Here are my thoughts on the rise of Donald Trump. I think the people who have been strongly supportive of Republicans since Reagan never really believed in the Republican platform at all. What did motivate them to vote R was the subtle innuendo of identity politics and to believe the so called "others" are the cause of this country’s ills. I think Trump's ascendancy is proof that most people are calling bullshit on the idea of smaller government, cutting taxes fix everything, globalization is the key to prosperity, and the success of the wealthy will trickle down to the masses. Trump is still playing the identity politics Reagan played with the “welfare queens” and so on and I think the voters still like hearing that. However, Trump is also stepping on decades of Republican fiscal and social policies and this leads me to believe they never had any faith in those post Reagan policies to begin with.
When we remove racial issues from the political calculus, I think 2016 will serve as an important reminder that this country is farther left on the political spectrum than the media would have us believe. This is why I think that Trump’s ascendancy, a person I would not vote for in a million years, is actually a good sign of the direction the electorate could be heading in.