… is from page 163 of Stephanie Slade’s important 2026 book, Fusionism: Liberty, Virtue, and the Future of the American Right; Ms. Slade here writes of the results of the 2024 U.S. election:
Several book-length analyses of recent electoral data have suggested that cultural issues, not economic ones, have driven the incipient realignment. Working-class voters did not rush into the arms of Trump because they liked his protectionist policies; they fled the Democratic Party because they saw it as a bunch of radicals who had finally taken their militant political correctness too far.
DBx: I believe Ms. Slade is correct. Her take certainly squares with one that I came to have after talking with my siblings just before the 2024 election.
As for the results of the 2026 midterm election, these are explained, I believe, by Americans being unpleasantly surprised – indeed, shocked – by many ‘qualities’ of Trump 2.0. These include the fact that Trump 2.0’s tariffs are far higher, more widespread, and more erratic than those imposed by Trump 1.0, as well as the fact that voters didn’t realize just how destructive protectionism is. Also important is Trump’s character: In his second term, he proved beyond any doubt that he has few principles and no understanding of the American project.
Most Americans, I’m sure, remain opposed to DEI, wokeism, and the economic lunacy of today’s progressives. But most Americans also find intolerable the lunatic – and sometimes downright cruel – behavior of this Trump administration.
Americans mostly voted against Trump and MAGA, not for the Democrats and progressivism.
