Those who are paying close attention to the presidential race sometimes make a parallel between Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. If you have been hiding under a rock until now, Trump has a great lead on the Republican side through spouting bigoted and aggressive rhetoric against Mexican undocumented immigrants, the Muslim population, and Syrian refugees. Sanders is surging to the to of the Democratic side with his populist message of helping the middle class and punishing the extremely rich for their crimes.

How similar are these two candidates and where do their differences lie? Allow me to break it down for you.

Similarities

Extremism (Although They Are Opposite)

Trump and Sanders both represent the extremes of the political right and left respectively, particularly in the margins of American political culture. Trump's announcement speech proposed that the United States build a wall on the US-Mexican border to bar Mexicans from being able to illegally enter the country, despite the economic damage that it would cause. He has called for a shutdown of mosques, a ban on Muslims entering the country, and has suggested going as far as bombing even the families of ISIS members in order to eradicate them. His tax cut plan would add trillions of dollars to the debt problem, far more than President Obama has added in his seven years so far. He has asserted that he wants to take "ISIS's oil." On other issues, Trump is against abortion, deems police to be "the most mistreated in America" over African-Americans and other minorities, wants to cut the Department of Education and Common Core, and he wants to cut the Environmental Protection Agency. He feels that guns save lives and has made the insensitive comment that the Paris attack on November 13, 2015 would never have happened if the French had guns. Just recently, he announced that he would appoint Supreme Court justices that would overturn marriage equality. He asserts that the trade relations between China and the United States need to be reformed, bringing manufacturing jobs back to America. He also wants to ensure that veterans get the care that they need.

Sanders has declared himself as "democratic socialist," which he defines as "that we must create an economy that works for all, not just the very wealthy... that we must reform a political system in America today which is not only grossly unfair but, in many respects, corrupt." He drives his campaign with the goal of having the top one percent of wealthy people in America paying their share of taxes, which many have avoided over the years. He also made light of the corruption of politicians, as these wealthy people donate tons of money so that the politicians will make policies in their favor. Furthermore, Sanders has proposed plans for free college, single-payer universal healthcare, gun control, an international coalition to defeat ISIS, abortion rights for women, a reinstatement of Glass-Steagall, public funding of campaign finance, changes to clean energy to reverse climate change, longer paternal and maternal leave, longer family work vacations, raising the minimum wage to fifteen dollars, more open immigration reform, removing the racial inequality, especially in prisons, legalizing marijuana, expanding Social Security, rejecting the TPP, better care for veterans, improving infrastructure, helping farmers and rural areas, supporting the right of people with disabilities' and their ability to contribute to the workforce, and LGBT+ equality.

On the issues, both of the candidates agree on protecting Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare.

Not Bought By Billionaires

While Sanders's message has more focus on the issues of income inequality and campaign finance reform, neither Sanders nor Trump are funding their campaigns with the money of billionaires. Trump himself is a billionaire, so he pays for everything himself. The bulk of Sanders's campaign funding has come from individual contributions. He has broken the record for individual campaign donations and is still surging. In 2015, Sanders raised $73 million from more than one million people, resulting in 2,513,665 donations (the previous record-holder was President Obama during his re-election campaign). Trump also admits to having given money to some of the current Presidential candidates, including both Republicans and Democrats.

Differences

Although the parallel between Trump and Sanders is legitimate in this way, there are more differences between the presidential candidates than similarities.

Publicity And Treatment By The Media

Trump has appeared on Fox News a whopping 132 times. He is talked about by the media often, even when he's being attacked. He is given a massive amount of attention in response to the reactionary things that he says. In the past one hundred days, Trump has been mentioned on televised media a total of 100,276 times, topping the list by a landslide with Hillary Clinton coming in second at 38,411 mentions. Sanders comes in sixth with 18,208 mentions, despite the candidates between him and his Democratic rival (Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, and Ben Carson) polling below Sanders. Sanders is treated as a joke, as though he's a great guy who will never make it as the president. Trump is taken as a serious possibility, whether the media finds that scary or not.

Plans And Policies

Trump speaks repeatedly about the same sorts of things: ISIS, Muslims, hindering Mexican immigration, gun rights, veteran care, and US-China trade relations. If you go to his website, you will see his detailed positions and plans for these. On the other hand, if you go to Sanders's website, you will find his plans for 21 different issues and how he will pay for everything. Most of Trump's rhetoric is made of racism, sexism, racial discrimination, and jumping at the gun for war. Sanders presents real solutions for real issues on top of having a gentler, more level-headed approach to foreign affairs. He brings a more peaceful message, save for his impassioned speeches directed towards the corruption of the billionaires and inequality in the United States.

Lies

According to Politifact, a political fact-checking site, Sanders has no rated "Pants on Fire" statements and he has made more statements in the range of truth than lies.

Trump, on the other hand, has only made one true statement and most of his statements are in the range of lies.

Histories And Consistency

Trump has always been rich and has had things handed to him. He once recalled his father giving him a "small loan of one million dollars" after he graduated from college, which equates to $6.8 million today. He is a businessman who is now a billionaire, following the sucess of his father. He used to identify as a Democrat, being close friends with Hillary Clinton and supporting abortion rights. There are people who are suspicious that Trump is attempting to sabotage the Republican party so that Hillary Clinton may win the presidency or that he is planning to drop out during the race because the whole thing was a publicity stunt.

Sanders comes from a family of Jewish immigrants. His first form of office was as the mayor of Burlington, Vermont from 1981-1989. He followed this with a term as a representative from 1991-2007 and he has been a senator since 2007. During all of this time, he has given the same progressive message of peaceful foreign affairs, rebuilding the middle class, and holding the extremely rich responsible for their transgressions.

So, are the two candidates two sides of the same coin? You could say that. They are both the most extreme candidates for either side and neither of them have been bought by billionaires. However, Sanders is consistent, an underdog, has plans and policies for many issues, and is ignored or attacked by the media. Trump is a wild card, has always been rich, focuses on five issues, spends more time spouting bigotry than proposing policies, and is all over the media.