Presidential contenders Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump have one thing in common: They both believe the American dream is fading away.
In speeches on the same day, both presidential contenders from different parties, struck similar populist tones in their stump speech — Mr. Sanders, who’s running for the democratic presidential ticket before a young, Christian audience at Liberty University, and Mr. Trump, before thousands of his Republican supporters in Dallas.
“Middle-income people are being decimated, they’re being decimated,” Mr. Trump said Monday at his rally in Dallas. “We have a group of 200 [wealthy] guys, but the middle income in this country is being decimated, and we’re going to change it.”
Mr. Trump described a recent interaction he had with a hedge fund manager, being sure to qualify their relationship as “he’s not really a friend, he’s not actually a nice guy,” before going on to describe his plan to increase taxes on those managers to benefit the middle class.
U.S. corporations — hoarding billions of dollars offshore to avoid paying U.S. taxes — were also painted as unpatriotic by Mr. Trump. He proposed lowering the U.S. corporate tax rate and simplifying the tax code so companies could afford to repatriate their overseas profits back into the United States. He said he would reveal the details of his tax plan in the coming weeks.
“These guys [U.S. corporations], they make a fortune and they have no real loyalty, in many cases, they have no real loyalty to the United States. They want to show a good profit and loss statement,” Mr. Trump explained. “So they go to another country, and then all of a sudden their numbers look good.”
Mr. Sanders — a self-identified socialist — struck a similar populist tone in his appeal at Liberty, contrasting the “haves” in America with the “have nots.”
“In the last two years, 15 people saw $170 billion increase in their wealth, 45 million Americans live in poverty. That in my view is not justice,” Mr. Sanders said. “That is a rigged economy, designed by the wealthiest people in this country at the expense of everybody else.”
The American dream — that anyone can make it in today’s society no matter their race, creed, ethnicity or starting income — was also seemingly dismissed by Mr. Sanders.
“Some of you may agree with me, and some of you may not, but in my view, it would be hard for anyone in this room today to make the case that the United States of America, our great country, which all of us love, it would be hard to make the case that we are a just society, or anything resembling a just society today.”
Mr. Trump — although more than 1,000 miles away — agreed the American dream is dead, but promised he could restore it if he becomes president.
“The American dream is dead, but I’m going to make it bigger and better and stronger than ever before,” Mr. Trump said before a crowd of 17,000, who all cheered.
• Kelly Riddell can be reached at kriddell@washingtontimes.com.
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