Conservatives Failed Donald Trump’s Supporters

Michael Brendan Dougherty:

“Get a job, you racists, and stop playing the victim! Don’t you remember the ’80s?”

Does that sound like a successful political program to you? Does it sound like an adequate response when perhaps one-fourth or more of your party’s voters are staging a minor revolt? Of course not. And yet, that is effectively the message the Republican elite is delivering to Donald Trump’s disaffected white working-class supporters.

I recently suggested that the Republican Party, and the conservative movement, offer next to nothing to working-class Trump supporters. There are no obvious conservative policies that will generate the sort of growth needed to raise the standard of living for these working-class voters. Instead, the GOP’s Powers That Be make a great show of obedience and deference to the center-right donor class, even when that donor class’ preferred policies — endless war, unlimited immigration, and slashing tax burdens on the wealthy — have almost no relation to conservative ideas or even popular opinion. …”

Dougherty is the only conservative columnist that I have seen anywhere who seems to have a clue about what is motivating Trump’s supporters. This is undoubtedly due to his familiarity with Pat Buchanan and Sam Francis.

Tom Nichols:

“I blame a lot of people for Donald Trump. (Mostly, I blame Donald Trump.) “Trumpism,” insofar as we can call it a movement, is the product of many social forces. Some of the anger that propels Trump is a reaction to political correctness and elitist condescension; some an irrational, even racist, fear of changing demographics; some understandable rage at the painful and disparate impact of globalization. And some of it is just the lousy luck that 16 other Republicans, including a batch of no-hopers, all decided to run when Trump did.

But look past Trump’s public monkeyshines, and find one emotion that especially motivates his supporters: envy. Or, to use a more evocative French term, it is ressentiment, the need to blame others for one’s own frustration and circumstances. …”

Liberals are motivated by envy.

I’m probably the least envious person you will ever meet. I’m not motivated by money. Believe me, there is NO MONEY in advocating populism and nationalism online under your real name. The only thing I care about is what kind of world will be left behind to my descendants. Nichols doesn’t have a clue. The people who are motivated by financial considerations write for mainstream conservative websites.

Charles Murray:

“But the central truth of Trumpism as a phenomenon is that the entire American working class has legitimate reasons to be angry at the ruling class. During the past half-century of economic growth, virtually none of the rewards have gone to the working class. The economists can supply caveats and refinements to that statement, but the bottom line is stark: The real family income of people in the bottom half of the income distribution hasn’t increased since the late 1960s.

During the same half-century, American corporations exported millions of manufacturing jobs, which were among the best-paying working-class jobs. They were and are predominantly men’s jobs. In both 1968 and 2015, 70% of manufacturing jobs were held by males.

During the same half-century, the federal government allowed the immigration, legal and illegal, of tens of millions of competitors for the remaining working-class jobs. Apart from agriculture, many of those jobs involve the construction trades or crafts. They too were and are predominantly men’s jobs: 77% in 1968 and 84% in 2015.”

Like other mainstream conservatives, Murray is incapable of admitting this is the inevitable result of conservative policies enacted for the benefit of the Republican donor class.

Rachel Lu:

“Anti-anti-Trumpism presents itself as a measured, circumspect attempt to include an underrepresented perspective in the conservative conversation. In reality, a lot of it looks like wallowing. This isn’t to say that the white middle class doesn’t have real grievances, or that we shouldn’t attend to them. They do, and we should. At the moment, though, Trump’s staunchest supporters are standing with pitchforks and torches around a party wherein strands of conservative thought were actually beginning to flourish. They’re clearly in no mood to talk, and their less committed brethren seem to be lingering at the outskirts primarily because they are attracted to Trump’s facade of strength. Why would we respond to that with self-flagellation and shamefaced offers to negotiate? If voters are craving leadership, simpering apologies will not win them back. …

We can see the swirling nativism that underscores Trump’s rhetoric and animates many of his supporters. As a man, Trump is a disgrace to our national politics. We damage our credibility when we try to cast Trumpism as righteous, or possessed of deep insight.”

Screaming “nativist” and “racist” at Trump supporters illustrates that the only thing these people understand is power. They must be taught a lesson. Otherwise, they will carry on as if nothing had happened which is what they did after Buchanan and Ron Paul were defeated.