Inside the Populist Coalition Reshaping American Politics

Great read with both antecdotal and empirical evidence backing up what the election results had shown. Very interesting to hear the stories from citizens whom were BHO voters once, and usually twice, then punch their card for Trump. I would say that another book could be written just like this, in the south where people voted for Obama once and then Trump next, but for completely different reasons than what are outlined in this book. And that would be my only criticism, that the authors stuck to mainly just the “Blue Wall” states. None the less, an easy four stars.

I just finished this book and it provided unique insight into the populist movement that elected President Trump. What an amazing book on the election. For those who don’t understand how President Trump was elected, this is a must read!

Overall I enjoyed the book but be forwarned, the book is about 80/20 split between engaging in a conversation at the Sunday dinner table and political analysis.

I enjoyed the conversation to a point, but just like relatives coming to visit, I couldn't wait for this part of the book to finish and for the real meat to begin.

This book is neither a useful nor honest examination of Trump-era nationalism or populism, but it is instead a vivid collection of the stories people tell themselves to remain convinced of their wholesome righteousness. Those people include Salena Zito, who starts out with a quick dismissal of "crude demography" to explain "populist-conservative Trump coalition", but then immediately erects her own crude demographic alternative: the familiar trope of coastal elites versus hard-working Americans. There's a lot of selectivity and deception in Zito's choice of stories, most hilariously in her lengthy profile of a hard-working moderate Republican Wisconsinite, Amy Maurer. Zito portrays Maurer as a persuadable voter, perilously ignored by the Democrats, but whenever Maurer is quoted she sounds like she's reciting Republican Party talking points. It turns out Maurer is a local Republican Party official, and has been since before Zito wrote this book. You'll learn a lot about Maurer in "The Great Revolt", but you won't learn that, because Zito omits it.

...in every school in the Nation. I’m torn because while I’m glad, ecstatic even, that this book does such a good job healing the political wound that has festered for too long in America, I’m sad that wound exists at all. We shouldn’t need to be reminded that as Americans, despite our differences 99% of us are really nice people capable of very positive feelings towards each other. This is a great book with which to re-explore and re-capture the greatness that is the United States of America and its fine people. Enjoy.

I'm always trying to better understand the region around me (I live outside of Pittsburgh but grew up outside of Philadelphia) and am looking forward to reading this book to get a better feeling for some of the under-reported trends and feelings that led us into the 2016 presidential election. A lot of my friends on the East Coast had a hard time fathoming what happened in a lot of the middle of the country, and I hope that this book can help illuminate our conversations moving forward and inform our discussions around the next presidential election.

An entertaining book that gives insight into the results of 2016 Presidential election that is neither preachy nor dry. Salena Zito tells compelling stories of the invisible people who live in the middle of the country, the part the U.S. the rest of the reporters who covered the election merely flew over. She backs them up with interesting statistics from Brad Todd to explain not only what happened to land Donald Trump in the White House, but what that “movement” could mean to the future of the country. I can relate to nearly every profile presented here, although, unlike the voters whose tales make up the bulk of “The Great Revolt”, I did not support the candidate. If you find the current political situation fascinating and realize we have reached a turning point, buying this book is a no-brainer. Bonus - the writing is compelling enough to interest even those who are marginally entrenched in the debate. Loved it!

I'm eagerly looking forward to reading this book. I've enjoyed reading Brad Todd's columns for years. He's a fantastic writer. I think new readers will enjoy this longer application of his thoughtful insights. I am looking forward to getting acquainted with Salena Zito's writing as well. A deep dive into 2016 election to understand the whys and hows of an unexpected result is interesting no matter which side of the aisle you are on. I've read some great reviews and am buying one for myself and for another political junkie in my family.

This book is excellent for many reasons, the main one being that it combines data (polls) with personal interviews and stories that you do not get with a statistic. The “Trump Base” is often described as people being who are motivated by racial anger and anxiety; a truly lazy and disingenuous description. The book goes through different types of Trump voters, with an emphasis on Obama voters who went to Trump and other people who gave up on politics long ago and never really felt like they had someone to get behind. My conclusion after reading these people’s stories and motivations is that they felt forgotten. The Washington Establishment in both parties was not paying attention to them and as they saw the consequences of trade deals that only President Trump was consistently talking about gave these Americans a voice. The 2016 election was an amazing story and books like this that go beyond the lazy attacks on the Trump voter you so often see in the media is a great step forward in understanding what really happened. The looming question are:
Will this new coalition (with many different subgroups inside of it) be consistent? Or was this a one-time occurrence?
How does this new voting block change the political landscape?

