On Roseanne and The Great Revolt

Coastal Elites are still trying to reconcile in their minds how Donald John Trump became the 45th President of the United States.  They were convicted that First Lady Senator Obama Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton would break the glass ceiling and be ushered into the Oval Office.  After all, she was pitted against a boorish Manhattan mogul who was a political novice and was alienated from key segments of his current political party. 

That unshakable arrogance makes the HBO excerpts  of Obama Administration point player Ben Rhodes on Election Night 2016 all the more delightful to those who chant "Drain the Swamp". In the aftermath of the election upset, Democrats pushed a Russian collusion conceit which managed to have a Special Counsel named but who garnered up scant evidence of a Russian nexus to Trump's campaign.

The mainstream media which became progressive provocateurs broadcast a bevy of anti-Trump material, gorgonizing anyone who supported President Trump as being a racist, sexist homophobic xenophobe instead of investigating how Mr. Trump was able to break the supposed Blue Wall for Democrats in the Upper Midwest. 

Salena Zito and Brad Todd's recent bestseller "The Great Revolt" (2018) examined seven groups of unlikely voters for a populist titularly Republican candidate.  Many of those groups, like "Red Blooded and Blue Collar", "Rough Rebounders" and "Perotistas" were either born and bred Democrats or previously unreliable voters.  During the promotional campaign for "The Great Revolt", Ms. Zito pointed to the resurgence of the Roseanne Show to illustrate how "The Forgotten Man" was gaining prominence in the body politic despite the barrage of anti-Trump sentiment on the airways.

When the Rosanne show was revived as a mid season replacement, it garnered 22 million viewers, in part because it portrayed Trump supporters as having reasons for their sentiments rather than a knee jerk condemnation of their politically incorrect heresy. 

Recently, Rosanne Barr tweeted a crude crack against Obama confidant Valerie Jarrett.  Despite Roseanne Barr offering a quick social media apology, the Roseanne Show was cancelled by by ABC Entertainment and the eleven seasons of reruns were pulled off Hulu and TVLand.  

Some Trump supporters saw nothing wrong with the controversial comparison, noting that Rosanne Barr has a history of making questionable quips. Conservatives have pointed out the numerous cases of hypocrisy that progressives say untoward things against their enemies and there are no consequences.  

MSNBC's Chris Hayes may have unwittingly revealed the progressive playbook by too overtly suggesting that Roseanne reflected the reputation of Trump voters as being racist, sexist, homophobic xenophobes.  But it was Todd Starnes who noted that ABC can't stomach Trump supporters. 

It is dubious that ABC will suffer from an acute boycott by incensed Rosanne viewers.  But their parent company Disney's stock sunk  2.3% on the news of the cancellation.  It may well be that the Rosanne Show is picked up by another outlet, as Fox Television is bringing back  back the ratings winning Tim Allen comedy  "Last Man Standing" which appeals to a conservative audience.  


There are other indications that the steamrolling of "Fly Over Country" values does not always work.  Despite the onslaught of publicity for Black Lives Matter and the Take The Knee campaigns, the NFL instituted a new policy that prohibits player protests on the field during the National Anthem.  Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones claims that Donald Trump told him "You can't win... this one lifts me" on the Take the Knee controversy.  That leads you to believe that Trump's popularity triumphs, rather than understanding that patriotic, non-politically correct American values are the crux of the ratings decline. 

Democrats and elites have positioned themselves to be progressive polemicists, thinking that their political prescriptions are inevitable in its ascent. Seeing the collapse in CNN's ratings and the incredible erosion of Democrat favorability in generic congressional polling ought to shake them of their smugness. 

On Tolerance, Pardons, Politics and Dinesh D'Souza

In 2012, conservative polemicist Dinesh D'Souza contributed $20,000  via a straw donor for his friend Wend Long's quixotic campaign to become Senator from New York.   His infraction was zealously prosecuted by politically connected US Prosecutor from the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara.   

