Mitch Perry
Donald Trump‘s chances of becoming president seem to dim by the day. While there’s still plenty of time for him to comeback and defeat Hillary Clinton in the fall, the odds diminish daily.
But while conventional wisdom has it that Trump is one-off political phenomenon, buttressed by his money and celebrity, what about the millions who support his message. Where does that movement go?
A lot of it would go towards supporting a protectionist, xenophobic party, according to George Mason University professor of public policy Justin Gest. In an essay in POLITICO, he writes that in preparation for his new book, “The New Minority: White Working Class Politics in an Age of Immigration and Inequality, he solicited white Americans’ support for Donald Trump, but also for a hypothetical third party dedicated to “stopping mass immigration, providing American jobs to American workers, preserving America’s Christian heritage, and stopping the threat of Islam.” And he says that 65 percent of those he interviewed would support that party.
The author writes that the majority of these folks are under 40 years of age, meaning that they won’t be going away anytime soon.
Gest writes, “This is most immediately important to the Republican Party: If Trump were the whole story, and his message didn’t matter, then Republicans could dismiss this election as an anomaly. However, if Trump has stumbled upon a policy agenda that has been latent in the Republican base, then the party is faced with a choice: adopt it in the future, or stick with its longstanding principles and risk alienating its voters. That would either usher in a radical turn in the party’s trajectory or open up space for a third party, the likes of which are growing rapidly in Europe.”
It’s a must read. His upcoming book maybe as well.
In other news…
Tim Canova goes after Debbie Wasserman Schultz regarding her support for the Iranian nuclear deal. Later in the day, DWS hit back on Canova’s previous statement that he wanted to disarm the entire Middle East – including Israel.
In Tampa, Patrick Murphy slammed Marco Rubio for being too concerned with running for president in 2020 to be able to do a decent job at being a Senator for six more years.
More DNC documents are dumped by Guccifer 2.0, this time on internal documents from the DCCC on congressional races in Florida.
Bus ridership numbers are down in Hillsborough, Pinellas and much of the nation, we learned yesterday.
Brian Willis has his first ad up for the campaign for Hillsborough County Commissioner, just as early voting commences in the county.
Rebecca Smith gets endorsed by half the Cabinet of Florida as she competes against Jackie Toledo for the GOP nomination for House District 60.
