Publisher Description
Standout syndicated columnist and CNN contributor Salena Zito, with veteran Republican strategist Brad Todd, reports across five swing states and over 27,000 miles to answer the pressing question: Was Donald Trump’s election a fluke or did it represent a fundamental shift in the electorate that will have repercussions–for Republicans and Democrats–for years to come.
The history of the American electorate is not a litany of flukes; instead it is a pattern of tectonic plate-grinding, punctuated by a landscape-altering earthquake every generation or so. Donald Trump’s electoral coalition is smashing both American political parties and its previously impenetrable political news media. The political experts called the 2016 election wrong and in the wake of the 2016 election surprise, the experts have continued to blow it — looking to predict the coming demise of the President without pausing to consider the durability of the trends and winds that swept him into office.
The Great Revolt delves deep into the minds and hearts of the voters the make up this coalition. What emerges is a group of citizens who cannot be described by terms like “angry,” “male,” “rural,” or the often-used “racist.” They span job descriptions, income brackets, education levels, and party allegiances. What unites them is their desire to be part of a movement larger than themselves that puts pragmatism before ideology, localism before globalism, and demands the respect it deserve from Washington.
Zito and Todd have traveled on over 27,000 miles of country roads to interview more than 300 Trump voters in 10 swing counties. What they have discovered is that these voters were hiding in plain sight — ignored by both parties, the media, and the political experts all at once, ready to unite into the movement that spawned the greatest upset in recent electoral history. Deeply rooted in the culture of these Midwestern swing states, Zito and Brad Todd reframe the discussion of the “Trump voter” to answer the question: What next?
Includes a bonus PDF of the Appendix
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Most of the national pundit class has tried to explain the rise of Trump voters by pointing to racism, or economic resentment, or racism, or cultural change, or even, you know, racism as an explanation. But Salena Zito and Brad Todd tried something different: They went to those voters and asked them….in two ways: Face to face, in a series of deep and sensitive interviews, and en masse in a large opinion survey. Both inquiries produced a lot of useful material that both Democrats and Republicans would be well advised to study and internalize.
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USA TodayÂ
