Let’s be clear: the differences between Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders are profound. Their policies, their dignity and their visions. Sanders is a crazy old Commie. Trump a self-absorbed ass. Which is why I find their respective supporters’ opinions so interesting on one matter: lots of Trump’s supporters, and lots of Sanders’ as well, seem completely convinced that if their candidate is not the nominee, it will be the result of some conspiratorial combination of party leadership and media perfidy.
According to some of Sanders’ supporters, then, it is in no way shape or form possible that Hillary Clinton has spent 30 years building connections in the Democratic Party, doing and calling in favors, and so has worked her way to a winning position. Instead, the recent party-joining Sanders is the “real” Democrat. It’s all media and party bias. Nor does it matter that the media has REALLY over-attended the Trump campaign, not Clinton’s. It’s all party and media bias.
Likewise, for Trumpsters, it’s their guy or the highway, but he’s neither a Republican nor a credible national leader. The fact large numbers of Republican voters and leaders might have qualms about supporting his celebrity candidacy is absurd on its face to such persons. It’s all conspiracy all the time.