Bay Area’s Polarizing Reaction To Donald Trump

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Publish Date:
May 1, 2016
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NBC Bay Area
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Summary

When it comes to politics, like many things, history seems to repeat itself. While Friday’s political protests outside the California Republican Convention in Burlingame may seem fresh, they are not much different from those of the past. The only real difference is the man in the middle: Donald Trump.

Historically, few other national politicians have invoked this type of reaction, but experts agree there are politicians who rival Trump in divisiveness, particularly from the 1968 election.

It is not just the candidate’s qualities, but the hot-button issues of the time. In the 1960s, it was Civil Rights and the Vietnam War. Now, it’s race, immigration and globalization, according to Stanford Law’s Nate Persily.

“[Trump] is sort of institutionally or temperamentally extreme – that he just wants to burn down the house. We really haven’t seen that for a long time in American politics,” Persily said, noting democratic candidate Bernie Sanders could also be considered extreme.

“I think Sanders is a very traditional extremist politician. In some ways he’s the ideological inheritor to Howard Dean’s legacy,” Persily said.

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