If the 2016 election were a House of Cards episode, even murderous politician Frank Underwood would have trouble understanding what’s going on.
Democrats and Republicans alike are troubled by the rise of prominent outsiders into their nominating contests.
Bernie Sanders, a man old enough to be the grandfather for Millennial voters, is gaining attention on the left for his statements about income inequality and rigged economics.
The rise of businessman and reality TV host Donald Trump on the right has stumped other Republicans, who fear that a Trump win would destroy any chances the party would have of re-taking the White House.
Why are these two unexpected candidates capturing so much of our media’s attention?
There is a fundamental belief among many that our government is broken.
Poll after poll has shown that voters fervently believe that, somehow, the system is rigged. One study from the Pew Research Center showed people’s trust in government is nearing an all-time low. Only about a quarter of all Americans say they trust Washington always or most of the time.
This lack of trust in the effectiveness in Washington, D.C. is because voters blame established Washington politicians for creating unnecessary gridlock and bickering. The government shutdown in 2013 left a decidedly sour impression on the American electorate. The voter turnout for the election immediately following the shutdown, the 2014 midterms, was the lowest it had been in 72 years, when our country had recently begun its involvement in World War II.
When candidates like Trump, a businessman without political experience, or Sanders, an Independent Senator, jump onto the scene and claim they know the solutions to our problems, we listen because we think they might have something new to say.
More often than not, however, the solutions they offer have already been discussed.
Trump believes the frustration that voters have for the country is because of outsiders. The Mexicans are ruining our country, according to Trump. The Muslims cause the anxieties we have about terrorism.
For Sanders, it’s more of an inside job. His rhetoric targets supposedly corrupt Wall Street bankers who gamble away America’s life savings with their greed and their petulance. The “Wolf of Wall Street” types who keep America’s money for themselves make things difficult for others to earn a living.
Trump’s anti-immigration, anti-diversity appeal has been seen time and time again in U.S. history. The Know-Nothing Party in the 1840s, for example, captured a decent following on its campaign against European immigrants who were members of the Catholic Church.
The economic populism of Sanders has also been seen before, most notably in the policies of U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, who often rails against Wall Street and broken economics in speeches on the Senate floor.
We’ll see if these candidates actually succeed in getting voters to cast ballots in their names. Until then, the image of a Trump versus Sanders face-off in the ultimate battle of political outsiders this November will be just a pipe dream.
