Thinking the Unthinkable: What if it is Bernie vs. Trump?

I sort of shocked my buddy Tom Brown yesterday by suggesting I might vote for Trump over Bernie. I did this partly knowing it would shock him but I did sort of mean it too.

Who knows how much I mean it? Time will tell I guess.

I think Trump vs. Bernie would be a very interesting fight and I'm not so sure Bernie would win it.

I think such a race would lead to some very strange bed fellows and it's tough to predict. I know the Bernie Maniacs are all over these general election polls that show him with a 20 point lead over Trump but such polls are as Nate Silver tells us wholly meaningless right now.

I have been struck by conversations I've had.

Another favorite reader of mine, Greg, suggested he could maybe stomach Trump. Though I believe he is much more pro Bernie than I am. Which isn't hard as I'm not even the least bit pro Bernie.

The only thing I'm sicker of than Bernie's sanctimonious, self-righteous sermons are his sanctimonious supporters, who pursue you with the relentless earnestness of Jehovah's Witnesses.

So I might just be tempted to vote Trump to spite Bernie and his worshippers. I agree that would be the first that I've voted out of nothing but pure spite but this is my point-a Bernie-Trump matchup would be very unpredictable. I wouldn't want to guess how it goes.

My father who like me has never voted Republican told me yesterday he might be tempted by Trump.

I was rather surprised to hear him say that Trump is right with all this ISIS stuff we can't take any chances on the refugees

Now let me be clear, I totally don't agree with that. I think that's a terrible policy for reasons that I've documented a number of times.

1. The attacks are mostly homegrown terrorists who have been radicalized on social media.

2. If you are a Jihadist that wanted to come in to the US, the refugee program with its long wait times would be the most inefficient way to do it. A Jihadist is not going to wait patiently for a 20 month process to unfold.

3.. It will be counterproductive as it will give ISIS exactly what they want. They hate when refugees leave their territory. They want the narrative that we are at war with Islam, not that we can actually help these refugees.

As HRC said, Trump's anti Muslim words and proposals are exactly what ISIS wants-as she said he is a tremendous recruiting tool.

Of course all the phones in the media who had been saying the same thing suddenly demanded she demonstrate proof of this-when I thought it was more a theory than an empirical argument at that point.

4. Finally it's just morally wrong and contrary to our values.

What Trump says about Muslims or immigrants holds no interest to me. But: 

 A lot of what he says is just so darn funny. I mean the latest is the way he trolls Cruz. Tom Brown says this wouldn't be enough for him.

http://lastmenandovermen.blogspot.com/2016/01/bad-news-for-hillary-haters.html?showComment=1452743775403#c3307767568359113129

But Tom has admitted he doesn't like entertaining in politics. Don't get me wrong: normally this wouldn't be good enough for me either.

But if this ended up with a choice between entertaining and endless preach annoying, I'd be torn.

I might not vote for either. I won't vote for Bernie. Maybe I couldn't really vote for Trump. But right now the idea sounds plausible.

I wouldn't vote for any other GOP candidate-they are real Republicans and you know how I feel about Republicans. Part of why Trump is so funny is how much fun he's made of the Republican party.

By the way I don't find Ann Coulter funny or never did until Trump. Even now I don't have any use for much of what she says but am just happy about her support of Trump.

1.If Trump is nominee many Republicans will stay home or even vote non Republican.

2. If Bernie is nominee many Dems would do the same.

And in his own way, Trump has also pushed Bernie's anti super PAC line but in a much more entertaining way. He has not needed to raise money by soaking up media and sending out tweets.

In some ways that's been more devastating t the super PACs than the anti super PAC crusaders.

Trump in a way co-ops Bernie when you think about it. He too criticizes donors and super PACs and he too criticizes the Iraq war.

Trump already calls him Crazy Bernie and while Hillary is reviled as a being so dirty just to question the details of single payer Trump will have no such stricture hemming him in.

http://lastmenandovermen.blogspot.com/2016/01/hey-ryan-cooper-aca-wasnt-intended-to.html

Of course while Trump would lose a lot of Repubs and Bernie a lot of Dems, they'd also both get voters that don't normally vote Repub or Dem respectively.

Ok but what about Latinos? They are appalled by Trump. Yes, but it's not so clear to me they have so much affinity for Bernie.

Bernie himself has been praised by Steve King on immigration.

http://time.com/4170591/bernie-sanders-immigration-conservatives/

Ok, Bernie can make the case that Latinos have to vote against Trump no matter what. But Bernie isn't that good at talking about issues other than economic inequality.

Plus, Trump is shrewd enough to move considerably to the Left in a general. Hell, he might even go back to calling for a wealth tax.

He might finally moderate what he's said on immigration. He can't do that in GOP primary but in the general there would be nothing to stop him least of all the Republican party.

He'd punk Bernie like he did Jeb. Talk about how those young Black Lives Matter protesters shutdown his mic. He'd go much worse than that.

Would Trump win? I don't know. But I don't see it as impossible.

I don't want Trump you should know if you've read me at all. But I don't want Bernie either. It would be interesting.