Has Trump awakened Nixon's "Silent Majority" or the "Reagan Democrat"

[Dmitri Veans]

The Gallup poll. December, 1979.

President Jimmy Carter — 60%. Former California Governor Ronald Reagan — 36%. So confident was Carter White House Chief of Staff Hamilton Jordan of the coming year’s presidential election that he boasted: “The American people are not going to elect a seventy-year-old, right-wing, ex-movie actor to be president.” Hamilton Jordan was a smart guy — and he was also wildly wrong. A little less than a year later the American people — ignoring that Gallup poll — elected Ronald Reagan to the presidency in a landslide — in a three-way race. Reagan won 50.8% of the vote to Carter’s 41%. Third party candidate John Anderson, a liberal Republican who had been defeated by Reagan in the GOP primaries, won a mere 6.6% of the vote. Reagan carried 44 states to Carter’s six plus the District of Columbia.

What happened? How could Reagan go from losing a Gallup poll to Carter by 24 points — then winning the actual election by almost 10 points? Answer? The emergence of what would become known to political history as “the Reagan Democrats.” Who were they? Blue collar, working class, largely Catholic and ethnic, they originally emerged in Richard Nixon’s 1968 and 1972 elections. In which Nixon referred to them as the “Silent Majority.” In 1980, angered by Carter’s handling of the economy, the feckless handling of the Iran hostage crisis, and the left-wing tilt of the Democrats, these voters — many of whom had voted for John F. Kennedy twenty years earlier — returned with a vengeance. Famously, Macomb County, Michigan, which cast 63% of its vote for JFK in 1960, turned around in 1980 and voted 66% for Reagan.

On Tuesday night of this week, Donald Trump appeared in Birch Run, Michigan in Saginaw County. Here’s the headline from the Detroit Free Press:

A lovefest for Donald Trump in Birch Run

The story begins:

BIRCH RUN, Mich. — Addressing about 2,000 very enthusiastic people at the Birch Run Expo Center, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump touched on everything from immigration, China, the military, Obamacare and his Republican opponents.

The crowd, some coming from outside of Michigan, ate it up, giving him frequent standing ovations and breaking into chants of “Trump, Trump, Trump!” and “U.S.A, U.S.A.”

The obvious question. Are Reagan Democrats returning to the center of the American political scene — this time known as Trump Democrats?

A new CNN poll in Iowa has some very revealing stats. The poll notes:

Donald Trump has a significant lead in the race to win over likely Iowa caucus-goers, according to the first CNN/ORC poll in the state this cycle. Overall, Trump tops the field with 22% and is the candidate seen as best able to handle top issues including the economy, illegal immigration and terrorism. He’s most cited as the one with the best chance of winning the general election, and, by a wide margin, as the candidate most likely to change the way things work in Washington.

The poll targets Republicans only. But as in 1980 with Reagan, it doesn’t take much imagination to think that Trump’s overwhelming lead in categories like those with less than a college education or those earning less than $50,000 bodes well for his ability to win Democratic votes in considerable numbers.

A curiosity here is the reaction of Trump opponent Senator Rand Paul, who seems in his wrath at Trump to be channeling the late GOP Establishment champion President Gerald Ford. Headlines the Washington Post of a new Paul commercial attacking Trump:

New Rand Paul video basically calls Donald Trump a closet Democrat 

The Post reports:

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul’s presidential campaign on Wednesday released an aggressive attack video questioning business mogul Donald Trump’s conservative bona fides.

“I probably identify more as a Democrat,” Trump is shown saying in the video. “I’ve been around for a long time, and it just seems that the economy does better under the Democrats than the Republicans.” The words imposed on the screen as Trump speaks: “I … IDENTIFY MORE AS A DEMOCRAT.” [The all-caps are all theirs.]

Hmmm. Compare the Paul attack with this story about the 1976 GOP primary campaign in Texas between Ronald Reagan and then-President Ford. Records Reagan biographer Steven F. Hayward in the first volume of his book The Age of Reagan: The Fall of the Old Liberal Order: 1964-1980:

During the Texas campaign Reagan began using a signature line in his appeal for crossover votes: “I was a Democrat most of my life.” Ford and the Republican Establishment professed outrage. Imagine! Seeking Democratic votes! (As if a Republican could win the White House without Democratic votes.)… The idea of “Reagan Democrats” had not yet entered the political lexicon.

Just as Trump is now seen on tape saying he was a Democrat, so too was Reagan cited for the same issue. In fact, as heard here in this YouTube audio tape, there is Reagan captured singing the praises of Harry Truman in a 1948 speech endorsing Truman and also then-Minneapolis Mayor Hubert Humphrey who was running for the U.S. Senate — and would later become the 1968 Democratic nominee for president. Listening to the tape of Reagan and he sounds like nothing more than a late forties version of Barack Obama — railing against corporations and Republicans.

One is flummoxed that Senator Paul — as reported in the Los Angeles Times — was not long ago demanding that the GOP reach out to minorities — aka Democrats. Headlined the Times:

 

Rand Paul in Irvine says Republicans must broaden appeal to minorities

The story drove the point home:

As he traveled through Southern California on a two-day trip, Republican Sen. Rand Paul called on his party Friday to widen its outreach to minority voters, whom he said will help propel the party to victories nationwide.…

“People want know how we're going to win?” he said. “We're going to have to be different. We're going to have to be the new GOP.”…

In a brief interview with The Times before his speech, Paul, who has labeled himself a “different kind of Republican,” said his message of party outreach to minorities has resonated.…

“I don't care if it’s in an all-white evangelical church or all-Republican gathering, people need to hear it,” he said. “I’m a believer that for the Republican Party to grow, we need to be a broader, more diverse party.”

