Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably noticed that the Republican Party has changed a lot over the past decade, and it’s all thanks to Donald Trump. The usual suspects predictably think that’s a bad thing. Leftists call the emphasis on immigration “racist” and “nativist.” Neocons and the Military Industrial Complex decry the unprofitable-for-them desire to stay out of endless foreign wars in which the United States has little to no interest. Big Business oligarchs are threatened by the potential loss of cheap workers and any move to shift production from overseas to here at home, labeling such efforts “protectionism.”
Ordinary people, however - or at least those who haven’t been brainwashed by TDS or woke nonsense - generally like the shift. Unlimited immigration negatively impacts us, not rich white liberals working from their homes in gated communities. Our sons and daughters, not theirs, will fight the next full-scale ground war. Fairtrade policies help working-class people, not big corporations used to employing slave labor.
Before Trump’s arrival on the national political scene in 2015, the Republican Party was basically the party of rich old white men (and I say that as a white man who would love to become rich by the time I’m old). Sure, many of its economic and social policy positions were generally better than the insanity put forth by Democrats, but by and large the old-school ‘country club Republicans’ didn’t have the best interests of ordinary people front of mind. Now, the metamorphosis is complete. The GOP has become the party of middle-class working people, and no matter what happens in November, it’s hard to imagine things going back to the status quo.
I get the irony of the man who made it happen to be a rich old white man himself. Still, by championing an oft-maligned and ignored electorate, Donald Trump won a historic victory in 2016. He has positioned himself well for a second term after a disastrous four years of Democratic rule brought on by an election he almost and should have won.
What I have described thus far is, of course, the very definition of ‘populism,’ which is why Trump’s MAGA movement has been described as such by both its enemies and its allies. According to Google, populism is “a political approach that strives to appeal to ordinary people who feel that established elite groups disregard their concerns.” At least on this one, Google is absolutely spot-on.
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It’s no wonder then that the referred to “elites” are doing everything they can to defeat Trump and disparage his movement. Their best interests, by and large, aren’t ours, and ours aren’t theirs. And their worst nightmare, a populist political movement that can actually win national elections, has come true in the form of a revamped, refocused GOP.
The secret to winning from 2016 onward came via the Rust Belt, an area whose workers, arguably because of the race and class they largely represented, were left in the dust long ago by an Establishment that deemed them expendable. Trump spoke to these folks in a way nobody had in decades, and they responded by giving him a Blue Wall breach almost nobody thought possible. This time, Trump remains super competitive and even leads in places like Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, rendering the loss of Virginia to Beltway Democrats largely meaningless.
Even during the days when I never imagined Trump could come close to pulling off a victory this cycle, I still recognized that his brand of populism was our only chance. Even if you care more about moving the needle on social issues, no chance for that exists unless our country is successful and secure. That is why populism, not necessarily ‘conservatism,’ is the only movement capable of winning, and saving, the country. It and it alone is capable of uniting enough working-class people, many of whom are former-Democrats, and social conservatives to beat back the Democratic hordes of brainwashed young leftists and childless suburban cat women.
I had once hoped to replace Trump with a younger version of himself with far less baggage, but given the way he has competed thus far, it’s hard to imagine anyone else running as close a race as he has, especially in Pennsylvania, a state we absolutely must win to win it all. But when he does hang it up, whether that’s after this election or four years from now, his brand of populism will hopefully carry on for decades to come.
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