"Surging Below the Surface For Years Before They Ultimately Broke Onto the Shore"

"While these white working-class voters soon claimed a respected place in the Republican coalition, they did not immediately supplant the established cohort of upper-middle-class managers and upwardly mobile professionals that formed the conservative spine of the Republican party. In 1992, it was this old guard that ensured that in the GOP primary Bush triumphed handily over Buchanan's 'pitchfork brigade.' Yet the Jacksonian revolt that Buchanan (and, in the same year, the madcap candidacy of Ross Perot) called forth had wounded Bush politically, contributing to his defeat that November. Although the pitchfork hadn't quite prevailed, it had been fashioned for future use."

At The Bulwark, Brian Stewart reviews Gerald Seib's We Should Have Seen It Coming.