From Fred Barnes article....
Trump was an early advocate of spiking the Republican message with a heavy dose of populism. But he wasn't the first. That was former senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania. In 2014, Santorum spoke to the Republican National Committee about the party's failure to appeal to a working class beset by the loss of jobs to immigrants and the closing of factories as companies moved operations overseas.
Santorum had raised these issues when he ran for president in 2012 (he finished second to Mitt Romney for the GOP nomination). Afterwards, he wrote a book on the subject, Blue-Collar Conservatives. Trump read it. Santorum wrote that Republicans should speak up for middle- and lower-income workers and their families. "That's where Republicans need to go," Trump told Santorum when they met.
And that's where Trump went as a candidate. "He did it better than me," Santorum says. "He proved the point."
He proved it by leapfrogging 16 candidates for the Republican nomination and by winning the presidency last week. The key was his populism, his appeal to those in the bottom half of income earners. Without it, without stressing immigration and trade and vowing to "drain the swamp" in Washington, his chance of pulling off an enormous upset would have been small.
Patrick Caddell, the Democratic pollster, says a populist wind is blowing, dominated by three beliefs. First is that the country is in decline. Second, Americans no longer expect their children to inherit a better America than they did. Third, they believe there are "different rules for well-connected and people with money."
"From the time I was a teenager and a self-starting pollster, I have had an acute interest in the phenomenon of political alienation," Caddell wrote. "In our research, the current level of alienation that now grips the American electorate is staggering and unprecedented."
In a poll, Caddell asked if "the power of ordinary people to control our country is getting weaker every day." Eighty-seven percent said so. And 81 percent agreed with this statement: "The U.S. has a two-track economy where most Americans struggle every day, where good jobs are hard to find, where huge corporations get all the rewards."
For Republicans, the lesson is powerful. If they're allergic to working-class appeals, they'd better get over it. Voters are receptive. This year, the white working class responded. But the goal, says Santorum, is a multiracial coalition with "a strong, solid working class [of] small business, entrepreneurs, and wage earners."
That's long term. For now, Trump and Republicans must redeem the promise to rescue a working class in trouble. That comes first. If that slips, voters are bound to conclude that electing Trump and Republicans didn't matter. Because nothing changed.
Trump was an early advocate of spiking the Republican message with a heavy dose of populism. But he wasn't the first. That was former senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania. In 2014, Santorum spoke to the Republican National Committee about the party's failure to appeal to a working class beset by the loss of jobs to immigrants and the closing of factories as companies moved operations overseas.
Santorum had raised these issues when he ran for president in 2012 (he finished second to Mitt Romney for the GOP nomination). Afterwards, he wrote a book on the subject, Blue-Collar Conservatives. Trump read it. Santorum wrote that Republicans should speak up for middle- and lower-income workers and their families. "That's where Republicans need to go," Trump told Santorum when they met.
And that's where Trump went as a candidate. "He did it better than me," Santorum says. "He proved the point."
He proved it by leapfrogging 16 candidates for the Republican nomination and by winning the presidency last week. The key was his populism, his appeal to those in the bottom half of income earners. Without it, without stressing immigration and trade and vowing to "drain the swamp" in Washington, his chance of pulling off an enormous upset would have been small.
Patrick Caddell, the Democratic pollster, says a populist wind is blowing, dominated by three beliefs. First is that the country is in decline. Second, Americans no longer expect their children to inherit a better America than they did. Third, they believe there are "different rules for well-connected and people with money."
"From the time I was a teenager and a self-starting pollster, I have had an acute interest in the phenomenon of political alienation," Caddell wrote. "In our research, the current level of alienation that now grips the American electorate is staggering and unprecedented."
In a poll, Caddell asked if "the power of ordinary people to control our country is getting weaker every day." Eighty-seven percent said so. And 81 percent agreed with this statement: "The U.S. has a two-track economy where most Americans struggle every day, where good jobs are hard to find, where huge corporations get all the rewards."
For Republicans, the lesson is powerful. If they're allergic to working-class appeals, they'd better get over it. Voters are receptive. This year, the white working class responded. But the goal, says Santorum, is a multiracial coalition with "a strong, solid working class [of] small business, entrepreneurs, and wage earners."
That's long term. For now, Trump and Republicans must redeem the promise to rescue a working class in trouble. That comes first. If that slips, voters are bound to conclude that electing Trump and Republicans didn't matter. Because nothing changed.
