Strange to put Bernie and Donald together in any context, right? But here's the thing: they are both moderates. Bermie Sanders is a moderate Democrat and Donald Trump is a moderate Republican.
And I say "Thank Goodness! Welcom back moderates!" The middle has been missing for too long.
As the William Butler Yeats so famously wrote: "Things fall apart. The centre cannot hold .... The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity." Such has been our political condition for too long ... much too long!
1. Moderates support Social Security: In his Trump Tower speech (June 16, 2015, announcing his run for the Republican nomination), Trump went on record as supporting funding Social Security and Medicare rather than cutting them. Earlier, at the CPAC conference,.Trump addressed his fellow Republicans, as follows: "As Republicans, if you think you are going to change very substantially for the worse, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security in any substantial way, and at the same time you think you are going to win elections, it just really is not going to happen."
2. Moderates in 2015 oppose the TPP "fair trade"agreement. In his Trump Tower speech (June 16, 2015, announcing his run for the Republican nomination), Trump said "I am against the treaty."
Compare the Donald on Social Security with the Jeb, with the Walker, with the Rubio or the Cruz or with the Rand Paul. Compare the Donald with his Republican competition on fast track and TPP... well, yes, Senator Paul has come out strong against fast track and (possibly) against TPP - if anyone could get a chance to read it in advance - but isn't Senator Paul literally the exception that proves the rule about Republican party-line backing for TPP?
Either Bernie or Hillary is destined to be our next FDR. Those of you who are familiar with the history of FDR's campaigns will recall that FDR always had some Republican clown running against him ... and yet that clown, when you take a serious look at what he was saying, was really a moderate - because both he and FDR were in a liberal era, as we are today.
To explain what I am saying in simplified Trumpese, I love liberals. Liberals are moderates - at least in a sane world, liberals should be moderates and moderates are or should be liberals.