This book and the "Deplorable" American voters it describes should be taken seriously and literally.
Perhaps if we spend a little more time trying to understand each other and a bit less time vilifying, we'd actually find some common ground.

She includes many lies. People portrayed as Democrats are actually elected Republican officials. Half the people she quotes are elected Republicans. Salena Zito is a liar, a propagandist, a tool of the Trump administration and a 100% fraud.

This book provides a seemingly objective review of what has occurred in the US over the last 20 years to bring the populist waves we are seeing in America—- and explains why Trump won- it offers insights worthy of consideration for future trends —- his anecdotes and his examples are so vivid and so convincing on what happened and why people voted for Trump.

Great distillation of who voted for Trump — in the words of individual voters — in the 2016 Presidential election. It’s a deep dive into the minutiae of why these voters chose Trump. An eye opening look at what really drove them to Donald Trump.

Great book! Really interesting to hear about all the people in the "flyover states" that make this country work and why they voted. A lot of the people Zito wrote about reminds me of my aunts and uncle outside Pittsburgh who never cared about politics until Trump. The unhinged left keeps wondering how in the world Trump won... well they should read this book because it's only the beginning :)

As someone who worked with Salena Zito for many years, I know that she has an uncanny ability to connect with people, from CEOs and generals to truck drivers, housewives and the people next door. She first used these talents to uncover a latent populism that carried Trump into the White House. I'm pleased to see now that she has been able to use her ability again to introduce the nation to groups of people often overlooked in Washington.

Real stories and real people. This book will give you a direct account of how and why Trump got to the White House straight from the mouths of his voters. It’s a new era in American politics, and this book does an astounding job of explaining the pivotal 2016 election for those of us still shocked by the outcome.

This book, from what I have seen, really provides insightful commentary into an amazing election that so many “experts” got wrong. And they still don’t understand it. Brad Todd understood what was happening before most did. He is a gifted analyst and consultant and he and Gomez have done a great job here.

I'm really looking forward to checking this book out particularly given some of the early reviews. I'm not a huge Trump fan and live in a pretty solidly blue area but have been really interested in the makeup of his winning coalition and how he pulled it off. It'll be interesting to get past some of the conventional wisdom and broad statistics and hear directly from the people who put him in office.

Interesting, confirmational read. Describing and catergorizing groups can risk overly simplistic, making the gray appear to be black and white. But, even with limitations, it can also serve to sort, simplify, and explain somewhat the morass of the mass.

This book does that, and comes from one who's done her homework, while managing to maintain her own carefully disguised desire to remain in the "club" of journalists. Hey, we all buy into loser investments somewhere along the line. For Zito, that might include a lifetime dream.

But I'm guessing she might get a potentially rude awakening, or at least dream disruption in this. Should she think her book is going to serve as a cultural alarm clock for her fellow MSMers, she might be disappointed, at least. See, they won't give a rat's petoot about the truths she's researched and explained. Her journalist peers have absolutely no appetite nor need for discovering truth, even when a once-trusted peer serves it up on a silver, easy-to-read platter.

And Lord knows, the progressive powers leading the increasingly leftist Democrat party will scoff at her musings. Lost cause there.

And so that leaves me. And maybe thee. And while I appreciate and concur with much of what Ms. Z writes of, so what? Tell me something I didn't have a pretty fair gleaning of.

Here's hoping I'm all wrong and this becomes, Heaven forbid, a long-time #1 best-seller in the NYTimes. Go Salena! Go POTUS! MAGA!

