"Time talks 2016" (election)
Posted on 09/07/2017 1:44:40 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
This is a skeptical interrogation of the widely-accepted belief that white working-class voters elected Trump. A careful analysis of Rust Belt counties that voted for Obama in 2012 demonstrates a strong correlation between recent plant closures and the collapse of the Clinton vote, but shows only a limited movement toward Trump. Several hundred thousand white, blue-collar Obama voters, at most, voted for Trump’s vision of fair trade and reindustrialization, not the millions usually invoked. The mogul’s real election “miracle” was retaining the Romney vote and avoiding the widely predicted defections of Republican women and conservative minorities. He achieved this surprising result by letting evangelicals write the Republican platform and then nominating one of their heroes as VP. None of this mitigates, however, the current bankruptcy of Democratic policies in the old industrial heartland.
History has been hacked. Trump’s “impossible” victories in June and November, together with the stunning challenge of Sanders’s primary campaign, have demolished much of elite political wisdom as well as destroying the two dynasties, the Clintons and Bushes, that have dominated national politics for thirty years. Not since Watergate has so much uncertainty and potential disorder infected every institution, network, and power relationship, including the Trump camp itself.What was unimaginable a few months ago, has now come to pass: the alt-right has a foot inside the White House, a hate-curdled maniac advises national security, a white supremacist controls the machinery of the Justice Department, the coal industry owns the Commerce Department, and a wealthy homeschooler is in charge of national education policy. Obscure billionaires like the DeVoses and Mercers who have spent years transforming Michigan and Texas into right-wing policy laboratories....
(Excerpt) Read more at catalyst-journal.com ...
This author and article is totally devoid of careful analysis. Why post it?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.