Revenge of the Rust Belt
The Midwest is tired of being a campaign pit stop
The Republican Party has undergone an intense transformation thanks to former President Donald Trump. I used to argue this would harm the conservative agenda in the long run. I even advocated against the former president during the 2024 GOP primary. But after attending the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last week, I can’t help but feel that the MAGA movement has been on to something for a long while.
That “something” certainly includes Trump’s policies, which were far better for the nation’s prosperity than Biden’s, but those policies are ultimately a reflection of the larger divide between the two parties right now.
One actively disregards the interests of voters in an effort to consolidate its own power, while the other at least doesn’t balk from the issues most normies care about. One stopped trying to recruit and test new candidates and decided to appoint them instead, giving us Hillary Clinton in 2016, Joe Biden in 2020, and, more likely than not, Kamala Harris in 2024. The other party held a primary even though Trump, the leader of the party, was planning a comeback.
