Posted on 07/19/2018 6:14:37 AM PDT by LS
For over a year and a half, Rush Limbaugh has been saying "the only person who can separate Trump from his voters is himself." I know---because he mentioned it on air---that only recently did he read "The Great Revolt" by Salena Zito and Brad Todd, but he had certainly accurately stated the views of most of the people they interviewed.
Salena Zito was one of the very few reporters in the 2016 election who captured the mood of the country that the rest of the media missed. She did this largely because instead of staying with the press gaggle---as did my co-author on "How Trump Won," Joel Pollak of Breitbart---she went on the off roads to the small towns and forgotten places that individually may not have made a change, but which collectively all moved in the same direction.
Zito had been telling anyone who would listen who the Trump voters were for some time. Most of those she talked to (indeed, all but a tiny percentage in the book) were . . . Democrats. A few had never, ever voted before in their lives. They came from Ashtabula County in Ohio or Erie, Pennsylvania.
Two things make this book of particular value. First, Zito and Brad Todd didn't just rely on anecdotal evidence, but devised "The Great America Survey" of over 600 respondents. Here was the catch: ALL the respondents were Trump voters. Digging into their results, one finds that, surprisingly, "draining the swamp" was very low on their priority list, even though most mentioned it in their interviews. Rather jobs, the economy, manufacturing, and trade in some form or another constituted the #1 priority for the large number of these Trumpers. The Wall/immigration usually was #3 or #4.
This survey (which of course will be ignored by the "professionals") is incredibly valuable because it isn't tainted by Trump haters. And probably the most important conclusion of all, both in the survey and the interviews?
Only Trump can cause Trump voters to leave. By almost 100% they view the media as corrupt and (to use their fave word now) "feckless." THEY DO NOT TRUST REPUBLICANS, but have completely abandoned the Democrat Party. While they did not particularly hate either John McCain (McTurd) or Mitt Romney (Minion), they didn't like them.
Almost all voted for Obama (Zero), twice. They almost all expressed the view that they bought into the "change" part of his "hope and change," that THEY thought he was an "outsider," and that they felt that in the first term he was just getting his bearings & was thwarted by the Republicans. But then, again almost universally, they concluded that by the end of the second term they couldn't wait to get rid of him.
They were overwhelmingly disgusted with his anti-Americanism, with his big government, and were crushed by his economic policies. Surprisingly to me (for I had always held that many Americans voted for Zero out of racial guilt), none really mentioned race at any point---except for one woman with two adopted black boys who had grown up with her white son to all join the Marines!---and then only out of outrage they would ever be called racist.
Instead what comes through is a clear, well-reasoned critique of "open borders," "globalism," and poor trade deals that hollowed out these once thriving towns, virtually none of which were growing. Almost all of the people either ran small businesses or had worked in companies that closed. Most were UNION MEMBERS who had even been DNC staffers in their counties in previous elections. Many of these people will be tough "catches" for the local and state Republican Party they it is not 100% aligned with Trump. (In one case, Ashtabula County voted for Trump in the primary even though OH was going for the Mailman by 11 points).
This is definitely worth reading. You know these people. If you haevn't met these exact people, you've met people just like them.
And by mid-17 they all continued to love Donald Trump and see him as not only successful, but the only one truly fighting for them. Many had fiends and neighbors who had voted for Cankles who now were Trumpers.
This is a story the fake news media will never tell; it completely reinforces my ongoing voter registration statistics which reflect a dramatic exodus from the DemoKKKrat party more than they do a tidal wave sweeping to the Republicans. If Zito and Todd's experiences hold up, Republicans will hold the House & gain seats in the Senate in the fall, not because Republicans are so great, but because these people love Trump and want to help any way they can.
Thank you! Salina is the best at what she does. (Present Company Excluded, of course!)
Interesting that they were 0bama voters and then Trump voters.
#WalkAway seems to have legs! MAGA! :)
Oops! ‘Salena.’ :)
I just hope Trump can strategerize out the 2018 elections as well as he did the 2016 one. I think a big part of it is painting the Dems not just as as raving socialists, which they are, but actual Marxists. Which they are.
It’s pretty clear there will be no Mueller resolution by that time.
And “Forq the People”
But that is well above my pay grade. Oh, and feed Steve Schmidt and George Will into plastic shredders.
THE TRUTH.
..............it’s Reeeally getting harder and harder to find, isn’t it?
Our media just works overtime to ignore it—then make stuff up to attack Trump.
(AND US! It’s all an attack against US—Trump’s SUUPPORTERS!)
Converts from Clinton plus the Trump doubters who liked his message but simply didn't believe he was for real, thus didn't vote, will be an interesting demographic in upcoming elections.
Wonder if she’s related to Chuck (Charles) Zito.
But I take exception to this:
Digging into their results, one finds that, surprisingly, "draining the swamp" was very low on their priority list, even though most mentioned it in their interviews. Rather jobs, the economy, manufacturing, and trade in some form or another constituted the #1 priority for the large number of these Trumpers. The Wall/immigration usually was #3 or #4.
While this may be true, most of us in flyover country instinctively understand that the key to our #1 priority is doing things like building the wall and draining the swamp.
I suspect because most don't get it. Those that do are either bought off or left wing fanatics.
It really irritates me to see that word applied to solipsists : ignorant, but extreme egocentrics
Maybe I'm just old, but "elite" has a positive, very useful connotation, a cachet that should never be allowed to be perverted for application to Enemy Domestic traitors.
Let's reclaim that word for Navy seals, Army Rangers, the SAS, the French GIGN, the German GSG 9, Mossad, and other heroes deserving of the word.
I agree. But I can see that being among her ‘sample’ because a lot of people are still reeling from eight l-o-n-g years of 0bama and really aren’t back to work steady, yet.
Or, are still NOT working by their own choice; she WAS talking to Democrats and Never-Trumper Losers, remember. ;)
Without you, Sundance, and "Fleporblog" aka Baba97 I would have lost my mind in 15 and 16' I knew in my gut he'd win, everyone thought I was nuts, and I called it the "Rust Belt Rebellion". A chance meeting, that had info about what a certain segment of MI workers ( and I will leave it at that ) was the icing on the cake, those numbers didn't lie, and I knew he'd take MI. I shared that privately with some folks here :-). You reinforced what our gut was telling us with empirical data.
I had a cadre of people on FB & Private emails updating them w/ your insights and the other 2 gents, something like 57 people. on 11/9/16 I got 3 phone calls, 3 text/emails thanking me for keeping their moral up, because in all honesty I think some might have not gone to the polls, the gaslighting was that strong. Those thanks go to you all as well.
I kinda missed Mrs Zito during that time, I may have seen her once, since I had sworn of CNN. Her interviews via podcast with John Batchelor are a must listen too.
FWIW, I'd love to have coffee with you and Ms Zito, that would be a bucket list item for sure, to discuss all of this, until then, I need to get her book!
Ping.
bttt
Thanks. I think one thing that really stands out in this book is how many of these Trump supporters are “out there” and who are not even being talked to by anyone in the media. Again, one little town isn’t important, but all the little towns taken together swung PA, MI, and WI, and expanded the leads in IA and OH.
Again...my concern is that these people may have to realize that they might have to hold their noses and vote for some Republicans they don’t like...because if the Dems take the House, they WILL impeach, if only to gum up the works for all things MAGA.
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