Trump’s behavior was less foreign to their local norms than it was to the national audience. He resembled the local party bosses that protected their constituents, spoke plainly, and responded quickly and harshly to criticisms and disloyalty. Muravchik spoke of an honor culture in these towns very much like that found in groups of ethnic minorities. What seemed thin skinned to the coastal elite appeared normal to them. Trump spoke the language of local politics on a national level.
Read MoreA moderate Democratic party could have leveraged this impeachment to certain victory in Congress and the Whitehouse. The new radicalized Democratic party will have a much tougher time.
Read MoreThe elite have remained in outrage mode, blaming everything for this upset except their own complicity in marginalizing a very large segment of the nation, first with neglect and then compounded with contempt.
Read MoreBut beneath these divisions and changes noted by Zito and Todd was a greater difference about their relation to the state. Few voters get into the weeds of political philosophy when they vote, and Trump certainly wasted no time on it, but the voters sensed that constitutional rights were being whittled away by a state that pretended to know what was better for them. The basic civic culture that had survived cycles of progressivism was eroding. Differences of opinion became hate speech; due process was sacrificed to social justice.
Read MoreThe ‘arc of history’ like ‘the will of the people’ is far from an objective concept or defined by rational debate. It is what the charismatic leader or the demagogue says it is.
Read MoreYou do not have to outrun the tiger; you only need to outrun the other campers. Voters can acknowledge Trump’s imperfections while still preferring his results to the political correctness, campus illiberalism, outrage, whining intolerance, contempt, and swamp mentality of the left. As long as they blame others for Trump’s victory they will remain stuck on stupid.
Read MoreMost of the people she interviews voted for Obama twice and then switched to Trump. Often by wide margins. In Lee County, Iowa Obama won with a 16 point margin in 2012. Trump won with the same margin in 2016.
Read MoreThe critical difference was not their college degree, but whether they hung out mostly with other college educated. This suggest peer pressure had a greater effect on urban college educated potential Trump voters. It also suggests that many Trump voters may have been embarrassed to give their true opinions to fellow workers or pollsters.
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