Feature: Trump, Sanders appeal to American voters left behind by economic downturn

Billionaire Donald Trump and the self-described Democratic socialist Bernie Sanders may be at polar opposite ends of the U.S. political spectrum, but they have one crucial factor in common: both appeal to the millions of Americans left behind in an economy that has never fully recovered from the 2008 crash.

Both Trump and Sanders have surprised analysts, pundits and political prognosticators in Washington, who originally expected both men to fade out quickly in the 2016 U.S. presidential race.

But in fact the opposite has happened, with Trump becoming a front-runner in the Republican camp and Sanders continuing an impressive challenge to Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.

While one candidate is a right-leaning populist and the other is far to the left, both Trump and Sanders are anti-establishment figures who appeal to the millions of Americans who continue to feel the sting of the 2008 economic downturn.

For these voters, neither the Republican nor the Democratic establishments have helped them as they've struggled to make ends meet over the past seven years.

Republican strategist Ford O' Connell noted that there is disenchantment not only in the Republican Party - a current fascination of the U.S. media - but also in the Democratic Party.

"If the media were not so preoccupied with the Republican circus, they'd actually be...shedding light on the growing divide on the left," he said, adding that Sanders' popularity shows the high level of Democratic voters' disenchantment with the Washington elite.

Dan Mahaffee, an analyst with the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, told Xinhua there are a considerable number of disenfranchised individuals on the left, adding that Sanders' popularity reflects that.

While Clinton is still more likely to grab her party's nomination, Sanders' popularity shows Democratic voters are highly dissatisfied with the Washington elite, experts said.

Indeed, many on the left view Clinton as a candidate who, if elected, will simply uphold the status quo, which they believe has not benefited them economically in the seven years since the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

Indeed, in many ways, the 2008 economic crash that sent the global economy reeling has never ended.

While the official jobless rate is 4.9 percent, critics say the figure is full of holes. For example, if an out-of-work scientist cleans up his neighbor's lawn for a day and collects a few U.S. dollars for it, he is considered to be employed for that week by government statisticians.

Moreover, the rate only measures those actively looking for work, and does not include the millions who have given up seeking work out of sheer frustration with what they view as dim job prospects.

Indeed, the Wall Street Journal estimates that 2.6 million Americans who do not work are simply not looking for work. Many other such loopholes exist in the unemployment rate, which masks the true seriousness of the country's jobless situation.

Experts say the true jobless rate is far higher than the official unemployment rate suggests.

Many economically disenfranchised Americans are in rural areas far from Washington D.C., a city where jobs are plentiful and wages are far higher than in most of the rest of the country. The sense that Washington is one giant cocktail party that is financed by the rest of the nation breeds resentment toward the nation's capital and the career politicians who run the show.

Many disenfranchised individuals make up a large chunk of the supporters of the bombastic Trump, whose populist, anti-Washington message has drawn droves of disaffected individuals.

For Sanders, millennials make up a major portion of his supporters. The group has felt the brunt of the country's economic weakness, much more so than most other groups.

Many recent university graduates have been forced to move back home with their parents - American young people usually leave home after high school - and are often working in jobs far beneath their qualifications and salary expectations.

Polls find that the demographic expects to have a lower standard of living than their parents, and the generation is strapped with an average of 35,000 U.S. dollars in student debt per person - far higher than university graduates a decade earlier.

That makes it difficult to purchase a home, forcing indebted graduates to continue to rent and rendering them unable to invest in real estate, which can negatively impact their financial situation for years to come.

Recent U.S. census data shows that 40 percent of unemployed Americans are millennials, meaning that 4.6 million people in that age group are jobless.

Experts said all this is the backdrop in which Trump and Sanders are seeing unexpected success.

While most analysts do not expect Sanders to gain the Democratic nomination, he will likely continue to pose a challenge to Clinton in the fight for party nomination.

As for Trump, it is increasingly likely that he will win the Republican nomination and take his anti-establishment message to face Clinton in the 2016 race for the White house. Endit