Amazing, no? On the one hand Senator Paul is demanding outreach to become a “broader, more diverse party.” When Trump does just that — like the 1976 Ford campaign and GOP Establishment suddenly Paul recoils, professing outrage at Trump’s background as a Democrat — precisely the same charge hurled at Reagan by Ford.

You can’t make this stuff up.

There is a long, long way to go in this campaign. But one suspects that Donald Trump — as was true in that blue collar, auto-making state of Michigan the other night — is in the process of demonstrating just what Ronald Reagan once demonstrated to great effect.

Namely? Namely that having once been a Democrat is in fact nothing but an asset for a potential Republican nominee for president. The kind of asset that produces landslide Republican victories.

 

http://spectator.org/articles/63765/are-reagan-democrats-becoming-trump-democrats

[Dmitri Veans]

Yes that's true he was a Kennedy supply side democrat, much like Kemp in the senate. Donald has always supported supply side economics his drift was always with the social issues. If elected he is more likely to stay with the voters that elected him then the politicians in Washington. 

[Dmitri Veans]

When you step back and review the facts you see the GOP tried in every way to let Bush win even if he lost the primary. Ford won in 1976 because he used his power to over come the deficit he had with Reagan and in many ways the GOP tried to rig the field for Bush to insure the same out come.

 

The GOP felt establishment candidates like Bush would win all blue states and since Bush was from Florida they added it to the list of states that would be winner take on with delegates. The remaining red states would be proportional so no strong conservative could garner the necessary votes to win in the first round.

 

As we all know after the first round of votes everyone is cut free to vote for the most winnable candidate. This release effects each candidate differently because some candidates have their own representation where others allow the party to assign the delegates for them. In this race we see Trump, Carson, Cruz and Bush will each get their own delegates sent to the convention. The others have not spent the time or money to do so as a result they will be votes controlled by the party after the first round.

 

Bush commented that sometimes you need to loose the primary in order to win the general. Bush knew when he said this that with so many early states being blue winner take all states he would likely win as McCain and Romney did that he would garner enough votes to carry the day even if he did not receive enough votes based on the size of the field. In other word the fix was in but what went wrong?

 

In one word the error in their ways was Trump, they did not realize the degree of anger coming from the base at all the back door politics the republican elite were engaged in. The tea party had been bashed but not silenced and in fact it has been growing since Obama took office only this time no one told the pollsters because the media had tried to make the Tea party an evil group.

 

As a result We The People have turned the fix for Bush into a nightmare for the ruling class, and Trump is currently the benefactor of that anger but in the end if Trump fails watch Cruz slide in and rescue the party. Americans are working to bring common sense back to our laws and they want them enforced. To quote a line from the movie Network:

 

" I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore"

 

And Trump's popularity tells us We Are Not Alone. 

RINO's are afraid of us. 

[DE]

This is outstanding...You gave me an education here..I did not know any of this...and I love the closer last 2 sentences...This should be in one of my emails to let others know about how this is figured..The American people love to find out things like this..If I have your permission...I will just copy the post itself..not your name and mail it to my email buddy who will get it out for me...to go out across  the nation...

[Dmitri Veans]

Sure anything I put up without a link is done by me, feel free to spread the word. 

PS/ you may want to fix the typo's

[DE]

Thanks DV ..will do....

[DE]

One and done........:) I am going up to the address bar and putting this on all the mail outs as well...

http://wethepeopleusa.ning.com/

[DE]

Good Night all...

[Dmitri Veans]

Night Night

[DE]

:)

[Dmitri Veans]

The first time I watched a YouTube video of Donald Trump's speech announcing his candidacy for the U.S. presidency, I felt something visceral. Trump's typical bombast notwithstanding, I heard campaign oratory that resonated.

A stronger military. Secure borders. Economic revival. Renewed American pride. Economic inclusiveness. A greater America.

His messages pierced the mindset of a traditional progressive who voted for Bill Clinton and again for Barack Obama. I voted twice against George W. Bush. But Trump's resolute confidence tapped into dormant political values I haven't felt for decades.

A titanic shift in my political allegiances began on Oct. 11, 2013. My wife and I had joined 30 other Americans for a tour of Normandy, France, and the American Cemetery and Memorial. My father was a World War II veteran and had expressed his wish to walk the hallowed beaches and landmarks of the D-Day landings. We journeyed there partly to realize my late father's unfulfilled dream.

Yet, on that chilly October day, the American government was closed for business as Washington Democrats and Republicans were at loggerheads over the budget. Republicans wanted to defund the Affordable Care Act. Democrats remained intransigent about protecting the president's health care legislation. The blame game continued unabated, and the cemetery's gates stayed padlocked.

My diffuse anger at the Washington political establishment solidified. Attitude became action during the 2014 mid-term elections when I voted against all incumbents, Democrat or Republican, with most of my affirmative votes leaning Republican.

http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_28757819/guest-commentary-dona...

[DE]

Good article..DV..........

[Dmitri Veans]

Thank you, with media bias as it is its often hard to find news not biased against our candidates. 

Thanks to the internet the truth is getting out!