This election has been one heck of a lab experiment. There’s overlap between Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, yet Trump “effectively split” the Tea Party between himself and Ted Cruz, who actually is something of a Tea Partier, whereas Trump is more of a “conservative-leaning populist” or just an “idiosyncratic” right-winger, depending on who you ask. Sanders, meanwhile, describes himself as a democratic socialist.
Trying to pin down the political preferences of the electorate this year has proven difficult. In lieu of an explanation, commentators have turned to the anti-Washington fervor that has fired up the country, vaulting a self-proclaimed “self-funding” businessman to the presidential nomination of a major party and an independent Vermont progressive to a strong second-place finish in the other party. Except Trump is demonstrably a creature of the political system, with his ties to prominent politicians of all types, including the Clintons. Sanders has been in Congress since George Bush was president—George H.W. Bush, that is.
