RUSH: Many people, I think, are making a mistake in the Trump era by continuing to look at things in the traditional Republican-versus-Democrat way.
I think there’s a second mistake being made by many analysts and commentators who are wrong in their analysis of who Trump voters are. And that analysis would have you believe that every Trump voter is a populist and nationalist who doesn’t want America to be anywhere in the world, wants a wall built around the whole country, doesn’t want anybody coming in. Wants every bit of legislation to benefit only domestic Americans. To hell with foreign aid, the hell with foreign policy, they don’t want anything to do with it. This is the Never Trumper view of the Trump voter. And they are immersed in this belief that every one of you Trump voters is a populist, not a conservative. That every one of you is a nationalist, not a conservative.
And in their minds that’s a big, big difference. Populists are despised by Never Trumpers and by even Democrats because a populist is defined as somebody who doesn’t have an ideological core per se in the left-right paradigm, but instead is just a blind America firster no matter what constantly and to hell with what’s happening elsewhere in the world. And I don’t think that any of the traditional political science analysis of the Trump voter has yet understood what one of the primary motivations of Trump voters is.
I’ll tell you what I think it is. I think one of the primary motivating factors in Trump voters is anti-Democrat Party sentiment and anti-leftist sentiment. I think that a lot of the people that voted for Trump voted for Trump because they sensed in him the only guy in the Republican primary who would actually do battle with the left.
I think the people that we’re talking about, that Salena Zito finds in Ohio and Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, I think they despise liberalism. I think they hate the left. I think they’re scared of it. I think they’re angry with it. I think they believe that liberalism is destroying the fabric and the culture in this country and that that’s why they voted for Trump. Not because Trump was gonna close the borders.
These people, there may be some of that. As such, the answer to your question, if the Republicans do not repeal Obamacare, and if there is no tax reform, I do not think it is a guarantee that voters elect Democrats as a result. Because I can’t see the people who voted for Donald Trump ever voting for the Democrat no matter how angry they are at Republicans.
Now, I realize what I’m saying here. I think these people would not vote rather than vote for Democrats. Their anger at Republicans is profound and is going to get even deeper if they fail to advance the Trump agenda. But these people that voted for Trump are not going to vote for Democrats in response. Trump represents the only chance in their lifetimes to stop the left. They didn’t think that about any other Republican in the primaries. And everybody’s missing this. Everybody thinks it’s populism and nationalism, and they’re missing what has really irritated all of us for 25 years!