In 2014, D'Souza entered a plea for a one count felony charge. D'Souza's sentence was for eight months in a half way house, five years probation and a $30,000 fine. 

 This was perhaps the first time that someone was sentenced to prison for a minor FEC infraction.  Liberal Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz noted that such campaign violations were common and questioned if it was a proper exercise of prosecutorial discretion.   Many conservatives believe that Bharara threw the book at D'Souza as payback for cinematic success of  "2016: Obama's America" (2012).   Bharara was thought to be a front runner to replace Obama Attorney General Eric Holder in 2014. 

On May 31, 2018  President Donald Trump announced via Twitter that he would grant D'Souza a full pardon because  he was very unfairly treated by our government.

President Barack Obama granted clemency to 1,715 nonviolent criminals, many of them were for drug dealers and even a terrorist.  Obama granted more commutations  than the prior twelve Presidents. The mainstream media lauded the Obama Administration as being tolerant.  

It is dubious that the media accredited Democrat steno-pool will apply the same standards towards President Trump regarding Dinesh D'Souza.

DC Edition of What's New Mr. Magoo?

The Strange Case of Tommy Robinson

Last week, British new media journalist Tommy Robinson (ne Stephen Lennon) was taken into custody and summarily sentenced to 13 months in prison while he was live streaming outside of the Leeds Crown Court.





There is considerable confusion about the matter.  Robinson has a history of being a soccer hooligan who became active in nationalist politics, with an animus against radical Islam. Robinson's arrest was while he covered a Muslim rape gang which groomed its child victims.

Because Tommy Robinson was weary of Islamic influence in the UK, it is easy to leap to the conclusion that a police state is trying to shut down a dissenting voice from elite internationalists.  It may well be that Robinson was taken in on suspended sentence for contempt of court regarding coverage of a gang rape case in 2017 that was escalated by being in a scuffle with police.  Robinson fears that his 13 month sentence will effectively be a death sentence due to Muslim gangs in prison.

Robinson's arrest seems kind of reminiscent of what happened to the LA videographer in the wake of the Benghazi attack in 2012.  Use trumped up charges on a small fry to politically placate.

What should be truly disturbing to all freedom lovers is the injunction that the judge, Geoffrey Mason QC, ordered an Orwellian media blackout, enjoining the British press from reporting on it until after the conclusion of the child grooming case.

[C] Judge Geoffrey Mason watching Tommy Robinson arrest, Leeds Crown Court

Several European Parliament Members have called Robinson a political prisoner and demanded his release. It is puzzling that the public can not be informed of someone who has been convicted of a crime. Are Star Chambers back in style in England again? In the past, the Star Chamber supposedly took on prominent people.  Is it now to enforce political correctness or PC dhimmitude?

Jonathan Turley on Spygate

Lauding Medal of Honor Recipient Father Emil Kapaun

President Obama Giving Medal of Honor to Fr. Kapaun's nephew Ray

Father Emil Kapaun is a Kansas born US Army Chaplain who was post-humously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor six decades after his death in a North Korean prisoner of war camp. Fr. Kapuan is the fifth Catholic chaplain who has been given the Nation’s highest honor.  Fr. Kapaun has been recognized as a Servant of God, meaning that a case has been opened at the Vatican to explore beatification.

Fr. Kapaun’s Congressional Medal of Honor was presented to his nephew Ray.  President Obama's  remarks at the award ceremony captured the valor which Fr. Kapaun displayed as well as demonstrating the value of the chaplaincy to the troops, especially in the duress of enemy captivity.

After the Communist invasion of South Korea, he was among the first American troops that hit the beaches and pushed their way north through hard mountains and bitter cold. In his understated Midwestern way, he wrote home, saying, “this outdoor life is quite the thing” and “I prefer to live in a house once in a while.” But he had hope, saying, “It looks like the war will end soon.”

That’s when Chinese forces entered the war with a massive surprise attack -- perhaps 20,000 soldiers pouring down on a few thousand Americans. In the chaos, dodging bullets and explosions, Father Kapaun raced between foxholes, out past the front lines and into no-man’s land -- dragging the wounded to safety.

