President Donald Trump knows full well the maxim of “divide and conquer.” He used it to great effect in the 2016 GOP primaries and undercut Hillary Clinton in the general election by specifically appealing to working class voters. That gave him the margin of victory in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin and with that the presidency.
He’s at it again, calling Vermont socialist Senator Bernie Sanders a “communist” in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity that preceded the Super Bowl. The president also recently reminded Sanders and his supporters of how the 2016 Democratic nomination was stolen from them by Hillary Clinton and the Democratic establishment. That old guard is currently represented by Joe Biden.
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To add a cherry to the cake, Trump even personally praised Sanders in front of Hannity, saying, “At least he’s true to what he believes.”
You got that right.
Sanders has been a communist in everything but name for decades, indeed since the start of his political career. He uses “democratic socialist” merely for marketing purposes, as he knows his real ideological affiliation would be too much even for the voters of Vermont.
Sanders consistently supported Soviet and Marxist initiatives around the world during the Cold War. At home he advocates hard left socialist measures for all aspects of the American economy.
Such is the state of the modern U.S. Democratic Party that a man who barely hides his communism is very possibly going to win their Iowa caucuses on Monday.
The president realizes that and also kens there is no more bitter fight than an intramural leftist rumble. With the 2016 memory of the Sanders betrayal by his own party still fresh inside the Sanders campaign, and with hordes of gullible airheaded young people flocking to the socialist banner, Trump will alternately personally go soft on the Senator while hitting him on his views.
It’s the old and effective political strategy of holding him by the nose while kicking him in the rear.
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This could play out well for Trump at the Democratic National Convention. If Sanders wins, unlikely, the Biden/Clinton wing will go ballistic and could very possibly wash their hands of him.
If Sanders loses and his people think it was rigged they could launch a kerfuffle that could make the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago look like a summer picnic.
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