Longread: The Great Republican Revolt

WIl je meer weten over hoe de Republikeinen omgaan met het fenomeen Trump? En waarom hij en andere niet-beroepspolitici als Ben Carson en Carly Fiorina Republikeinse kiezers aanspreken? Lees dan ‘The Great Republican Revolt‘ van The Atlantic.

Wat er vooral naar voren komt is dat de Republikeinse partij de afgelopen jaren niet meer naar haar kiezers heeft geluisterd en gekozen heeft om zichzelf te aantrekkelijker te maken bij het electroraat door de verkeerde agendapunten te omarmen.


Yet even as the Republican Main Street protested Obamacare, it rejected the hardening ideological orthodoxy of Republican donors and elected officials. A substantial minority of Republicans—almost 30 percent—said they would welcome “heavy” taxes on the wealthy, according to Gallup. Within the party that made Paul Ryan’s entitlement-slashing budget plan a centerpiece of policy, only 21 percent favored cuts in Medicare and only 17 percent wanted to see spending on Social Security reduced, according to Pew. Less than a third of ordinary Republicans supported a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants (again according to Pew); a majority, by contrast, favored stepped-up deportation.

As a class, big Republican donors could not see any of this, or would not. So neither did the politicians who depend upon them. Against all evidence, both groups interpreted the Tea Party as a mass movement in favor of the agenda of the Wall Street Journal editorial page. One of the more dangerous pleasures of great wealth is that you never have to hear anyone tell you that you are completely wrong.

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