It makes a sexy scream: “OMG! Sanders is trying to woo Trump supporters!” Wow! That’s... bad, I guess! Why would he DO that? And he certainly is trying to woo SOME Trump voters. (Some would have you believe that he’s targeting the actual racists, but for reasons to follow, that is simply both factually and logically incorrect.)
To their credit, many Hillary Clinton supporters voicing shock over this also hurry to explain, “nobody is accusing Sanders of racism.” And of course, they’re right. Because OBVIOUSLY, the guy who not a month ago called Trump out as a “demagogue” and referred to Trump's scapegoating of Muslims and Mexican immigrants as “crap,” and who was defending black lives against being unjustly and extrajudicially ended—sorry, guys, but it’s true—a good solid year before blacklivesmatter ever existed, didn’t suddenly about-face and say “ah, the hell with it—let’s go racist! Come one, come all, Trump neo-Nazis! Love ya loads!”
So if it isn’t some about-face to embracing racism and bigotry, then why would he try to win over Trump supporters? Well, first of all, because many of them are, in fact, Latinx's, some 1/5 to almost 1/3 of whom SUPPORT Trump. Don’t believe me? I don’t blame you. PLEASE feel free to tell me I've got that wrong, because it’s hard to believe that I didn't read incorrectly, in that poll citation, or this Daily Beast article. How could this be, given that Trump clearly said “they’re rapists”? Well, in the above articles, what comes through is—disagree with them though you may, and I, though NOT Latinx, certainly do; I’m not voting Trump, that’s for sure, and I read it as a racist dog-whistle, if not a perfectly plain ol’ uncamouflaged audible human-whistle—that the Latinx people who buy Trump’s spin on what he said buy it because they believe (in the words of one of the Daily Beast article’s interviewees) that Trump was only talking about “SOME” Latinx’s (caps added). They plainly read Trump’s cant as being against ILLEGAL immigrants, but not in any way against all Latinx’s.
Again, I disagree with them, and think it was purely racist of Trump to say that; and it must also be mentioned that MOST Latinx’s polled (2/3 to 4/5, by the above numbers) do NOT favor Trump at all. However, that is the opinion of 1/5 to almost 1/3. They simply disagree that Trump's line was a blanket racist statement against all Latinx's. In the interviewee’s words: “...if [Trump] came out and used the ‘N’ word or something like that, I probably would not vote for him. But what is one racist thing that he said? The guy’s never said anything racist.” Therefore, it is perfectly legitimate for Bernie Sanders to start a dialogue with such voters, and say that he respects what those voters are saying, but disagrees with them, thinks that Trumps statements about “criminals” and “rapists” WERE bigoted (which shouldn’t be a tough argument to make), dialogue with them, and urge them once again to first of all reject bigotry and appeals to xenophobia as he did last month, and to concentrate instead upon bettering conditions for the non-rich among us.
Second of all, Bernie seeks to appeal most of all to voters who lean toward Trump, and who are working class. Of the 1/5 to almost 1/3 of Latinx’s who support Trump, many do so only on the understanding that he’s not racist, and wouldn’t support him if he DID say something like the “N” word which they WOULD find racist. Similarly, those among Trump’s voters who are NOT Latinx or other people of color, but who are disaffected working-class white Americans, probably contain a certain percentage who feel the same way. Remember that though most of Trump’s supporters actually DO seem to me to be clearly bigots, large percentages of them don’t; large percentages are also “less affluent," as the New York Times put it, and are therefore among the very type of voters (working-class in general, not just Trump’s working-class voters, I mean) who Bernie wants.
Huge numbers of people of color who say they don’t agree that Trump is racist, but would reject him if he were more clearly shown to be? Huge numbers of working-class voters, some of whom may feel the same way (and even if NONE of them do, then the people of color among Trump's supporters are important enough to begin with)? Mm… HELL YES, Sanders should 1) make very clear that his tent is anti-racist, which (as demonstrated in the links in the second paragraph above) he's already been doing relentlessly since before he ever entered the race; and 2) court those voters who would disavow racism, but (how, I don't know, but those links above prove there are many such people) don’t think Trump said anything racist, by inviting them to reject xenophobic, racist appeals, and focus instead upon economic injustice.
That is a good idea, not a bad one. A bad idea would be saying “oh no—Trump’s spin convinced a certain number of voters who OUR message could have enlisted. Well… oh well, might as well do nothing about it, and leave an empty podium at the national debate. Go ahead and carry the day, Trump speechwriters!”
Who on earth thinks it’s a good idea to leave Trump to dictate the message?