When his commanders ordered an evacuation, he chose to stay -- gathering the injured, tending to their wounds. When the enemy broke through and the combat was hand-to-hand, he carried on -- comforting the injured and the dying, offering some measure of peace as they left this Earth.

When enemy forces bore down, it seemed like the end -- that these wounded Americans, more than a dozen of them, would be gunned down. But Father Kapaun spotted a wounded Chinese officer. He pleaded with this Chinese officer and convinced him to call out to his fellow Chinese. The shooting stopped and they negotiated a safe surrender, saving those American lives.

Then, as Father Kapaun was being led away, he saw another American -- wounded, unable to walk, laying in a ditch, defenseless. An enemy soldier was standing over him, rifle aimed at his head, ready to shoot. And Father Kapaun marched over and pushed the enemy soldier aside. And then as the soldier watched, stunned, Father Kapaun carried that wounded American away.

This is the valor we honor today -- an American soldier who didn’t fire a gun, but who wielded the mightiest weapon of all, a love for his brothers so pure that he was willing to die so that they might live. And yet, the incredible story of Father Kapaun does not end there.

He carried that injured American, for miles, as their captors forced them on a death march. When Father Kapaun grew tired, he’d help the wounded soldier hop on one leg. When other prisoners stumbled, he picked them up. When they wanted to quit -- knowing that stragglers would be shot -- he begged them to keep walking.

In the camps that winter, deep in a valley, men could freeze to death in their sleep. Father Kapaun offered them his own clothes. They starved on tiny rations of millet and corn and birdseed. He somehow snuck past the guards, foraged in nearby fields, and returned with rice and potatoes. In desperation, some men hoarded food. He convinced them to share. Their bodies were ravaged by dysentery. He grabbed some rocks, pounded metal into pots and boiled clean water. They lived in filth. He washed their clothes and he cleansed their wounds.

The guards ridiculed his devotion to his Savior and the Almighty. They took his clothes and made him stand in the freezing cold for hours. Yet, he never lost his faith. If anything, it only grew stronger. At night, he slipped into huts to lead prisoners in prayer, saying the Rosary, administering the sacraments, offering three simple words: “God bless you.” One of them later said that with his very presence he could just for a moment turn a mud hut into a cathedral.

That spring, he went further -- he held an Easter service. I just met with the Kapaun family. They showed me something extraordinary -- the actual stole, the purple vestment that Father Kapaun wore when he celebrated Mass inside that prison camp.

As the sun rose that Easter Sunday, he put on that purple stole and led dozens of prisoners to the ruins of an old church in the camp. And he read from a prayer missal that they had kept hidden. He held up a small crucifix that he had made from sticks. And as the guards watched, Father Kapaun and all those prisoners -- men of different faith, perhaps some men of no faith -- sang the Lord’s Prayer and “America the Beautiful.” They sang so loud that other prisoners across the camp not only heard them, they joined in, too -- filling that valley with song and with prayer.

That faith -- that they might be delivered from evil, that they could make it home -- was perhaps the greatest gift to those men; that even amidst such hardship and despair, there could be hope; amid their misery in the temporal they could see those truths that are eternal; that even in such hell, there could be a touch of the divine. Looking back, one of them said that that is what “kept a lot of us alive.”

Yet, for Father Kapaun, the horrific conditions took their toll. Thin, frail, he began to limp, with a blood clot in his leg. And then came dysentery, then pneumonia. That’s when the guards saw their chance to finally rid themselves of this priest and the hope he inspired. They came for him. And over the protests and tears of the men who loved him, the guards sent him to a death house -- a hellhole with no food or water -- to be left to die.

