The question that Kim posed below, I think is an important one and appeared first in our internal ‘Grok email so I asked her to post it (thanks for posting, Kim!). My response:
>> who thinks Trump has put voice to the concerns of many Americans
Which is what I have been writing for a while now – nature, business and politics abhor vacuums and the biz person in Trump rightly recognized that vacuum. I like the folks, generally, that you mention but on this, they are wrong. Or actually, they are orthogonal. They write and talk about logical ideological stances. They think within the normal bounds of politics and political engagement. Thus, they don’t see the attraction.
Laura, however, rightly sees and voices the emotional side of ordinary folks who don’t just care about God, family, and friends but have internalized the greatness and exceptionalism of America and its traditions – and are scared that it is being ripped apart and thrown into the trash by both the Left and transnationalists on the Right that have given up on that American Exceptionalism.
Certainly, those that you name still believe in it but they are coldly calculating about it – they aren’t able to viscerally understand both that discomfort that its “leaders” don’t care about them – and their country. Nativism, nationalism – all have become epithets and most blue blooded Americans are showing a sense of revolt against it. The Elite want power – but power only unto themselves. Regular folks see that power, I think without understanding it, as having been lent to the elected Elite in a custodial mode only – and now they see it being kept permanently. They realize that America is great – but that power is being used for otherwise purposes. They see that power, governmental power, is being used not to let them elevate themselves but to control them in every circumstance. They see good turned to bad, bad to good, virtues despised, hard work siphoned off to the lazy, and opportunity restricted to the connect. In essence, they are turning from being citizens to subjects. They see the country from being Americans being turned into a hodge-podge of special interests and protected groups – and they aren’t a member of any of them unless there is now a class of Despised just for who they are or what they do.
And it all has been done without them knowing or deciding. They have been pushed off to the side and denigrated.
Trump sees this angst – and I think, shares it.
>> they speak to regular Americans–not the political elites–across the country every day
And hat they see, these named ones, is almost akin to the Middle Ages of royalty sniffing their noses upward when confronted with the bourgeois shopkeepers and the power accumulated to them outside of royal lineage – power orthogonal to theirs.
They simply just don’t get out enough; they are in their own Ivory Tower.
BTW, our discussion doesn’t mean do or don’t support Trump. Instead, please read these as it DOES mean that we think what is driving it is important and has ramifications not just at the national level but here in NH as well (e.g., Screw DC, save NH).
And thus, we bring it to you for your own thoughts.