Posted on 11/26/2016 5:18:30 AM PST by RoosterRedux
I sirred up some controversy last week, when I told a conference of several dozen House Republicans that the GOP is now officially a Trump working class party. For better or worse, I said at the gathering inside the Capitol Dome the baton has now officially been passed from the Reagan era to the new Trump era. The members didn’t quite faint over my apostasy, but the shock was palpable.
I emphasized that Republicans must prioritize delivering jobs and economic development to the regions of the country like the industrial Midwest — states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Missouri. These are places that, for the most part, never felt the meager Obama recovery and where blue-collar Reagan Democrats took a leap of faith and came back to the Republican Party for the first time since 1984. The GOP will be judged in 2018 and 2020 as to whether it delivers results for this part of the country and for the forgotten middle-class men and women (“the deplorables”) who Democrats abandoned economically and culturally. This is all simply a political truism.
What caught the ire of some of my conservative friends was my statement that “just as Reagan converted the GOP into a conservative party, with his victory this year, Trump has converted the GOP into a populist America First party.”
One friend lamented that I must have been drunk when I said this.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
It’s time to put aside the labels and call ourselves We the People.
Not drunk but giddy.
Why? Because we oppose fat cats.
George Will deeply saddened
Both Reagan and Trump were formed in a different America, one where one could have been a young Democrat and very much a patriot. Reagan developed and grew philosophical that built on his basic decency. Trump has always been more of a pragmatist, and he is addressing a different era.
There are substantial things these very different men have in common, and they both attract the same enemies. Trump is the kind of guy to kick out the trappings of the anti-American/anti-West revolution and delegate others to work out the details of his horse sense. Others will develop American conservatism to work with and flesh out the new reality. Much of Reagan’s and Trump’s approaches are compatible. Trump has amped up the vulgarity for vulgar times and vulgar opponents. He and Reagan also have different priorities because they are facing different realities.
Well put.
>>It’s time to put aside the labels and call ourselves We the People.
I disagree. We need to remember that the people who support Trump are people who get up in the morning and trade a portion of their finite life for a paycheck, or they did that for 40-50 years and are now retired.
If we start playing this “no labels” BS, then we have to lump the parasites in with us before they stop being parasites and that’s how the wheels came off the American wagon in the first place! The parasite classes need to earn their way in and I’m talking about the parasites at the top and the bottom of the economic ladder.
Historically, some of the major industries he's trying to protect here in the U.S. have been among the most egregious examples of "crony capitalism" at work.
yes, but lean hungry patricians will rule
[If we start playing this “no labels” BS, then we have to lump the parasites in with us before they stop being parasites and that’s how the wheels came off the American wagon in the first place!]
YOU’RE RIGHT! Conservatives must define the vocabulary.
I hope he helps us in the South, too. WE definitely did NOT get any meager Obama recovery also.
The only difference is we were always poorer than the industrial midwest, and our voters haven't been democrats for the past generation.
Don't take our GPO votes for granted. I don't think Trump will, but the GOPe sure has.
GO President Trump!!!!! Make America Great Again!
agree! because it’s wasn’t only working class that voted for Trump. He had some from all groups.
Reagan didn’t convert the GOP. As soon as he left office the NWO wing took over. This time, we must clean house.
It’s about time that it’s become that. For years I bought the line that international force projection and free trade were the hallmarks of what U.S. foreign and economic policy should be, when the answer was simply that we should be focusing on America first and constitutionalism. Kudos to Trump for recognizing and articulating.
the last time America First had a real voice was just before WWII. Get ready.
We(or at least I) have discovered that Conservatism as applied by the establishment does not benefit conservatives only the corporate country club class. We are very mad. The only thing the GOP can do to survive is go after white blue collar workers because the Sunbelt is turning majority minority. These Chamber of Commerce types have betrayed us in every way possible just looking after themselves.
everyone likes to compare trump to Regan and I think a better one to compare him to is Pat Buchanan who ran against bush senior and lost. the message pat had was 20 years to soon for most to listen to and the one that trump gave in the election....
Unfortunately, Reagan’s border policies converted California, Nevada, Colorado and New Mexico to blue
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