What are the Trump phenomenon and the anti-establishment revolt in the Republican Party really about? According to David Frum’s recent cover article in The Atlantic, “The Great Republican Earthquake,” they are fundamentally about economically stressed GOP supporters—particularly from the white working class—who have concluded that Republican elites are driven by the power of organized money and must be discarded for more radical outsider alternatives. Others argue that the populist surge inside the Republican Party reflects racially-tinged resentments about immigration and rapid demographic change. The Republican Party appears to be at a crossroads where it must decide whether and how to respond to this surging populism; business as usual risks a real sundering of the current Republican coalition.
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