By Robbin Laird
In 2015, I wrote an article asking the question of what era in American politics did the 2016 election remind me of?
I answered in part that perhaps the 1890s and the collapse of the main stream parties and their re-alignment was the best analogy. The force for change were the various progressive movements, although what passes today for progressivism has little to do with the movements in the 1890s.
The Republicans have realigned. The party of Bush is now a coalition created by Trump. Trump has in effect been a political magnet that attracted the “iron filings” of a broad group of Americans, racially diverse, college educated and non-college educated workers (by which one means having degrees rather than confusing degrees with actually being educated in a life sense).
The Democrats now face the challenge of realignment. The modern Democratic Party has been shaped by identity politics. What will replace this focus? Who lead the effort? When and how successfully?
The Wall Street Journal produces very good videos explaining complex subjects.
In that tradition, they produced a video explaining Trump’s path to victory in the election by providing the data behind the victory. This data underscores the nature of the coalition built by the Trump revamped Republican Party.
The “Never Trumpers” of the Bush legacy Republican Party have been left in the dust heap of history. This is certainly why neo-cons and the classic globalist Republicans have been and will continue to criticize Trump. But now they have to face the Republican Party shift which leaves them behind.
And unlike 2016, Trump comes to office as the head of a coalition that includes prominent Democrats. How this coalition will reshape government policy remains to be determined, but how it evolves will decisively affect the future of American politics and government policy at home and abroad.
But now to The Wall Street Journal video.