So wait. It IS about economics (trade deals) and white nationalism. Folks who read this interview or take the time to read the study in full can ask themselves, Is it really speculation to suggest Bernie woulda won?
The funny part is the professor says American attitudes after 2008 hardened that it was the Democrats who were pro-trade, but that perception itself is wrong if we look at US Congressional representation. Most Democrats opposed the TPP and most Republicans endorsed it. Most Democrats were against the NAFTA and WTO regimes, but not enough to counter most Republicans and the sufficiently few pro-cororpate trade Democrats. So where do people get the perception? The national Democratic Party leaders, whether it is Clinton, Biden, Obama, Kerry, Kaine, Booker, or whoever cable news tells us are the "serious" Democratic Party leaders, are pro-corporate trade. The corporate media systematically exclude the many, many Democratic Party congress people--start say, with Marcy Kaptur (D-OH); yes, Hillary fans, a woman--who have long been against the corporate trade deals.
When Trump came along in the 2016 primaries, the Republican leadership became very scared. But the DNC and corporate media came to their rescue, setting up Trump as the preferred Republican candidate--gladly broadcasting his speeches for free air time--so that too many Democratic Party voters who were against the TPP themselves supported Hillary Clinton, the personification of corporate trade deals for over twenty five years, in the primary. It was a confluence of the DNC and corporate media pushing Democratic Party voters into a corner over cultural issues and lookism (I mean, let's face it, we all had conversations with Democratic Party voters, usually rich ones, who said Bernie did not look presidential, while Hillary was so familiar over decades, and personified what cable news would implicitly call a "serious" world leader. And that was the snicker at CNN and MSNBC among the Hillary Rosen-Luke Russert coterie). Republicans, meanwhile, slowly but surely went for Trump--as Trump astutely manipulated the entire set of post Cold War Republican messages to his advantage during that primary season.
I find it frustrating when people just shrug their shoulders and say, "We will never know if Bernie would have won." That is simply a form of denial. The point of "Bernie woulda won" is to make sure we don't offer up corporate trade Democrats as national standard bearers again.
I think the professor and I would have a fairly deep conversation because I think she overstates her research in concluding that being pro-immigration means one should be pro-corporate trade when one reads the last two responses to questions in this article. I would like to see the study or studies showing how white nationalists voters in Canada are more pro-trade. We already know she overinterpreted the feeling of Americans that Democrats are perceived to be pro-corporate trade and Republicans are anti-trade, when we know Democratic Party representation in Congress shows the opposite. To me, her analysis lets corporate media propagating off the hook. In Canada, we recall Brian Mulroney, the Conservative, was pro-corporate trade, but he ended up out of power when his own constituents joined left and labor activists against the NAFTA type deals, though there were other issues including an economic downturn in Canada that hurt him badly when he was thinking of standing for re-election, and then decided not to do so. Here is an article showing how Mulroney is cozied up with the "Liberals" (these are more like the Clintonites, not Berniecrats, in Canada) defending the NAFTA.
Oh well. The evidence continues to accumulate, and it continues to show the DNC and pooh bahs who offer and shape opinion across cable news (from MSNBC to CNN to FoxNews and increasingly Sinclair Broadcasting) want to keep the Democratic Party national candidates firmly in the grasp of economic elites while the RNC has a white racist tweeter as leader, who keeps people diverted while he fills the swamp with even more swamp monsters dedicated to Corporations Uber Alles.
As Ollie said to Stan, "Well, Stanley, this is another fine mess you've gotten me into." Ollie represents the Republican leadership, while poor Stanley represents the Democrats. It is the cable news narrative, right?
