Trump and Sanders voters felt like their candidates were vehicles for their respective movements
I’m in it for You
Anirudh Suresh
Harvard Political Review
“We’ve seen strains of |the type of appeals in this election| before, but 2016 takes it to a whole new level,” said Ann Compton, former ABC News White House correspondent, to the HPR before the election. “This year, American voters who are following Donald Trump don’t care about [policy or implementation] details. They are inspired and encouraged by his broad promise to make the country great, to bring jobs home, and to make the future full of hope.”
On the other side of the aisle, Bernie Sanders carried a vision of a more egalitarian America that gained him the support of millions of voters. Sanders’ message of radical change to a system he described as broken and corrupt rallied people to the left of the spectrum who desperately wanted to see change. As a result of his uniquely uncompromising nature as well as the fact that until the election cycle, he had never been affiliated with the Democratic Party, Sanders was pegged as a newcomer to establishment politics from the very beginning. In this way, despite their many other differences, both Trump and Sanders were alike. Both were deemed inspirational outsiders by their supporters, populist parvenus by their enemies. Both appealed to their growing rallies with messages of promise for a better America that represented fresh alternatives to what establishment candidates had been spouting for years. And when Sanders conceded the Democratic nomination, a considerable portion of his voters pledged their allegiance to Trump, a man who seemingly stood for everything Sanders was fighting against.
Meanwhile, Sanders benefitted greatly from the support of millennial Americans. The very fact that the oldest candidate in the nomination process had the strongest appeal to the youngest voters is an accomplishment. Though his policy proposals, particularly his plan to make college debt-free, connected with younger voters, they alone did not carry him to such a landslide victory among millennials. Indeed, it was Sanders’ online presence that helped earn his campaign a mass Internet following and popularity among young people across the country.
Yet perhaps the profound question to answer from this election cycle is whether Sanders and Trump really were outsiders. Of course, both were strangers to the realm of establishment politics, but in reality, neither was at much of a political disadvantage in the context of this election. In fact, these candidates understood what people wanted more than establishment candidates did. As a result, they effectively appealed to potential voter bases and gained more undecided voters than did any establishment candidate.
I'm not sure how much evidence there is that a large portion of Sanders supporters flipped to Trump, but I do think the kernel that both Trump and Sanders voters saw themselves as part of a movement and not a campaign is apt.
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