[plain talk]

Would the GOP wipeout in those heavily Catholic, ethnic, socially conservative, blue-collar bastions of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio and Illinois, which Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan swept, have anything to do with the fact that the United States since 2000 has lost 6 million manufacturing jobs and 55,000 factories?

Uh no. If we had not lost the manufacturing jobs those states would be even more democrat. I don't see his point but that is not unusual because Pat Buchanan has some bizarre ideas.

[teflon9]

” If we had not lost the manufacturing jobs those states would be even more democrat”

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Not true! If the manufacturing jobs stayed, you’d have well-payed workers, with benefits, actually marrying their “babymamas”, buying homes, caring about their neighborhoods, and generally being solid middle-class citizens (i.e. the very sort of person who generally votes GOP). Instead, with the manufacturing jobs gone, you have a cohort of people working in low-paying service jobs (”welcome to Walmart”) usually with lousy benefits, not being able to afford to marry, probably on food-stamps, WIC or some such public assitence (i.e your classic ‘rat voter).

[gusty]

Buchanan is missing the point here. It wasn't GOP free trade that destroyed manufacturing in the US, it was the Left, Democrats and their union thug allies who chased these jobs overseas in these blue states. How come companies in South Carolina and Texas seem not to disappear to China.