America's Angry Voters Divvied Up By Trump And Sanders: Poll

[Purveyor]

The 2016 election is shaping up to be the year of angry voters, the disgruntled Americans shaking up the establishment by fueling the presidential campaigns of two very different candidates - billionaire businessman Donald Trump and self-declared socialist Bernie Sanders.

Some 73 percent of voters likely to head to the polls in November's election say they think the United States is on the wrong track, and these disaffected people make up a majority of the support bases for both Republican candidate Trump and Democratic hopeful Sanders - 87 percent and 54 percent, respectively, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.

Both candidates were seen as long shots against brand name rivals like Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton a few months ago, but have seen their popularity surge as the election race starts in earnest with the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 1. They are likely to do well in Iowa, but even if they lose, the fervor they've whipped up has upended the race and maybe even American politics.

So who are the angry Americans? They deviate from the population in key ways: they are whiter, poorer and less educated. They are less likely to support a candidate who has been involved in politics. And regardless of party, they have deep distrust for Clinton after her more than two decades in the public eye.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-anger-idUSMTZSAPEC1USEXIB3

[daleanime]

1. So who's angry?

Pretty much anyone who's paying attention.

[msongs]

2. surprised that angry people follow angry candidates? nt

[LiberalElite]

11. If they're angry, it shows they know what

we're upset about.

[tech3149]

3. If you're paying attention, you're pissed off! But are you angry about the right thing?

Those who support Sanders know they have been marginalized and exploited by a corrupt system controlled by the power elite. Those who support Trump know the same thing but are willing to give in to the fear and follow someone who offers an easy answer that they don't have to think about or exert any effort to make it happen.
Sanders is calling us out. It's up to us to decide if we really want a serious change.

After reading the whole article a few times I'd just call it confrontation click bait journalism. Superficial at best but pointing to a few real issues.

To me there was only one quotable comment.

"Meghan Metier, 22, of Iowa City said the Affordable Care Act - President Barack Obama's signature healthcare reform - has allowed some of her friends to access Medicaid. But to keep it, she added, they have to be certain their income doesn't exceed the poverty level, so they stay barely employed."

[Odin2005]

4. If you're not angry you are either rich or not paying attention.

[wilt the stilt]

5. This is the exact response that pisses people off

You statements are a definitive put down. I have been politically aware since the sixties. i marched on Washington i '69. My first vote was McGovern when you had to be 21 to vote. I am certainly as aware as you but I see Bernie as getting killed in the general. After the republican machine gets through with him he will look like Karl Marx.

[madokie]

6. I find it hard to believe that a person

who voted for McGovern and marched on Washington can say what you say about Sanders.

What happened to you that made you do a 180. Did you win the lottery, get a big inheritance, what is it?

I'm a 15 month in country Vietnam Vet and I'm a true blue 100% Democratic Party animal who believe still that this country is ours to be shared by all people , rich, poor, black, brown, yellow and white. The crazy and the not so crazy. You know the majority of Americans. Its ours and if we don't wake up we won't be America as it was taught to us in history much longer.
Come on Wilt give it some more serious thought, about who we are and what we should be standing for.

[wilt the stilt]

10. Bernie will be destroyed by the republican machine

By the time they get through with him he will be wearing a star of david and carrying Das Kapital. He is far too angry and old and in the end he will get slaughtered. as the say in politics. "this ain't beanbag"

[KingCharlemagne]

14. Pardon me, but what 'Republican machine'? - nt

[Odin2005]

9. Your defeatism is sad.

[wilt the stilt]

12. It;'s realiy

I've watched politics along time. The republican machine will destroy him.

[LiberalElite]

13. I voted for McGovern too. When exactly did you

give up?

[pampango]

7. "Where the camps differ is in identifying the root of America's ills, with supporters of Sanders

pointing to income inequality and health care as the top problems, and those backing Trump putting the blame on immigrants and foreign terrorists, according to the poll.

Asked to select the top issue for the next president in the first 100 days of the new administration, 24 percent of voters nationwide who said the country was on the wrong track picked immigration - making it the most popular choice by that group.

Only 10 percent of those who think the nation is on the right track selected immigration, making it the fifth most popular choice for that group, according to the poll.

Trump has built his campaign on an immigration platform that includes building a wall and deporting millions of undocumented immigrants. And his insistence that he could negotiate better trade deals provides a strong appeal to those concerned about disappearing jobs in a global economy.

Sanders is resonating among angry voters by focusing on income inequality, and promising to deliver universal health care and free college education."

Trump's angry supporters focus on immigration, trade and foreign terrorism (all focused on THEM foreigners?) while Bernie's angry supporters focus on income inequality, universal health care and free college education (all focused on our 99% vs our 1%). That says it all.

[Ruby the Liberal]

8. Interesting to watch where the blame falls

Last edited Sun Jan 31, 2016, 12:21 PM - Edit history (1)

Everyone knows the system is jacked, but do you fix it from the top or the bottom?

Those on the left supporting Sanders place the blame on the failed policies of trickle down - giving all available resources to the rich in the hopes that something dribbles down to the less fortunate, all the while watching as the rich horde more and more and offshore our jobs.

Those on the right supporting Trump place the blame on anyone they perceive as being beneath them - the fear being that "those people" are dragging society down by having needs but not means.

IMO, you fix an economy from the bottom up, not the top down. People are not going to become mythical 'job creators' no matter how much cash you throw at them - if there isn't demand for whatever they are peddling.

I get the fear of becoming the next "those people" as companies shutter US operations, relocating to China and Mexico, but there is a total cognitive dissonance for me in blaming those less fortunate for that stack of dominoes falling. It isn't immigrants or the working poor making those decisions with their raison d'etre being the enrichment of their shareholders above all else.

All one has to do is look at the payoff of public monies - where (last I checked), every $1 in tax cuts brings $0.60 back into the fold vs every $1 in food stamps (the greatest multiplier of expenditures) bringing back $1.32. If your goal is to stimulate the economy, focus resources on where money is going to be spent not where it is going to be saved.

But, that involves math. Ginning up fear is so much easier. Because it works.