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Barnicle: They Vote for Trump and Sanders to Feel Like Winners

For millions of Americans, the crash of 2008 is still a very present reality—and they’re expressing their anger through Trump and Sanders.
Supporters of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump cheer as Trump gets ready to speak to a crowd Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2016, in Claremont, N.H. (AP...
Supporters of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump cheer as Trump gets ready to speak to a crowd Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2016, in Claremont, N.H. (AP...

What do supporters of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders have in common? Mike Barnicle argues, 'They have been left on life’s daily battleground, wounded and untended to by a political system that simply does not work. '

Barnicle continues in The Daily Beast: 

They come to participate in what has to be viewed as an aspirational election year. And they look at two very different men who have two very different views on many things the same way a lot of people look at a lottery ticket they just purchased: a chance, a shot, a roll of the dice at beating the system, knocking down an establishment they figure has rolled over them for at least a decade. One brief shining moment when their vote can make them feel like a winner.

Trump gives people the best show. Sanders offers a finely tuned message he has delivered and believed for at least 40 years, maybe longer. Both, in their own way, speak to the volatility rumbling beneath the surface of daily life in America, 2016; to the anxiety, the simmering anger, the feeling that nothing works and hard work is no longer valued as much as it once was, that the toys and tools surrounding us—smart phones, wi-fi, 250 cable channels, iPads, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Starbucks, ATM’s and a legion of other items—have diminished socialization, curiosity, eye contact, firm handshakes, politeness, language, and the old idea of caring about others, even strangers.

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