For both Sen. Bernard Sanders and Donald Trump, striking an emotional chord with voters has proved more effective than formulating concrete policy proposals, and the two presidential hopefuls this week mounted public campaigns to steal the other’s supporters by more effectively tapping into deep feelings of resentment toward Washington and Wall Street.
The political pitches offered by the senator from Vermont and the Republican real estate mogul are wildly different, but analysts say they overlap in a key area: appealing to raw emotion as much as ideological leanings, if not more so.
Mr. Sanders, a self-described socialist seeking the White House as a Democrat, seems to understand that Mr. Trump’s backers are, to some degree, fueled by the same anti-establishment rage and dissatisfaction with the status quo that drives his progressive supporters.
The senator made the case this week that, in the end, he will be able to win over Trump voters by redirecting their deep anger — dubbed “seething rage” by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, one of Mr. Trump’s Republican primary rivals — toward corporate America and the wealthy who, Mr. Sanders contends, don’t pay their fair share of taxes.
Mr. Trump this week also said he is confident that he can win over the socialist’s supporters after they learn their tax bills would go up under a Sanders administration.
Analysts say both men face an uphill battle in cutting into the other’s base of support, but they also acknowledge the approaches of Mr. Trump and Mr. Sanders are, at their core, quite similar and potentially appeal to the same emotional strain in the electorate.
“I think that there is a lot of frustration and anger out there, and it can be pulled in a leftist direction, against the economic system, or in a rightist direction against immigrants and minorities,” said John Jost, a professor of psychology and politics at New York University. “But I don’t think Sanders benefits as much as Trump from feelings of fear, threat and anxiety. In order for Sanders’ campaign to really gain traction, he needs to tap into hope that a fairer and more equitable economic system is possible, and that he can help move things in that direction. That will be a challenge.”
For the first time during this campaign cycle, Mr. Sanders this week explicitly said he would be gunning for Mr. Trump’s supporters.
“Look, many of Trump’s supporters are working-class people and they’re angry, and they’re angry because they’re working longer hours for lower wages,” he said Sunday on the CBS “Face the Nation” program. “So, I think for his working-class and middle-class supporters, I think we can make the case that if we really want to address the issues that people are concerned about we need policies that bring us together that take on the greed of Wall Street, the greed of corporate America, and create a middle class that works for all of us rather than an economy that works just for a few.”
Data show at least some overlap between the voting bases of both candidates. A Harvard Institute of Politics poll released this month, for example, found that Mr. Trump and Mr. Sanders were the favored candidates in their respective parties among 18- to 29-year-olds.
Some polls also have shown that Mr. Sanders would fare better in a general election matchup against Mr. Trump than would Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton. That fact seems to suggest Mr. Sanders’ message could cut into Mr. Trump’s bloc of support more effectively than would Mrs. Clinton’s.
A Quinnipiac University poll conducted from Dec. 16-20, for example, found that Mr. Sanders would beat Mr. Trump in a general election contest by 13 percentage points, while Mrs. Clinton would win by just 7 points.
Those figures may have less to do with policy positions and much more to do with emotion, as Mr. Trump and Mr. Sanders, with a few notable exceptions, share little in terms of ideology.
“Trump supporters and Sanders supporters you can see some similarities in terms of the disgruntlement and the displeasure with traditional Washington politics and anything that seems to be associated with the establishment,” said Matthew Dallek, an assistant professor of political management at George Washington University.
Mr. Trump even conceded this week that the two share some similar views, but argued that he, not Mr. Sanders, would capture the votes of those fed up with politics as usual.
“Strange, but I see wacko Bernie Sanders’ allies coming over to me because I’m lowering taxes, while he will double and triple them — a disaster,” Mr. Trump tweeted Monday.
During a speech Monday, he praised Mr. Sanders’ opposition to trade agreements pushed by the Obama administration, saying the senator seems to understand that the U.S. is getting “ripped off” by some deals.
• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.
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