Besides talking about building a wall along the Southern border, Donald Trump broke down a lot of walls in this election.
He ended the Democratic play-book of playing the race and gender card.
He welcomed more minority voters into the GOP fold. I have many black and Hispanic friends who were solid Dem, and now vote GOP. I met a former classmate of Asian descent at a Taiwanese political function in Monterey Park. She became a Republican just to vote for Trump! If the Donald is successful, we will keep this new coalition of voters for good.
He also broke through the Blue Wall in the Rust Belt.
Even before the election was called, Minnesota was not a given for the Democratic Party. A state which had not voted GOP since Nixon, the rising tide of Islamic terror in the Land of 10,000 Lakes jolted the otherwise bluer than blue state to wake up.
But to see Wisconsin drop into the Republican column for the first time in over thirty years?
Incredible.
Michigan?
WOW!
And Pennsylvania!
Let’s look over how Trump overcame the Blue Wall.
Wisconsin:
Two words: Scott Walker.
Two more words: Act 10.
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker stood up to the labor unions in the heart of the Big Labor/Progressive movement.
Walker’s fight in 2011 to pass necessary collective bargaining reforms sparked Big Labor outrage throughout the state, the country, and even the world. Today’s unions have become a domestic communistic threat which undermine limited government, fiscal discipline, and constitutional rule. Forced unionism and coerced dues have turned labor unions into undue and unjust power players in state politics. A labor union’s overwhelming organization and resource access are difficult to beat.
California is going bust right now because the most powerful interest in Sacramento is the California Teachers Association. Forget about the Democratic Party. The Donkeys of the Golden State wouldn’t have a snowball’s chance in Death Valley if not for the never-ending political revenue stream of coerced dues flowing from this syndicate.
Walker broke that moneyed monopoly on Wisconsin’s political front. He then survived a 2012 recall, and his party would regain their majorities in Madison at the end of the year. Walker held his seat in 2014, and this year Republicans gained two more seats in the state senate and one more in the assembly. This is an incredible turn of the tide.
Wisconsin Democrats have no money because their union sugar daddies can’t give them any. Walker’s right-to-work law in 2015 stuck a fork in them. Add to that Paul Ryan and Reince Preibus’ influence with the national party and their connection with the state, and the Dairy State is becoming a Red Republican stronghold.
From Wisconsin’s slow yet steady turn into a conservative base, let’s move to Michigan.
What happened there to make Trump a winner against Crooked Hillary?
The decline of Big Labor fell harder in the Wolverine State. After Walker beat the recall, the Michigan unions got jittery, and tried to protect their collective bargaining rights through a constitutional amendment in 2012. Michiganders rejected it by double-digits. Conservative donors (specifically the wealthy DeVos family) and their allied activists lined up their one-time shot to push right-to-work in Lansing. The left-wing rag Mother Jones published a more detailed analysis of this incredible move of conservatives that made a union stronghold another jewel in the right-to-work movement’s crown.
One phrase in that article—dated January 2014—is particularly telling:
“DeVos has given a road map to conservatives working to bring down labor and defund the left—and his reforms could help put the state in the GOP's column come 2016.”
Indeed!
Rust Belt states are rusting in part because of sclerotic labor laws, which in turn have made American cities and states less competitive for business growth and expansion. Post RTW, Michigan is welcoming companies and business is booming.
Two more reasons why Trump trumped the Democratic machine in once-reliable Michigan:
1. His incredible outreach to black voters. Trump was not afraid of the failing, flailing media trying to make it look like he was preening for black votes. Every Republican should reach out to ethnic groups, and not worry about how the media will spin it. His attendance and prayer in Detroit’s black churches, plus his strong stance on school choice, helped put him over the top.
2. Detroit served as the heart of Democratic dominance in Michigan. When the city declared bankruptcy in 2013, the public sector unions took a huge hit. The political machinery of the former industrial powerhouse dissipated. More voters live in the wealthy, right-leaning suburbs like Grand Rapids—and they voted that way.
Now what about Pennsylvania? The Keystone State is still a forced unionism state. Pittsburg and Philadelphia are reliability Democratic. How did a Republican Presidential candidate (with an incumbent US Senator) pull off a win?
One word: immigration.
Surprisingly enough, illegal immigration enflames a lot of voters in Pennsylvania, including Democrats, particularly the Reagan Democrats whose industrial jobs have dried up and gone away. In the previous decade, the cities of Bridgeport and Hazelton passed strict laws barring illegal immigrants from housing and employment. Former Democratic mayor Michael Nutter of Philadelphia reversed his own executive order during his final years in office, and cooperated with ICE.
Let’s not forget US Senator Pat Toormey’s strong stance against illegal immigration, from his years in the House of Representatives to his recent re-election victory. His stance resonated with a voting public deeply and negatively impacted by illegal immigration.
Trump’s destruction of the Big Blue Wall will chart the course for future GOP victories.
The new GOP trifecta in New Hampshire will pass right-to-work legislation. The decay of bankrupted inner cities will further cut off easy money (and votes) for Democratic voters, too. Border enforcement will end the political power of amnesty-pandering in the Southwest.
Imagine these reforms in Illinois or California in the next decade. Democrats will start complaining about the Big Red Wall all over the country!