Trump Already Running to the Left of Hillary Clinton
by Dave Blount | May 10, 2016 1:21 pm
This won’t catch anyone who has been paying attention by surprise. Even before officially securing the nomination, Trump is already running to the left of Hillary Clinton:
At a campaign rally here in one of the most liberal towns in America [Eugene, Oregon], Donald Trump offered praise for an unusual party: avowed democratic socialist Bernie Sanders.
By “democratic socialist,” they mean communist.
Trump barked that Sanders is “100 percent right” about Hillary being “totally controlled by Wall Street.” Demonizing the allegedly wicked capitalists of Wall Street is a favorite pastime of the radical left. This was what drove Occupy Wall Street.
That’s not the only area where the presumptive Republican nominee sounds like Sanders, who is challenging Clinton for the Democratic nomination. On a series of issues, including free trade and foreign military intervention, Trump is effectively running to the left not only of his own party but also of Clinton. …
“NAFTA has been one of the great economic disasters. Who signed it? Clinton. Clinton,” Trump said Saturday at a rally in Lynden, Wash. He was referring to the North American Free Trade Agreement, which was actually signed by George H.W. Bush but was implemented through legislation signed by Bill Clinton.
Opposition to free trade is one of the many areas of common ground Trump shares with Bernie Sanders.
Trump’s “America First” approach to foreign policy is better known as isolationism — a position often association with far-left agitators like Code Pink, whose rhetoric Trump has echoed.
There’s more:
In recent days, he has also moved to the left on the minimum wage and tax policy…
But Trump’s populist pitch may be seriously hampered, even among voters skeptical of Clinton, by his controversial statements on women, Muslims and Mexican immigrants.
His boorish statements expressing his disrespect for women are on the record for good, but his positions of convenience on Muslims and illegal aliens will be reversed.
Remember that Trump’s initial response to the deluge of Muslim welfare colonists pouring out of the Middle East and Africa was to say that we have to let them in because they are “living in hell.” He turned on a dime, and will do so again. The idea that he will not let any Muslims into the country is preposterous.
As for illegal immigration, he has already sent loud signals to his fellow New York liberals that his rhetoric is completely insincere, intended only to dupe the rubes in Flyover Country into allowing him to hijack their party.
The betrayals on Muslims and immigration are inevitable. Too bad the voters who took his pandering at face value can’t take him to court for fraud, like alumni of Trump University are doing.
[Trump] added on ABC’s “This Week”: “Don’t forget — this is called the Republican Party. It’s not called the Conservative Party.”
At this point in the scam, he no longer feels the need to pretend he is conservative. He knows his cultish supporters are in so deep that they will support him no matter what rather than admit they were fooled, and he doesn’t think the GOP has enough spine to stop him in Cleveland.
On a tip from Torcer. Cross-posted at Moonbattery.