I laud David Brooks for attempting to explain why Donald Trump has so many supporters, but I do not find his theory that it is driven by the precarious lives of working-class voters convincing. Trump supporters are the ideological descendants of the people who trashed welfare mothers in the 1980s, opposed integration in the 1960s, who lynched people in the 1920s, wore white hoods during Reconstruction, and stood beside my great-great-grandfather as he marched off to war to defend slavery. The 19th century English writer Thomas Hardy wrote, "Successful propagandists have succeeded because the doctrine they bring into form is that which their listeners have for some time felt without being able to shape." 70 + million people voted for Donald Trump because he sang the song they wanted to hear.
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