The Great Revolt By Zito And Todd

Alexandra

Enter Name of the Instructor

American Politics

July 23rd, 2019

The Great Revolt by Salena Zito and Brad Todd- Book Review

The Great Revolt offers an insightful analysis of how the United States election of 2016 represented a fundamental shift in the electorate. Salena Zito who is working as a columnist at Washington Examiner has collaborated with Bradd Todd who has been a Republican strategist. By travelling to different states, they have witnessed how the election of 2016 represents a shift in the electorate. They have analyzed the repercussions of this shift for both the Democrats and the Republicans. In order to witness and experience the feelings of ordinary Americans, both authors have travelled twenty-seven thousand miles. They also visited different swing states which they believe are crucial in deciding about the faith of Presidentiakl nominees.

Divided into twelve chapters, the authors have attempted to present the underlying reason of how the campaign has swung between the Republican and the Democrats. In chapter one of the book, the authors have laid the basis for putting forth the question that Does Trump’s election reaches beyond bi-coastal concerns? Or does it make a large shift in the electorate which will have repercussions for the years to come? These are the groundbreaking questions which keep on infusing the reader’s attention toward the book. Some believe that authors have presented an already obvious notion attached to the Presidential elections, whereas some believe that it includes just some new findings, which were also much predicted and talked about.

If someone aware of the political dynamics of the United States, knows exactly who are the Republicans supporters? These people don’t live away in areas out of sight of the media, rather they live “in the hidden plain sight ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"sJFit3zS","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Zito and Todd)","plainCitation":"(Zito and Todd)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":1750,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/MUYNID4C"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/MUYNID4C"],"itemData":{"id":1750,"type":"paper-conference","title":"The Great Revolt: Inside the Populist Coalition Reshaping American Politics","publisher":"Crown Forum","source":"Google Scholar","title-short":"The Great Revolt","author":[{"family":"Zito","given":"Salena"},{"family":"Todd","given":"Brad"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2018"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Zito and Todd)”. This theme has guided the entire book. The authors have endeavoured to make the readers understand the dynamics of the victory of current President Donald J. Trump. Both authors have gone ahead and have surveyed these dynamics. They have pondered their efforts in the states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. These states were typically considered Democrats, but in 2016 they flipped towards Republicans.

The findings presented in every chapter of the book inform the readers about what they have been thinking of and how they perceive a new face will dominate American politics for the years to come. Salena and Bradd have interviewed people who have faced hardships and really difficult times. The authors present the view about these people that they remain testing voters who can at any time decide what they haven’t thought for years. Contrary to this, the authors have also interviewed people who had been a thorough and hard worker, which according to them are grieved ones, who also remain considerable in the voting process.

By employing such a manner, ‘The Great Revolt' has attracted the attention of many readers. The authors have avoided adding some new things which otherwise would have made their expressions and wants of the people changed. They have done no alterations to the words of the speakers that have helped in making reading this book more interesting and captivating. These conversations take a lead in many chapters of the book. To witness the support for the Republican’s candidate, both Zito and Tedd have visited the places, the Republican candidates have stopped visiting or paying attention toward. Zito remained at these places throughout the year of election. Interestingly, this is the reason Zito has many new things to write on, compared to other political analysts.

In her typical writing style, Zito has attempted to put forth the words of an ordinary American. She has attempted to relate the speeches of the Presidential candidates to the words of the ordinary citizens. They have categorized the voters in different groups based on their interviews. For example, one such group of people are ‘Rotary Reliable', similarly, there are ‘Girl gun power' and ‘King Christians'. Each group has had a different political perspective, which he or she believed is superior to others. Both Zito and Todd believe that ‘Make America Great Again’ was more like a cause than a slogan.

The contemporary American politics is still dominated by Republicans. This book might not be useful for analyzing the contemporary trends of American politics but the interviews of people from the seven groups identified in the book still hold worth. Losing a job in America is still a great deal (unlike the 2016 term), this is the reason that future of the Republican candidate would similarly be judged on these same notions. The other reason for Republican’s success in 2016 was the impetus in floated into the campaign by Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Her remarks which went like “you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorable racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, you name it… ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"DOVQVxRS","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Zito and Todd)","plainCitation":"(Zito and Todd)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":1750,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/MUYNID4C"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/MUYNID4C"],"itemData":{"id":1750,"type":"paper-conference","title":"The Great Revolt: Inside the Populist Coalition Reshaping American Politics","publisher":"Crown Forum","source":"Google Scholar","title-short":"The Great Revolt","author":[{"family":"Zito","given":"Salena"},{"family":"Todd","given":"Brad"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2018"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Zito and Todd)”. She invented the new term “Basket of deplorable”. The results of using this term were disastrous.

At many previous occasions, Trump has done the same with the Republican's ideology. They both have argued throughout the book that unlike many Republicans Trump had the advantage of Hillary being in opposition. In total this was the one aspect different to many Presidential elections in recent history. The authors majorly agree on the notion that it had always the middle or lower class American who has defined the Presidential run. For such voters, these campaign slogans are not worthy. These voters care for material benefits which still is expected to prevail in the upcoming elections.

Works Cited:

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Zito, Salena, and Brad Todd. The Great Revolt: Inside the Populist Coalition Reshaping American Politics. Crown Forum, 2018.