was to go into Panera and hear employees speaking Spanish.
It’s not that Republican leaders wouldn’t like to deliver on their promises to resentful, racist, Republican voters who blame all their troubles on a changing America.
But they really can’t. Neither can Trump or Cruz or any other political demagogue.
All Republicans have ever been able to do is delay progress toward fairness and equality in this country, not stop it. No matter how bad Republican candidates are or how angry their voters get, marriage equality will still be the law of the land.
Gay men and women will still exist. So will African Americans, Latinos, Asians and those from a wide variety of national origins. Now that even our most conservative courts recognize all those people as human beings, we will never again be able to deny any of them human rights.
We’ll have devout followers of every religion in the world. Our Constitution won’t allow us to pass laws to force people to follow our favorite one.
Republicans can remain as angry and sour as they want. But to use some more media clichés, progress moves forward and the future lies ahead.
