Who Said It, Bernie or Trump?

In American politics it is not controversial to say that Bernie Sanders is more consistent, and more consistently liberal, than Donald Trump. Just for fun I’ve cherry-picked ten quotations from those two politicians below (most from the current election cycle, but some date back decades). Can you identify which three are from Bernie? (The rest are by Trump.) The correct answers are in the footnotes.

  1. I’m about the middle class. I want the middle class to be thriving again. We’re losing our middle class.[1]

  2. I would press for universal health care. It’s ridiculous that the richest country on Earth can’t provide first-rate health care for our people. I would put forward a comprehensive health care program and fund it with an increase in corporate taxes. I’d strictly regulate the pharmaceutical firms to end these 500% profits on drugs that are cheap to produce.[2]

  3. The middle class is getting clobbered in this country. You know the middle class built this country, not the hedge fund guys, but I know people in hedge funds that pay almost nothing and it’s ridiculous, OK?[3]

  4. You know what youth unemployment is in the United States of America today? If you’re a white high school graduate, it’s 33 percent, Hispanic 36 percent, African American 51 percent. You think we should open the borders and bring in a lot of low-wage workers, or do you think maybe we should try to get jobs for those kids?[4]

  5. Decades of disastrous trade deals and immigration policies have destroyed our middle class. Today, nearly 40% of black teenagers are unemployed. Nearly 30% of Hispanic teenagers are unemployed. […​] The influx of foreign workers holds down salaries, keeps unemployment high, and makes it difficult for poor and working class Americans — including immigrants themselves and their children — to earn a middle class wage.[5]

  6. I grew up in New York City, a town with different races, religions, and peoples. It breeds tolerance.[6]

  7. [Open borders] would make everybody in America poorer — you’re doing away with the concept of a nation state, and I don’t think there’s any country in the world that believes in that.[7]

  8. I would let people that are making hundreds of millions of dollars a year pay some tax. Because right now they’re paying very little tax and I think it’s outrageous. I want to lower taxes for the middle class.[8]

  9. The fluoridation of water and the giving of medicants to children in schools are portents, perhaps, of many worse things to come.[9]

  10. Super PACs are a disaster. They’re a scam. They cause dishonesty.[10]

Scroll down to view answers...

1. Trump. Knowles, David. “Donald Trump Says He Wants to Raise Taxes on Himself.” Bloomberg 26 August 2015.
2. Trump. This interview was conducted while Trump was considering challenging Pat Buchanan for the Reform Party nomination in 2000. Some of his views may have shifted toward right-wing populism since then. Alexander, Paul. “Trump Towers.” The Advocate 15 February 2000.
3. Trump. Knowles, David. “Donald Trump Says He Wants to Raise Taxes on Himself.” Bloomberg 26 August 2015.
4. Bernie. Klein, Ezra. “Bernie Sanders: The Vox conversation.” Vox 28 July 2015.
5. Trump. This is on Trump’s campaign site, not something he actually said. “Immigration Reform That Will Make America Great Again.” Retrieved 5 November 2015.
6. Trump. Alexander, Paul. “Trump Towers.” The Advocate 15 February 2000.
7. Bernie. Klein, Ezra. “Bernie Sanders: The Vox conversation.” Vox 28 July 2015.
8. Trump. Knowles, David. “Donald Trump Says He Wants to Raise Taxes on Himself.” Bloomberg 26 August 2015.
9. Bernie. This was plucked from an anti-authoritarian essay Sanders wrote 46 years ago. I wanted something close to Trump’s various conspiracy theories, but this concern about fluoridation is the closest I could find. “Reflections on a Dying Society.” Vermont Freeman 1-3 August 1969: 8-9.
10. Trump. “Transcript: Read the Full Text of the CNBC Republican Debate in Boulder.” 28 October 2015.

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