Good Analysis here. Worth clicking over. Here is the meat of it.
Steve Cortes:
“…President Trump returned to Wisconsin as a confident, even triumphal, commander-in-chief. In 2016, he worked relentlessly to flip the state and other supposedly unwinnable ones in the upper Midwest, tearing asunder the Democrats’ assumed “blue wall” of electoral fortification. Through campaign hustle and policy prescriptions that put workers first, he proved that many Obama voters in places like Wisconsin could be persuaded to join the Republican movement, so long as it championed American nationalism, particularly in the spheres of trade and jobs.
Returning to the Badger State as the sitting president — indeed, in the very city where Democrats will hold their nominating convention this summer — he powerfully made the case that the Trump Boom has delivered results to the very voters who vaulted him into the White House. Blue-collar workers thrive in America, at last. By every relevant measure, wages advance fastest now for the economic underdogs, the strivers. American workers who lagged during the tepid Obama recovery now surge to the lead with, for example, 6% wage growth for non-high school graduates, a pace of expansion three times better than during Obama’s second term. In fact, per Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank’s analysis, the wage growth differential for the lowest quartile of earners has exploded to relative outperformance levels unseen since the 1990s. Because of this broadening prosperity, an amazing 40 million fewer Americans no longer reside in households receiving government assistance, compared to just three years ago.
President Trump’s Midwestern audiences benefit mightily from such opportunity. Unlike the Obama years, which narrowly rewarded already-successful populations largely residing on America’s coasts, between 2016 and 2018 the number of workers earning $200,000 or more annually increased 17% in Michigan and 10% in Iowa. In addition to economic success, President Trump rightly crowed to the heartland audience about America’s new trajectory vs. enemies abroad. The surgical military strike against the terrorist menace Qassem Soleimani eliminated a deadly threat to American lives and, like the prior al-Baghdadi raid, proved that the United States stands ready to kill dangerous adversaries abroad without initiating disastrous invasions and the concomitant nation-building. The Trump Doctrine of realism and restraint abroad resonates across the war-weary Midwest. Indeed, the president’s anti-intervention stance helped secure his 2016 victory in these very states, according to a compelling statistical analysis by Douglas Kriner and Francis Shen.
As the UW-Milwaukee arena pulsed with the rock concert-like fervor unique to a Trump rally, a political wake of sorts unfolded Tuesday night at Drake University, site of the CNN Democratic debate. My CNN colleague, Democrat Van Jones, conceded that the event displayed the excitement of “cold oatmeal.” He further observed that “the Democrats are going to have to do better than what we saw tonight” and that no one on stage “would be able to take Trump out.”
Indeed, the debate revealed a party devoid of compelling ideas and a corporate media bereft of journalistic credibility. Among the candidates, the only real competition revolved around just how much federal intrusion into private health care is enough. Instead, these Democratic debates should offer serious fireworks. After all, the canyon-sized gap between the AOC “Squad” wing of the party and the establishment types like Joe Biden should produce fiercely contentious political cage matches. Instead, these snooze-fests resemble pillow fights. Such training will hardly prepare the eventual nominee to face a brawler like President Trump, who has hardened his skills versus adversaries ranging from Democrats in the House of Representatives to the Chinese Communist Party to the corporate media…”