Posted By RichC on August 26, 2018
I may have pick up my favorite political book of the year with Salena Zito and Brad Todd’s "The Great Revolt: Inside the Populist Coalition Reshaping American Politics." It analyzes the unusual rise of once "long shot" billionaire reality-tv GOP candidate Donald Trump who defeated 17 other Republican "politicians" and chipped off enough disgruntled Independent and Democratic voters to defeat Hillary Clinton in 2016. The first person voter interviews with thousands of ordinary American voters is something that left pollsters and political party strategists scratching their heads and is finding them studying carefully as this populist movement either continues or dies off in future US elections.
For me, it is not that I haven’t heard the message before, but getting it all in a concise book with the ordinary people interviews, that many of us living in the mid-west can relate to, is most telling. There are those who are one issue voters like the 2nd Amendment or concerned over the damage another liberal supreme court justice could make … as well as those who dislike the direction of the country under supporters of BIG government progressive policies.
The later “felt” how slow the economic recovery was going and how expensive the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) was making health care as it continued to collapse under its own weight. It also highlighted the "embarrassed to tell their friends" closet Trump voters or the evangelical Christians who seemed unlikely to support a man on his 3rd wife with less-than upright past behavior. All in all, it is an intriguing book and might help explain things to those who live in academia or tight progressive circles on the east and west coast — and especially for those oblivious to the reality faced by "blue collar traditional democratic voters some viewed as "clinging to their guns and religion" or that their candidate of choice referred to as "deplorables."
Here is a great CSPAN interview by David Drucker with the authors Brad Todd and Salena Zito (well worth listening to).
Standout syndicated columnist and CNN contributor Salena Zito, with veteran Republican strategist Brad Todd, reports across five swing states and over 27,000 miles to answer the pressing question: Was Donald Trump’s election a fluke or did it represent a fundamental shift in the electorate that will have repercussions–for Republicans and Democrats–for years to come.
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Category: Books, Politics |
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Tags: book, brad todd, clinton, conservative, democrat, donald trump, election, obama, Politics, president, progressive, reading, republican, salena zito, the great revolt
Some interesting results using my birth town and the "number of 90 degree days" in a New York Times "tool" which I interpret as wanting to alarm us into action over the "human induced climate change" projections. If you haven’t already dug your heels in with an opinion (likely influenced by politics either way) … it is not hard to recognize the slant and agenda of "Climate" writers for the NYTimes. 
