Bernie and Donald may be two peas in the same anti-Establishment pod, garnering their respective followings based on their shared belief that “politics as usual” is no longer an effective mantra, and both sporting hairdos that defy logic, reason and, generally, gravity. But while Donald Trump may be happy with his “outsider” status, Bernie Sanders is less thrilled that Bernie-Donald comparisons are “a thing.”

Speaking to MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell, Bernie whined that he’d rather people prefer to think of him as a unique and special unicorn, rather than the cross-partisan twin of a New York real estate mogul.

“No, I don’t accept that for one moment,” the Independent Vermont senator said on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” when asked if he was tapping into the same “anger” against Washington that is fueling Trump’s campaign.

“We are not engaged here in demagoguery. We’re not engaged in racist attacks, outrageous attacks against Mexicans. What we are trying to do is talk about the reality facing the American people and come up with real concrete solutions,” Sanders continued.

Technically speaking, making obtuse claims about an opposition candidate could be considered demagoguery. And also technically, Donald Trump views his policy on Mexican immigrants as a real, concrete solution. And frankly, while I might disagree with the Donald’s approach to our broken immigration system, Bernie Sanders’s policy of just giving everything away for free without regard to present or future cost doesn’t seem like a reality-based, well-considered idea. 

Bernie, of course, considers himself at the helm of a “mass political movement,” as he tells MSNBC (in the third person, natch). He thinks of Donald as an entertainer, but Bernie Sanders, the man who draws huge crowds to hear him talk about practically nothing and helms a website called “Feel the Bern,” is a political genius.