Can Bernie Sanders Beat Donald Trump? What Are The Main Differences Between Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump?

By Sikander Hayat 

There is a perception that Trump is the logical conclusion of all that has been happening in the world and in the United States of America for last 10 years.  It has been argued by many that democracy acts as a vent and allows societies to show their frustrations without resorting to bloody civil conflicts. It is also true that it allows demagogues to use people’s frustrations to their advantage and instil hate into the minds of populace. It is always easy to blame a particular outcome on particular outsiders/others.

It is very well documented that Trump used the pain, anger and helplessness of ordinary citizens to make a case against globalisation, free trade and environmental protection agencies. Both Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump pointed at the same symptoms for the malaise in society but both of them have proposed different remedies for these ills. Some of the main differences are as follows:

1.        Bernie Sanders wants to raise taxes to pay for healthcare, infrastructure projects and seems to be more Keynesian in his approach towards US economy while Trump wants to slash taxes.

2.        Trump believes in trickle-down economics while Bernie Sanders wants mega rich to pay taxes and then redistribute those taxes.

3.        Bernie Sanders wants European style health system which is free at the point of delivery while Trumps want free markets in healthcare and wants to repeal Obamacare.

4.        Bernie Sanders wants to regulate immigration compassionately (legislating for protecting child refugees) while Trump wants to build a wall between Mexico and US, stop family reunions, stop immigration from majority Muslim countries and introduce skilled based immigration.

5.        Trump wants to scrap everything to do with protection of environment and climate change. He has already pulled out of Paris climate accord and believes that climate protection policies are hindering American economy while giving an unfair advantage to her competitors in India, China, Brazil, Mexico, Russia and other parts of the world. He also believes that due to these environmental protection laws, factories are moving to competitor countries resulting in job losses in USA.

Bernie Sanders’s stance is that climate change is real, it is happening right now and action needs to be taken now to save US economy from loses in the future which will result from floods, rising sea levels, forest degradation, land erosion and freak weather events.

There are some similarities in the views of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump and some of these are as follows:

1.        They both claim to speak for the working class.

2.        They want to bring more jobs to Americans and want to raise their living standards.

3.        They want less intervention in the outside world although Trump is finding it hard to pursue this policy. During the primaries, both believed that US suffered huge losses in blood and treasure during her campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.  Having said that, Trump has now declared American presence in Afghanistan unending, without any dates for pull back and wants to keep US forces in Afghanistan for as long as necessary to reach to strategic goals outlined in the national security strategy.

Afghanistan was invaded by USA in revenge for the September 11, 2001 attack on World Trade Centre in New York to punish Al-Qaida. President Bush warned Taliban to either handover Osama Bin Laden or they would face the consequences. Taliban chose to protect Osama as his organization was providing economic lifeline to their cash strapped regime. Americans invaded and Taliban were overthrown swiftly from power replaced by Hamid Karzai (the Ahmad Chalabi of Afghanistan). During the subsequent years, a number of strategies were pursued to pacify Afghanistan but these have not worked so far. A major success was capture and killing of the mastermind of September 11 attacks, Osama Bin Laden.

President Obama ordered the killing after he was found by CIA in Abbottabad by using a charity Save the Children, who collected DNA samples from Osama’s children. The war against Taliban is still going on and Trump Administration is asking Pakistan to help defeat Taliban or suffer at the hands of American power. My point is that isolating USA from World is easier said than done. In coming months and years North Korea is likely to test Trump’s resolve as well.

4.        They both want to protect American workers from the ill effects of globalisation.

I can be argued that some voters who usually vote for Democrats and voted for Bernie Sanders against Hillary Clinton  eventually voted for Donald Trump as Clinton did not have the ideas (or she was not able to convey those ideas) that electorate was looking for. Voters were willing to accept anything by status quo and in their minds Ms Clinton represented status quo.

So given all the evidence, can Bernie Sanders beat Donald Trump in the next presidential election. I’ll leave the answer to my readers and look forward to hearing from you.

Related Posts:

1. Will Population Explosion Cause More Migration To The West? Did Migration Play A Role In Brexit and Trump Victory?

2. Where is the next financial crash in America & Europe coming from? The problems with forecasting a financial crash.

3. Are Trump Tax Cuts Good For United States of America? Will The Tax Intake Increase?

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