Ralph Nader says the grassroots power behind Bernie Sanders’s and Donald Trump’s presidential bids will last beyond Election Day, regardless of the outcome Tuesday.
“The energy released by the Bernie Sanders and Trump campaigns is not going to go away,” he said on Fox Business Network’s “Cavuto Coast to Coast” Tuesday.
{mosads}“I think we’re going to get a third and fourth break of the two-party system coming up,” the former Green Party presidential nominee added.
“Meantime, these forces that fueled Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, they’re going to be looking for an outlet. It’s not going to be the Republican and Democratic parties.”
Nader said voters should expect legislative stagnation if Hillary Clinton wins the presidency.
“Nothing’s going to happen in the next four years because of the gridlock between the Republicans in Congress and Hillary Clinton,” he said of the Democratic presidential nominee. “You’re going to see a worsening status quo gridlock.”
Nader predicted that Trump’s unorthodox White House run will inspire other political outsiders to follow suit.
“There’s going to be billionaires looking at the scene for 2020 saying, ‘If a failed gambling czar who’s a corporate welfare king and who dealt harshly with workers, shareholders, his creditors and suppliers can get almost into the White House, what about them?’”
Nader additionally predicted that Trump would struggle with controlling the GOP, regardless of Tuesday’s outcome.
“He won’t be able to lead it,” he said of the Republican nominee. “He’s a businessman, he wants his brand to go up. That’s what he’s going to resort to.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) fiercely competed with Clinton in the Democratic primary before she ultimately won the party’s presidential nomination.
Trump, for his part, has repeatedly cast himself as a change agent capable of disrupting the political establishment Clinton represents.
Sanders endorsed Clinton in July in an attempt at rallying progressive voters around her campaign.
Clinton leads Trump by about 3 points nationally as ballots are being cast, according to the latest RealClearPolitics average of polls.