And yet, even then, his faith held firm. “I’m going to where I’ve always wanted to go,” he told his brothers. “And when I get up there, I’ll say a prayer for all of you.” And then, as was taken away, he did something remarkable -- he blessed the guards. “Forgive them,” he said, “for they know not what they do.” Two days later, in that house of death, Father Kapaun breathed his last breath. His body was taken away, his grave unmarked, his remains unrecovered to this day.

The war and the awful captivity would drag on for another two years, but these men held on -- steeled by the memory and moral example of the man they called Father. And on their first day of freedom, in his honor, they carried that beautiful wooden crucifix with them.

Statue of Chaplain Kapaun, Pilsen, Kansas 

What jumped out from this tribute was the observation from one of his POW comrades was how Fr. Kapaun’s very presence could make a mudhole seem like a cathedral.  The presence of a positive and faithful priest gives a glimpse of the Kingdom of God so the the mundane transcends into the magical.  The humility, self-sacrifice and ridicule which Fr. Kapaun displayed followed the hard teachings of the Messiah is inspiring.  And the hope that Fr. Kapuan instilled in the internment camp gave them a reason to survive their hellish treatment by the enemy mirrors Passiontide.

It is sad that the public has been conditioned to bemoan the tragedies of warfare without really appreciating the heroics of our brave troops, particularly from a chaplain 62 years later.

May we all be inspired by the valor which Fr. Kapaun displayed on the field of battle and suffering in prison for righteousness.  And may we remember that we have a G.I. intercessor in heaven.

Army Chaplain Fr. Kapuan offering Mass on the Korean battlefield, Oct. 1950

  Lord Jesus, in the midst of the folly of war, your servant, Chaplain Emil Kapaun, spent himself in total service to you on the battlefields and in the prison camps of Korea, until his death at the hands of his captors. We now ask you, Lord Jesus, if it be your will, to make known to all the world the holiness of Chaplain Kapaun and the glory of his complete sacrifice for you by signs of miracles and peace. In your name, Lord, we ask, for you are the source of peace, the strength of our service to others, and our final hope.
Amen.

Chaplain Kapaun, pray for us.

[This piece was originally published in April, 2013]

General George Patton on the Fallen

General Norman Schwartzkopt on Heroes

Diamond and Silk on Taking a Knee During the National Anthem

The Meaning of Memorial Day

This morning, my eleven year old niece informed me that the word of the day was "Memorial".   Being a cunning linguist who hopes to aspire others to appreciating etymology, I innocently asked what that meant.  She was stumped at giving an off the cuff definition.  So I tried another tact by asking "So what are we memorializing?"  thinking that she would instinctively know.  She responded: "The Presidents?".  That was a "Big no" because the colloquially called "Presidents' Day" is actually still Washington's Birthday (Observed).

Sadly, so many in our society simply see Memorial Day as the unofficial kickoff of the summer season.  Or as the occasion to hold the Indy 500.  Such a schoolgirl could be lead to think that it is just another day off of school.  No wonder why Ruben Blades laments that we may be the best informed society that dies of ignorance. 

These illustrations are graphic reminders of the depth of gratitude we should have for those in the Armed Services who fought and sometimes gave their lives to protect the freedoms we have to remain blissfully ignorant of their sacrifices for society.

So when pause to give our blessings at the afternoon picnic, I don't care if I interrupt Popes, Presidents, impressarios or imposters, I will insist that we thank heaven for those who have given the ultimate sacrifice for their brothers and sisters to live in freedom and aspire for peace. 

[This piece originally ran in 2013 but is no less true today]

Roger Stone on John Brennan

Joe DiGenova on John Brennan

Lamenting Lousy FBI Leadership

Stacey Abrams on The Resistance

Resisting New NFL National Anthem Rule

Dan Bongino on Why John Brennan Is Panicking

John Brennan on Enabling Trump

Cicero on Mistakes

Hillary Clinton on Politics

Senator Warren Deserves to Don a Civics Dunce Cap

During her recent remarks before the Cap Ideas Conference, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) cited Hillary Clinton's loss in the 2016 Presidential race as a negative indication that America has a healthy democracy. 






