Exploiting the GOP’s self-destruction: As Trump implodes the party, only Bernie can capitalize on it

[Uncle Joe]

The Republican Party decades ago attempted to form a new majority by creating a Frankenstein’s monster. Now, it is clear that this monster is eating its maker alive. What’s more, Bernie Sanders, a self-proclaimed socialist, wants a piece of the wreckage. It’s safe to say that this is unchartered territory for American politics.

“Look, many of [Donald] Trump’s supporters are working-class people,” Sanders said on”Face the Nation” recently. “And they are angry. And they’re angry because they are working longer hours for lower wages…And I think what Trump has done successfully, I would say, is take that anger, take that anxiety about terrorism and say to a lot of people in this country, look, the reason for our problems is because of Mexicans. And he says, they’re all criminals and rapists. We have got to hate Mexicans. Or he says about the Muslims, they are all terrorists, and we got to keep them out of this country.”

Sanders’ gauntlet toss grabbed media attention in part because it was interesting and in part, as Sanders is aware, because the media is mostly interested in covering Donald Trump.

But is Bernie right? A look at the past half century of American politics suggests that he might be. Trump is in some ways the most right-wing Republican candidate.The Republican coalition has long been fractious, pieced together significantly though not entirely from the New Deal Coalition’s carcass: disaffected Southern racists, private-property minded anti-busing homeowners in the Sun Belt suburbs, Christian chauvinists, patriots disillusioned by hippie culture and a left-wing movement against a futile war in Vietnam (created by Democratic presidents), and, finally, the long invisible would-be Trump backers: working-class whites whom deindustrialization and the decimation of labor unions deprived of economic security.

(snip)

The Frankenstein’s monster, baited with bigoted polemics, long did its master’s bidding: anti-abortion and culture war diatribes were a sound investment that reaped deregulation and tax cuts. Now, Trump is dismantling a party alliance that since Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan has been the basis of its power.

Sanders won’t win many Trump voters over. But his brand of multiracial economic populism is the left’s best and only shot.

http://www.salon.com/2016/01/04/exploiting_the_gops_self_destruction_as_trump_implodes_the_party_only_bernie_can_capitalize_on_it_for_the_lefts_gain/

I believe this is an excellent political analysis.

[JoePhilly]

1. Needs more Bold.

[Uncle Joe]

2. I believe it has an ample quantity of bold but it could use more cowbell