Could Trump win enough Bernie supporters to matter? Sure.

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Wednesday May 25, 2016 · 9:00 AM PDT

2016/05/25 · 09:00

Stranger things have happened. A Politico article linked below asks that question and describes the campaigns of 1968 and 1980. Here’s something I didn’t know before that hit me like a punch when I read it:

An estimated 18% of Gene McCarthy voters voted for George Wallace in the 1968 general election.

Think about the absolute irrationality of that choice for a moment: the defiant segregationist, the hawk on steroids, and the gleefully aggressive hater of hippies and protesters won 18% of the votes of those favoring the anti-war and anti-establishment candidate who talked of the necessity of a continued campaign over a 50 or 60 year period to eradicate the effects of racial injustice.

Clearly these voters didn’t care as much about policies as they did about expressing anger and anti-establishment feelings. Whatever else can be said about George Wallace, he was anti-establishment and certainly a spearhead for a movement of collective anger. Of course, the democratic candidate was Hubert Humphrey, a man with impeccable liberal credentials known as the Happy Warrior. But, as Johnson’s VP, he was the establishment choice and tainted by association with the war.

A lot of comments have been made about the similarity of this year to 1968. We’ll have to wait and see how much they resemble each other. As bad of a choice as Trump may be, I see him as less of an irrational choice to some Sanders supporters than Wallace must have been to McCarthy supporters.

For those of you who enjoy a little mystical trivia, we are now in the Chinese Year of the Monkey — just like 1968 and 1980.

www.politico.com/...

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