It is astounding that a sitting Senator is either so ignorant to not know that the USA is a constitutional Republic with democratic suffrage and an Electoral College or that she is such a demagouge who will blur such distinctions for political advantage. 

Some deride Senator Warren as being Fauxcahontas for her questionable genealogical claims of being a Native American.  A more apt sobriquet may well be Sitting Bull.  

Nevertheless, for Senator Warren's democrat demogougery, the former Harvard Law professor deserves to don a Civics Dunce Cap.

Student Activist Emma Gonzalez's "Modest Proposals" on Sensible Gun Reform Now

Emma Gonzalez, one of the prominent progressive student activists who emerged from the Parkland Florida High School shooting, participated in a panel on "Guns, Violence and Student Activism: A Push for Change" before the  Education Writers Association conference at the University of Southern California.

Ms. Gonzalez  has progressed from perseverating on her fifteen school mates and two teachers who were slain by troubled expelled former student during her emotional "Six Minute and Twenty Second" speech at the March for Our Lives in Washington DC.

Responding to instances of gun violence, Gonzalez shot her mouth off opining that it was cheaper just to have a gun grab.  What was more memorable than the pat answer to take away AR-15s was her profane exhortation that people who wanted to shoot such firearms should join the Army and defend their fucking country (sic).


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Aside from the crudity of the comment, it is ironic that Gonzalez urges gun enthusiasts to defend America.  Gonzalez chose to attire herself at the big gun march in military gear wearing a Cuban flag patch.  Hmm.   Now she is advocating gun grabs by the government. Wonder where else this has happened? How about: Nazi Germany; Cuba; Venezuela

It is sad to see how the left continues to exploit Parkland High student activists like David Hogg and Emma Gonzalez to push for Gun Control.  These traumatized teens certainly had compelling stories when they could relate the travesty in which they had to endure.  But now that they opine on the political stage and advocate for broad public policy, it is no longer out of the mouths of babes and they are not bullet proof from criticism or skeptically challenging their suggestions.

Since the election of President Donald Trump, much of the radicalized Left in the Democrat party has sought to enflame their electorate through identity politics and mass movements.  The Women Who Hate Trump March the day after the 45th President's inauguration and the March for Our Lives in March 2018 were supposed to bring down the ramparts and inspire the masses to bring down this Presidency and his presumably backwards policies. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL 23rd) recently highlighted her alignment with the gun grabbing movement as an obvious wedge issue pitch for the 2018 Midterm Elections

Alas, both the Womens' March and the supposed students' March for Our Lives have not inspired sustained fulmination. If one looks to polling, the Blue Wave seems dubious and Trump Presidential approval ratings are increasing, despite a barrage of negative press from the mainstream media.

Using these students as tools to push for political change may well backfire.  David Hogg's profane pontifications to hurt those associated with gun rights (particularly the NRA)  has unwittingly spurred a multitude of new NRA memberships.  Emma Gonzalez's obscene observations about the AR-15 and seeming disparagement of serving one's country will reverberate in the minds of many newfound Great Revolt Trump voters  as did Senator John Kerry's (D-MA)  2004 "Get good grades or get stuck in Iraq" flak

Sarah Huckabee Sanders on MS-13

Debbie Wasserman Schultz: "The NRA is just shy of a terrorist organization"

Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL 23rd) condemned the National Rifle Association as being just shy of a terrorist organization.  DWS said this in response to comments from the newly elected NRA President Oliver North, who attacked students of the Parkland Florida High School shooting of engaging in civil terrorism by using lawbreaking and intimidation to push for gun control.






The disgraced former head the of Democratic National Committee echoed the lead of Parkland Florida High School student activist David Hogg in gorgonizing the NRA to promote a gun grabbing policy, presumably under the guise of "common sense gun control" aimed at so called assault weapons.

