A Sanders-Trump Revolution

Make no mistake, you are living through a U.S. version of the Bolshevik Revolution.

In the 2016 presidential campaign, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump repeat almost daily that the wealthy control the political and financial systems for their own benefit, in effect asserting that our revered democracy and acclaimed capitalism just camouflage the unfairness.

Sanders threw the first punch, saying politicians are influenced, one might say corrupted, by donor money directly or through lobbyists. Then Trump landed the knockout punch, confirming he contributed to Democrats and Republicans to get business deals done. None of their opponents have risen to object.

Sanders says the top one-tenth of 1 percent own about as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent, and it is getting worse. Trump speaks of his Wall Street friends, with wealth earned just by moving pieces of paper around, who get tax preferences.

Revolutions are usually initiated by some event. Here there are three:

The Great Recession of 2008. Subprime housing loans were approved throughout the government, by rating agencies, by investment bankers, by business school professors, all for billions of dollars in compensation. When exposed, the country lost 800,000 jobs a month, and banks will still not make decent home and other loans. Not one person has been held criminally accountable, and few have had to fork over the millions they earned.

The invasion of Iraq. Sadly, the aftermath of our invading Iraq has not been good. Democracy failed to elect as our leaders the best and the brightest, instead putting in power people with political connections who lacked competence, for sure, and perhaps honesty.

The control of Congress by billionaires. When the Supreme Court ruled that political messages could not be limited, it unleashed enormous funds from billionaires on the right like the Koch brothers to express their views against the government helping the less fortunate. Their Tea Party congresspeople agreed not to compromise and were willing to shut down the U.S. government. Today, many of the political action committees (PACs) of both parties are breaking the law by using the funds to help campaigns, not just pay for messages.

Politicians, political consultants, and pundits failed to see the revolution coming because they are immersed in the establishment that pays their rent, and we are all unaccustomed to a revolution demanding dramatic increases in standards of living. Not since Andrew Jackson anyway.

Can a non-politician be a good president? Yes, and even better!

Sanders and Trump would pick the best candidates for jobs, regardless of political party affiliation. That is what has so alarmed the party faithful. Restoring a vibrant meritocracy to democracy makes 2015 a very scary Halloween for Democrats and Republicans alike.

Unfettered by political party ideologies, Sanders and Trump reached the right decisions on our biggest challenges this century. Sanders long argued for greater bank regulation that would have prevented the recession of 2008. Trump wrote in 2000 that we were susceptible to a major terrorist attack on our soil and it could come from Osama bin Laden. Sanders and Trump both were against going into Iraq, Sanders voting against it and Trump writing in 2003 that it would destabilize the Mideast.

This is in contrast to President Bush, who listened to, and appointed, his loyal Republican colleagues, who overruled the more informed Gen. Colin Powell.

Condoleezza Rice, a Russian history professor and university administrator who helped Bush prepare for the 2000 presidential debates, was rewarded with the position national security adviser even though she was far away from being the best person to keep us safe. After failing to protect us on 9/11, Rice was promoted to secretary of state. She advocated for the invasion of Iraq with Vice President Cheney and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, the three so incompetent that they hung a giant banner, “Mission Accomplished,” behind Bush for his speech on an aircraft carrier in 2003.

Is a full-blown revolution inevitable?

When Sanders and Trump tell us not to revere the politically and financially entrenched they are inciting us to revolt.

Trump can regain Hispanic votes because he is certainly no racist. People never welcome even legal immigrants for fear it could cost them their jobs or businesses.

Sanders is safe as a socialist because people welcome help when they cannot see a way out of their financial challenges and view the deck as stacked against them.

Sanders and Trump are both against the Trans-Pacific Partnership, contending it does not do enough for U.S. jobs.

Trump has created jobs as an entrepreneur and might be able to make the pie dramatically bigger, not just redistribute a static pie. Similarly, Sanders could surround himself with people like his fellow Vermont citizen Ben Cohen of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, who has fought to limit C.E.O. salaries to seven times the lowest salary and lived by that rule.

If Sanders or Trump is elected it will be a revolution indeed.

Jeremy Wiesen, a longtime East Hampton resident, is a retired professor of entrepreneurship at New York University’s Stern School of Business and is part of the U.S. State Department’s Global Entrepreneurship Program.