2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Celebrated Photographer: Yes, that is Bernie Sanders. Time Magazine is lying [View all]cascadiance
(19,537 posts)There is some strong support from many Republicans and independents currently supporting Trump or Cruz based on their stances on immigration and in particular being against H-1B guest worker programs, a position that Trump and Cruz share with Bernie. Though some of that support is xenophobic in nature, many there are concerned about the exploitive nature of guest worker programs, which Bernie also offers to them when he also rejects these exploitive programs.
Note in this Breitbart.com article that both Rubio and Kasich (and Jeb Bush) are on the wrong side of these guest worker programs and likely would lose a chunk of Republicans and independents now supporting Trump or Cruz to Bernie. Hillary, who supports H-1B (or at least the last time she stated a position in 2008 supports it) would not get these votes. Rubio would especially lose out here...
http://www.financialexpress.com/article/economy/h-1b-fee-hike-india-toughens-stand-mulls-taking-us-to-wto/206903/
Trump also wants a requirement to hire American workers first.
Too many visas, like the H-1B, have no such requirement, the Trump plan continues. In the year 2015, with 92 million Americans outside the workforce and incomes collapsing, we need companies to hire from the domestic pool of unemployed. Petitions for workers should be mailed to the unemployment office, not USCIS.
Other candidates, like former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, have been strong like Trump on the issue. Huckabee has hammered the issue many timeseven specifically calling out Disney for its practiceson the campaign trail and in interviews with Breitbart News. Santorum has as well, laying out on the trail how he wants a 25 percent reduction in legal immigration.
Other candidates, like Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), especially because of his work on the Senate Gang of Eight amnesty bill last Congress, and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC)37%, stand against American workers like Perrero and Powers with their policy positions of supporting an increase in H1B levels.
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My prediction is that if Bernie were to win the nomination and either Rubio or Kasich were to win the nomination for the Republican side, that Bernie would gain a lot of Republicans on this issue, especially if Democrats and the Bernie campaign were to talk about it more than they have been. Republicans have been talking on this.
If Bernie faced Cruz or Trump, I think that might be the situation where Bloomberg (who upon entering the race stated he supports no limits on H-1B visas) might enter the race, and be the "rescue" for the H-1B favoring lobbyists and the corporatist media would then try to make Bloomberg sound like the "reasonable" candidate on immigration and try to make both either Trump or Cruz and Bernie in to "xenophobic" candidates opposed to immigration.
There are other issues such as free trade that are also populist in nature that could factor in the same way too, but I don't think that Rubio or Kasich are necessarily "favored" over Bernie if the Democrats campaign right on this issue to capture some of the populist righties and independents as well as the heavy populist support Bernie gets amongst Democrats now.
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