Wasserman Schultz illustrates the tension in the Democrat Caucus towards Election 2018.  On the one hand, Democrats have strived to take advantage of reshaped Congressional districts (particularly in Pennsylvania and Florida) to put forth candidates and campaigns which would attract independent voters to regain control of the House of Representatives.  On the other hand, the swell of confidence over a presumed "Red Wave" compels some progressives to publicly embrace a radical wish list of impeachment and gun grabbing.


In the Salena Zito and Brad Todd best seller "The Great Revolt" (2018), one of the the significant segments of supporters of Donald Trump was "Girl Gun Power".  Second Amendment advocates will be energized to go to the polls in November for the mid terms if they fear that their constitutional rights are in danger. 

Billy Graham on Mothers

Mike Huckabee on Inquiring Minds

P.J. O'Rourke on Populism

Appraising "The Great Revolt" by Salena Zito and Brad Todd

After Richard Nixon won the 1972 Presidential election in a 49 state landslide, New Yorker film critic was flummoxed at how this could happen as none of her Manhattanite friends would vote for him.  This possibly apocryphal episode illustrated how seaboard elites can be so out of touch with Middle America (sometimes flippantly labeled as  “Fly Over Country”).

A similar cognitive dissonance has occurred at the election of President Donald Trump in 2016. Heading into election night, the 538 blog polling guru Nate Silver predicted that Hillary Clinton had a 72% chance of winning.  Yet when election results were confirmed at 2:30 AM November 9th, Donald J. Trump gave a victory speech.  While Mr. Trump won a huge 304 to 227 (with five disloyal electors), the margins of victory in five Rust Belt states were close.  Had 56,000 voters not voted for Mr. Trump, then Bill Clinton would have returned to the White House as First Gentleman (sic).

To delve into how Donald Trump was able to confound conventional wisdom and assembled a new coalition which led him to the White House, Salena Zito and Brad Todd wrote “The Great Revolt: Inside the Populist Coalition Reshaping American Politics” (2018 Crown Forum 309 pages).  Salena Zito is a reporter from Pittsburgh but made made her mark during the campaign for the New York Post by traveling to these Midwest battleground states and interviewing prospective Trump voters to understand their attraction and enthusiasm for this first time populist candidate. 

These oral histories are backed up by data from Brad Todd’s On Message Inc. polling unit. The metrics were particularly instructive in seeing how sentiments shifted in swing counties between 2008 and 2016.

The Great Revolt featured 21 interviews with voters from two key counties in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa. These interviews felt like an extended coffee talk at a diner with a trusted confidant.  The Great Revolt broke down these voters into seven archetypes: 1) Red Blooded and Blue Collar 2) Perotistas 3) Rough Rebounders 4) Girl Gun Power 5) Rotary Reliables 6) King Cyrus Christians 7) Silent Suburban Moms.  While they all chose to support Trump, their pathways were not straight and narrow and deserve careful consideration. 

Over the past several elections, Democrats seemed to abandon salt of the earth blue collar erstwhile Democrats to favor demographically up and coming minority majorities and those new voters who might be culled from immigration.  During the 2008 Democrat primaries, candidate Barack Obama derisively referred to rural Rust Belt voters as “bitter clingers to their guns and their Bibles”.  Ironically, Ms. Clinton was trying to win their support for her first failed presidential run.   

Yet in 2016, these same segment of voters were ignored by the Hillary! campaign as she declared that half of Trump supporters were a “Basket of Deplorables” which might serve as a caricature of this segment of voters which would be more sympathetically described as The Forgotten Man.  

Hillary Clinton chose to ignore Wisconsin during the 2016 General Election campaign and made only a couple of trips to large population centers in Michigan, figuring that she had those votes already in the bag.  Donald Trump campaigned hard in Rust Belt states in rural precincts and scraped together enough support to win the Wolverine State by about 8,000 votes (0.23%) and the Badger State by about 22,000 votes (0.77%).  

