A Different Framing of Trump Supporters

Independent Contractors

Last night, Trump decisively won the Republican Caucus in Iowa. The speeches by DeSantis and Haley were lipstick on a pig. Vivek dropped out and endorsed Trump. On to New Hampshire.

New Hampshire’s primary will feature lots of crossover Democrats voting for Haley. It is the only reason it is close. The other feature of the Northeastern states in the US is they tend to have more in common with Republican Establishment politicians than the Midwest or West. Think George Bush I and Nelson Rockefeller vs Barry Goldwater or Ronald Reagan.

Many Republicans have parroted that individualistic style of “western conservatism” but few have implemented it in policy once elected. They pose as gunslingers walking into a saloon, but they are Brooks Brothers-suited MBAs walking into a board room.

I thought Tucker nailed a lot of points in this video. There is a very good reason Senator Rand Paul started the #nevernikki movement. The Establishment Republicans will not give up on Nikki Haley, though she should drop out. There is a slice of the vote in Iowa that crossed over and voted for Haley. How do we know they were Democrats who crossed over and won’t be there for her in November?

Hilarious. Friend tells me 9 of the 11 Nikki voters in his precinct had N-95s.

Republicans don’t wear masks. Only mentally ill people are wearing masks at this point or virtue signalers. They didn’t work anyway.

Haley speaks to the Establishment. I met her at a fundraising party for Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo. It’s clear she put the groundwork in to try and curry support for her run. It was transparent at the party. She came, gave a well-rehearsed stump speech, and then left. There was no mingling.

But, while she hits some points well, like abortion, she is tone-deaf on others. Kind of like the Republican Establishment.

Trump connects with regular people. No one understands why. The Democrats that write for Bari Weiss’s Free Press don’t get it either. What they don’t get is that Trump is the Republican version of Obama. Obama was a terrible president, but he could talk to “the people”. Obama’s instincts and policies were anti-capitalistic and anti-American. Obama believes America has many many fatal flaws that can only be overcome through strong centralized government solutions, or socialism.

Obama and his cadre are weak on crime, and strong on division by race. It was Obama by his behind-the-scenes defense of Claudine Gay at Harvard who made it drag out so long. Penny Pritzker is a long-time Obama acolyte.

MSNBC and other mainstream outlets preach division and only see things through the lens of race or religion. Trump doesn’t. Neither did Reagan and the Republican Establishment hated Reagan.

Trump sees the best in America. “Make America Great Again” resonates. He relates to what the college-educated press calls “blue-collar workers”. However, those blue-collar workers aren’t what they used to be. Many of them own their businesses. They are self-directed and self-employed. They should be referred to as “independent contractors”.

Since he was in commercial real estate, Trump has worked extensively with these kinds of people. They are smart, though most didn’t go to college. Their unions have abandoned them.

These people all over the country have seen the government debt skyrocket no matter who is in charge. They have seen a two-tier legal system be implemented. They have seen Washington DC bureaucrats and politicians skim the cream and they get the dregs. It’s a mini-Hunger Game.

When you are working for yourself no matter if you are a hairdresser or a carpenter, you feel the sting of taxes. You see the rot in your neighborhood. You want everyone to do well and factory jobs to increase because it means people will be spending more on your services.

As Tucker Carlson illustrated in his video, the Republican AND Democratic establishment hates and can’t have Trump. He disrupts the gravy train. Trump version two will be far worse for them than Trump version one because he’s learned. I do think Trump is an “experiential learner”. He says a lot of crap but my guess is if he gets a second term, a lot of the bureaucracy that got in his way and was enabled by the Democrats/Republican Establishment will get eliminated.

The Democratic Party miscalculated. They didn’t think Joe Biden would be this bad, or go into such a steep physical decline. It is similar to the misstep Republicans made in the early 90s by embracing the far Religious Right and going in that direction.

The Establishment has far too much money and grift at stake to change course. Hence, it is going to be a battle royale. But, they must be eliminated and the only way to stick a stake in their heart is to elect people hell-bent on doing it.

The next President has to eliminate the money flows. That means changing the tax system and not doing things on the edges. It means violently smashing and breaking things like Milei has done in Argentina.

I think DeSantis could be that guy. Vivek obviously is but he’s gone. We know Haley is not and neither was Christie, Asa Hutchinson or any of the other pretenders. Burgam from ND might have been but never resonated.

That leaves Trump. He will have one term and be a lame duck on Day 1. But, if the Republicans take the Senate and House and he has enough legislators with him, he might be able to get something done. The Establishment will try to implement its blocking strategy. Before it was turn both houses Democratic. That might not be so easy this time and they will need Senators like Cornyn and McConnell to lead the charge.

In a national race today if you look at swing states, Trump wins this over Biden in a landslide. So does DeSantis. Biden won’t be the Democratic standard bearer. The smoke-filled room is already working.