Phonebank Ponderings
After phone banking for a little while I'm starting to see a pattern emerge among the voters I've talked with so far. (IA, NH, NV and SC)
Almost everyone (besides true progressives) falls into one of 3 groups with varying degress of interest.
Establishment voters (GOP, Rubio, Bush, Hillary)
Emboldened bigots (Die-hard Trump voters)
People sick of the establishment (Trump, Sanders)
First you have the typical establishment voter. This person isn't stupid, they just don't think about politics much. And they trust their party affiliation to decide for them. They don't like change if it's not incremental. These voters are NOT interesting at all. Next group.
Next up are what I like to call the emboldened bigots. These are the people that are exicted for Trump for the wrong reasons. These are the people who are genuinely racist, sexist or otherwise xenophobic and are encouraged now, thanks to Trump, to express their hate publicly. These are the people at his rallies who either assaulted a protester or minority or watched someone be assaulted and did nothing. This group is hopefully very small and also NOT interesting. Next group.
The last group is by far the most interesting group. I believe this group represents the vast majority of Trump movement. It also represents a lot of the Bernie movement. Both are populist anti-establishment candidates. Neither are typical politicians. Most voters in this group don't know a lot about politics, but they know enough to know that their respective parties typical groomed candidates just aren't going to cut it anymore. They just know they want something different. And whether they (or their parents) tend to lean one way or another determines a Bernie / Trump voter.
Will have to see if this holds up over the course of the primary season.
EDIT: 10-May-2016 This absolutely has held up across the rest of the primary states so far. Another thing is that Trump people generally like Bernie and generally despise Hillary. Today is the WV Primary and it looks like CNN heads are starting to question whether or not Hillary can beat Trump in the general. Several polls say Bernie beats Trump by double-digits, while Hillary barely eeks it out in some, and wins by only 5-6 in others.









