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Trump Didn't Form a Populist Coalition; He Was the Result of One
Townhall.com ^ | April 20, 2021 | Salena Zito

Posted on 04/20/2021 3:43:44 AM PDT by Kaslin

PITTSBURGH -- They're still there, planted in front of stately homes in wealthy suburban neighborhoods, on flagpoles in middle-class communities, and along the front stoops of inner-city row houses.

Whether they say "Trump 2020" or simply "Trump," there are plenty of people who have left their sentiments planted on their own personal hill.

It is not just here in Pennsylvania. The signs are not hard to spot as you travel to the Great Lakes, the Midwest, and Appalachia.

The reason is complex. People who come from a variety of socioeconomic, religious, and political experiences formed a conservative populist coalition long before Donald Trump descended Trump Tower's escalator in June 2015 in New York City.

Political analysts, who often have little cultural connection to Republican voters, tend to say "Trump the man" is why his supporters voted for him. So, using that same line of thinking, if they came here and saw the Trump signs, they likely would proclaim these people were Trump cultists and end their curiosity.

They are wrong in two ways.

First, "Trump the man" did not form this coalition. Rather, he was the result of it. This was evident during the 2006 midterm elections when Republicans lost power. Analysts ignored the fact that Main Street Democrats, Republicans, and independent voters were voting against the Republican establishment because they were unhappy with the establishment ignoring their needs, not because they loved Democrats.

The pendulum swung further away from Republicans again in 2008 and then toward them again. By 2016, the voters who were to become Trump's base already knew who they were. Trump was the only one of 17 Republicans and five Democrats who stood out to this group of politically homeless voters. He knew how to tap the aspirations they were looking for from a presidential candidate.

Second, many people who have left their support for Trump visible to others have not left those flags or signs up because they think the election was stolen. It's not a testament to their undying support for one man; they've left them up because it is their only way to show the political class that they are not going away.

This conservative populist coalition ushered in more Republican elected officials down the ballot in November than any pollster or analyst predicted in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, North Carolina, Texas and Arizona. These voters are reminding themselves and others that they are still part of something big.

All you have to do is listen to them. The questions hurled at them, regardless of the subject matter, usually attempt to tie them to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol or begin with, "Isn't it racist ... "

Cultural curators in the media, corporations, and the so-called social justice warriors just can't dislodge themselves from their narrow idea that if you voted for Trump or any other Republican, you are part of this thing that needs to become extinct.

These voters are telling you through their signs that that is not going to happen.

Even among the conservatives who found themselves voting for Joe Biden, they might not have Trump signs in their yard, but they certainly voted Republican down-ballot.

Just ask the newly sworn-in Republicans representing the Pennsylvania suburbs of Mount Lebanon, McCandless, or in Oakmont state House and Senate districts, who won seats in the suburbs Trump lost.

Democrats are going to struggle to win these voters back for U.S. House and Senate seats if they decide to pack the courts, make D.C. a state in order to gain partisan power in the Senate, encourage corporations to boycott states, and downplay the crisis on the border.

These voters did not succumb to the pressures of 2020 woke-ism. They are unlikely to bend in less than two years.

The next time you see a Trump sign in someone's yard, try to suppress your conditioned impulse and consider that it might be something more nuanced, more complex than the lazy stereotypical hot take anyone can post on social media.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: donaldtrump; nationalreview; populism; salenazito
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To: SunkenCiv

Yep, you caught trolling the GOP stooges again.


21 posted on 04/21/2021 4:48:51 AM PDT by hardspunned (former GOP globalist stooge)
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To: Sirius Lee

Quit the GOP, huh? You’re doing quite nicely as a freelance globalist stooge. Want to list the Trump cabinet officials that weren’t stooge brethren of yours? I’ve got Grenell, Litzinger, maybe one or two others. Care to list the actions Trump took to protect the constitution from your Uniparty? I hear he’s going to declassify all the Russia collusion documents any day now. Care to list the Trump accomplishments still standing? They’re all gone. Care to list the Trump actions post 1/7 to save the country? A speech watched by a few thousand RSBN viewers doesn’t count. The country is on the express line to hell and all you’re interested in is rehabilitating a horribly failed Trump reputation.