Pundits have pontificated that Republicans face a demographic problem whereas Democrats have a geographic problem, as they continue to lose support in vast swaths of middle America.  In 2016, Mrs. Clinton only won 526 counties compared to the over 1500 counties that her husband President Clinton won in 1992.  What became obvious after election night 2016, racking up large victories in the popular vote does not necessarily win the White House.  Both parties would learn from contemplating the shared psyches of these Trump voters if The Great Revolt was a one time populist phenomenon, if it can transfer unto other populist politicians and if it can be sustained after 2016.

A couple of these Great Revolt subgroups, such as Rotary Reliables and NRA inspired Girl Gun Power types  are likely to continue to actively oppose progressive politics as it directly impacts their intrinsic interests.   It is more dubious for other groups.  In 2016, evangelical voters made a pragmatic decision to back Mr. Trump, who has a messy personal life and whose blithe brashness is an antithetical attitude, because they were concerned about the Supreme Court and pushing back against abortion.  The outlook for Perotistas is unclear as their support seemed personality driven and may not be transferrable.  The three women interviewed as Perotistas were superannuated, so one can surmise that their support will age out.

As much as the iconoclastic mainstream billionaire turned celebrity politician appealed to some segments of The Great Revolt voters, what became quite clear is how his opponent and the nature of the race also impacted the election.  In some of the vignettes, the anti-Hillary! sentiment jumped off the page. 

 Many of the interviewees came from union families or those who served in the military would have been quite at ease in John F. Kennedy’s Democrat Party but who are red headed stepchildren in today’s Democrat Party.  That being said, they probably would not have participated in politics or been motivated to vote GOP had Donald Trump not reached out and appealed to their sensibilities.   They may not always agree with Mr. Trump and may recoil at some of his Tweets or stances but as Salena Zito nailed during the campaign, they know to take Trump seriously but not always literally (unlike the anti-Trump pack press).

Most of the coalition in The Great Revolt worried about their economic security and loss of their rural way of life, it did not seem like there was strong linkage to “Build the Wall” or immigration.  While one union activist was strongly against NAFTA, much of the blue collar sentiments revolved around being forgotten by their erstwhile allies, the Democrats.   

While the interviews in The Great Revolt were vivid, it would have been desirable if there was a bit more uniformity when describing the interlocutors.  Not all of the portraits had demographic details or made it easy to discern the interviewees profession.  There also seemed to be a disconnect between the prefatory analysis with the dialogues of the Trump voters.  The authors rightly proposed that Mr. Trump’s social media instincts allowed him to circumvent curating by the mainstream media and directly reach his coalitions.  Yet many of the interviewees contained in The Great Revolt wished that President Trump would tweet less. 

That being said, surely Salena Zito and Brad Todd appreciated President Trump’s pre-publication post which extolled the virtues of The Great Revolt.

The case histories in The Great Revolt offer insightful context for the unexpected coalition which elected Donald Trump to the White House in 2016.  But the archetypes portrayed in The Great Revolt may point to traits that could appear in other voter segments.   Democrats have opted to appeal to progressive identity politics and rely on the brown wave of new voters in lieu of  “The Forgotten Man” (rural, blue collar, union white males).   A flaw with that strategy is that it relies upon banked voters, which since 1964 have been the bulk of black voters.  The Great Revolt chronicles how slim segments of voters who feel neglected and come to the epiphany that their traditional party no longer represents their values can impact an election.

Recently, Kanye West said some favorable things towards President Trump. Perhaps that was a publicity stunt or an African American celebrity "talking out of turn" as Rep Maxine Waters (D-CA 43rd) claimed. But afterwards polling showed a doubling of his support among African Americans.  Mr. Trump has been making explicit appeals for those voters.  

It is conceivable that an upsurge in black labor participation and showing up to make the case may shift some attitudes, or mollify some of the bile against him. Conservative Black video bloggers Diamond and Silk have shown that elements of the Trump Administration agenda may have some appeal to fed up African American voters.  Black represent about 13% of voters and in recent elections have voted about 95% for Democrats.  If there is a 5% shift in that segment of reliable votes, Democrats’ election strategy may be in trouble.