"A Strategy That Would Reorient the Party Toward Localism and Small Businesses"

"While some policy issues come up in these voters' self-narratives—abortion, gun rights, NAFTA, the opioid crisis—their sense of cultural betrayal is a stronger common thread. They believe hard work has been devalued in America; that elites belittle people who live outside of urban centers; that once-normal opinions have become taboo. This sense of cultural disorientation and betrayal, of a common sensibility flipped upside-down, is the most powerful take-away from Zito and Todd's journey through the Midwest. 'Religiosity that was once honored by both parties became mocked by one as merely a basis of bigotry,' they write. 'Rust Belt voters watched on cable television as the Left and journalists pigeonholed their rebellion as an ugly bout of white nationalism, doubling down on all the elitist snobbery those voters sought to rebuke.'"

Emma Green at The Atlantic reviews Salena Zito and Brad Todd's The Great Revolt.

But Sarah Jones at The New Republic disputes Zito and Todd's conclusions.