22 posted on 04/21/2021 5:14:22 AM PDT by hardspunned (former GOP globalist stooge)
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To: AppyPappy

Protectionism, ending foreign military ventures and slowing/stopping immigration are all CONSERVATIVE positions...


23 posted on 04/21/2021 5:17:56 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: SunkenCiv

You are out of line mister.


24 posted on 04/21/2021 5:18:50 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: lurk

Yes these mentally ill emotionally disturbed fools in the MSM and on the left are revering cause and effect in this case.


25 posted on 04/21/2021 5:20:32 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: Bratch

There is no “movement” because it was always there. The GOP has always squelched inherited nationalism and civic pride of the right. Trump just removed the lid.


26 posted on 04/21/2021 5:23:24 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: Kaslin

I’m a Trump supporter cause he fights back for western civilization ....it’s not much more complicated than that

Lots of angles of bullshit on this thread besides that

And from folks I recall didn’t like Trump anyhow but just sucked up here so they could stay and play


27 posted on 04/21/2021 5:24:06 AM PDT by wardaddy (P IN 1999 JIM THOMPSON WAS RIGHT ABOUT THE BUSHES ...WE WERE WRONG lz’’z:s)
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To: Kaslin

Who besides writers in the DC to Boston beltway actually believe conservatives voted for Biden


28 posted on 04/21/2021 5:31:08 AM PDT by wardaddy (P IN 1999 JIM THOMPSON WAS RIGHT ABOUT THE BUSHES ...WE WERE WRONG lz’’z:s)
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To: central_va; hardspunned
Your buddy's got a namecalling problem, which is troll behavior. I am not out of line, you are.

29 posted on 04/21/2021 5:39:35 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: hardspunned
Quit the GOP, huh?

Sure did.

You’re doing quite nicely as a freelance globalist stooge.

I would say I've done very well despite the globalists. But yes, I worked hard and am set for life now. Good times.

all you’re interested in is rehabilitating a horribly failed Trump reputation.

I'm interested MAGA 2024. And MILFs. And motorcycles. Not in that order necessarily.

Sorry you're butthurt. It must be uncomfortable walking around with your head up your ass all day. Go outside. Get some fresh air. Take a walk on the beach. You'll feel better.

30 posted on 04/21/2021 5:41:05 AM PDT by Sirius Lee (They intend to murder us. Prep if you want to live and live like you are prepping for eternal life)
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To: SunkenCiv
Your movement was ineffective, and destroyed itself.

Explain that comment?

31 posted on 04/21/2021 5:43:40 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: central_va
It was ineffective, or we'd have an entirely RINO-free and Demwit-free Congress and White House, and we don't. Barney's stupid torpedo aimed at bringing banks to heel and destroying neighborhoods along with the lending system still stands. Taxed Enough Already? The shift of high-taxed states' property taxes onto the federal income taxpayer was addressed by President Trump's tax reform, I don't recall many complaints about that on FR, but there actually were some, because, y'know, all politics is local. Oh, but that's not the fault of the Tea Party? It's because in 2016 we elected President Trump, not one-man-rule Trump? Thanks for explaining that to all of us.

32 posted on 04/21/2021 6:47:03 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: Sirius Lee

Damn right, butt hurt! My grandchildren don’t have a constitution because Trump refused to fight for it. You will never vote in an honest election again because Trump ran from the fight for them. We will never see a real second party because Trump is all about getting back into the Uniparty(R) after they threw him out. But Trump is going to get his old swamp band of Barr, Mattis, Rosenstein, Wray, Pence, his whole damn DS crew and your dumb ass back togather and the Uniparty is going to allow Trump a free, honest election. Well at least you like motocycles. If you work real hard at becoming useful, you might graduate to useful idiot class.


33 posted on 04/23/2021 5:28:03 PM PDT by hardspunned (former GOP globalist stooge)
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To: hardspunned
If you work real hard at becoming useful, you might graduate to useful idiot class.

Well, not everyone can come by it naturally the way you did.

34 posted on 04/24/2021 5:19:58 AM PDT by Sirius Lee (They intend to murder us. Prep if you want to live and live like you are prepping for eternal life)
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