Primary day in New Jersey
Next time the polls try to pigeonhole Bernie Sanders or Donald Trump voters, consider Mahesh Tatali of Sayreville.
He is an immigrant, a native of India, but has been an American citizen who has lived here for 25 years.
He is a Democrat and was voting for Bernie Sanders in the New Jersey primary today, but come November, well, he'll vote for Donald Trump.
"I like Bernie, I think he is fundamentally a good guy," said Tatali. "But only Donald Trump can fix our problems. He's for the middle class. He's not a regular politician. He's going to stop letting (corporations) send jobs overseas."
Or consider Felix Ocasio, who lives down the street from Tatali.
He is retired from a successful retail business, a capitalist all the way. He's voting for Sanders.
"I can't deal with (Hillary) Clinton's or Trump's policies," Ocasio said in front of his well-landscaped home and from behind the wheel of his white Mercedes. "I'm on my way to vote for Bernie now. I think he wants more economic fairness to help regular people."
"I went out with a guy canvassing (Sunday) who was over 60," said Rob Clarkson, 24, one of the young Sanders volunteers at the candidate's state headquarters in Sayreville. "He made an incredible pitch for economic justice that really seemed to resonate with people."
This presidential primary election that has confounded so many politic-watchers is really pretty simple. It's a middle-class revolt that's been a long time coming.
It brought out people like Michelina Chillemi of Edison, whose husband owns a small landscaping and construction company, to vote for the first time in the 48 years she's been in America.
Blue collars for Bernie? Nope. Not only did she vote for Trump, she's volunteering at his New Jersey campaign headquarters in Edison.
"I think he's sincere," said Chillemi, still carrying the Italian accent from her birth country. "He wants to help regular Americans."
She said this while standing in front of a hand-drawn "Women for Trump" sign, aimed at the polls that say women hate Trump.
In Edison yesterday, the front desk was manned by Alysia Siegel of Colonia; the office managed by Katie Martinez; and several women volunteers were making get-out-and-vote calls.
Siegel told of a relative just laid off by Merck after 20 years, as the company restructured.
"They shipped her job to India," she said.
Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump voters are like first cousins in an estranged family. They say they don't like each other, but they share the same DNA.
Anger. Frustration. The sense that the American dream, or the America they dreamed of, is slipping away.
The seeds were flung with the scattered formation of the tea party in 2009, followed by Occupy Wall Street. Different political views, yes, but same viewpoint: That America was no longer a place by the people and for the people. That it favors politicians and their corporate/special interests financers, and chews up and spits out the little guy.
When campaign workers at both Sanders and Trump headquarters described their demographic yesterday, they sounded identical.
"We have teachers, police, firemen, union guys. They all say the middle class is falling apart."
That was Siegel, at Trump headquarters. Behind her was a sign that read, "The silent majority stands with Trump," recycling a phrase popularized by Richard Nixon in 1969.
"We have people fighting for the American dream, we have people fighting hard for the economy."
That was Josh Levin, a volunteer in Sanders' office and the campaign manager for Peter Jacob, an Indian-American running for Congress and a strong Sanders supporter.
It's no wonder both camps chose Middlesex County for their headquarters. Not only is it centrally located, with the Turnpike and Parkway running through it, but its transition from industrial to service and transportation economy has been particularly painful for county's working and middle classes.
Middlesex County was once one of the industrial biceps of New Jersey, from the factories along the Raritan Bay to the massive Ford plant in Edison.
"I remember when my dad was running for office, I'd go with him to the factory gates and wait for the shifts to change," said state Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Middlesex) of Sayreville, the top state Democrat to support Sanders and the chairman of his state campaign. "There were hundreds, if not thousands, of men going to work every day."
Back when Felix Wisniewski, a factory worker himself, was on the Sayreville Borough Council in the 1970s and '80s, National Lead, Hercules, Inc., Sunshine Biscuit and DuPont were all going full tilt, making everything from paint to gunpowder to cookies.
Of course, all was not good about the good old days. There were environmental consequences caused by corporate recklessness. Still, the bleed-out of good-paying manufacturing jobs going overseas -- and being replaced by minimum wage jobs at the box-store plazas that sell the stuff made overseas -- has people fearful of the future.
"Trump and Bernie supporters come from the same line of frustration," said Wisniewski. "They see bankers engaging in reckless behavior and destroying the economy, and never punished. They see a culture of political corruption."
And they don't see anyone who can change it, except their guys.