There are bits of useful information here and the many interviews with the various kinds of Trump supporters illustrate the sometimes curious reasons they tend to give for publication. I say curious because one would never know that recent surveys show that the kinds of Fox News talking points the intetviewees put forward--Obama was a tyrant who weakened the US and waged a war on religion and the like--were less important than racism, fear of immigrants, and loss of status in a changing world. In fact, this book barely mentions race or immigration and essentially ignores the propaganda efforts of Fox which receives three brief and generic references in the text and, I believe, no mention by those interviewed. There are better books coming out on the reasons for Trump's win.

Interesting book and probably worth the read for people truly interested in politics .... not a summer beach book.

Examples of people given are repetitive as to locale and background .... big flaw of the book.

What continues to strike me as odd is how many people, who live in dying towns in Iowa and Michigan are angry at the success of others on the coasts, but sit in their dying towns and feel bitter. Then Trump comes along and lies to them about how all will be well and they buy it. Also wonder how these great Christians (77% of the country) feel so put upon by the 23% of us who are somehow restricting their practice of religion.

Got my copy at the library .... don't spend the $30.

I watched the author Zito in a number of interviews during the election and always found her very interesting. I knew that if given a chance to tell more of the story of her travels on the campaign trail with Trump that it would be interesting . Her book was very well written and unbiased. I have never understood why anyone would vote for Trump unless they were weathy . Her book helps to explain the logic behind the large numbers that chose that path.

Salena Zito and Brad Todd considered what happened in the 2016 presidential election and took a deep look at the five states where the election was won for Donald Trump – Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Iowa. All five voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2016. And they went deeper that statewide results – they went into the counties that flipped from Obama to Trump, and many by large margins. And unlike most mainstream media reporters, they didn’t parachute in from New York or Los Angeles the day after the election, interviewed a few people, and then left. They stayed around, and they talked with people, often I their own homes. They talked with their families and friends, too.

The result of their work and research is The Great Revolt: Inside the Populist Coalition Reshaping American Politics.

They didn’t find a “typical” Trump voter. What they did find was that people who voted for Donald Trump in the counties in those five states could be broadly classified into seven groups, and, because one of the authors is with an opinion research firm, they gave the groups catchy titles.

The seven are “Red-Blooded and Blue Collared,” “Perot-istas,” “Rough Rebounders,” “Girl Gun Power,” “Rotary Reliables,” “King Cyrus Christians,” and “Silent Suburban Moms.” The chapter on each includes interviews with representative people.

I don’t live in one of those five states, but I recognized every single person they talked with. I know people just like them; I have family members just like them; I go to church with people like them.

And while these groups and the people are markedly different, certain common themes clearly emerged. They don’t trust big corporations. They don’t trust the national and even the local news media. They believe Barack Obama, even though they voted for him, led the country in the wrong direction, and especially when it came to national defense and security and the economy. Many of them own small businesses, and they watched their medical insurance costs skyrocket with Obama care while big corporations were exempted. They saw a playing field tilted against them and the communities they live in and love. They believed they were disdained by the economic and cultural power centers on the coasts. And they saw Hilary Clinton offering more of the same.

Their concerns ran so deep that they could look at Trump’s vulgarity, antics, crazy statements, and tweets and say, yeah, they’re bad, but maybe he’s the one who will blow up what needs to be blown up.

The authors considered these groups, and then they looked at the broader implications of what happened in 2016, and what that means for the future.

Zito, a native of Pittsburgh, worked for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review for 11 years. She joined the New York Post in 2016 and is a political analyst for CNN and a reporter and columnist for the Washington Examiner. Todd is the founding partner of OnMessage, Inc., a national Republican advertising and opinion research firm.

The Great Revolt tells the story of 2016. It suggests that none of the people the authors talked with have changed their minds since the election, and that national mainstream media coverage of Trump – contrary to what journalists and editors might think – is only reinforcing their beliefs.

As a nation, we have moved into uncertain and uncharted waters.

I kept asking why people supported Trump. This book gave me the answers I was looking for. However, his supporters have not yet realized that he will not solve their problems nor will he implement any real solutions for them.

Great book investigating why Trump won by talking to everyday Americans in small towns in “flyover” states. However omitting any reference to stopping illegal immigration—which was not only a key point in Trump’s platform —But was wildly popular and supported across the board—leaves out a key component of the Trump victory. Americans want immigration to slow down until immigrants we have can be assimilated (if legal) or deported (if illegal).