Original Proposal

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johnkarls
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Joined: Fri Jun 29, 2007 8:43 pm

Original Proposal

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From: ReadingLiberally-SaltLake@johnkarls.com
To: ReadingLiberallyEmailList@johnkarls.com
Bcc: The Approximately 150 Recipients of Our Weekly E-mail
Subject: RSVP’s Requested -- "The Great Revolt: Inside the Populist Coalition Reshaping American Politics” –- June 13
Date: Sat, May 19, 2018
Attachments:
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Dear Friends,

Our next meeting is Wednesday evening, June 13th, at the Salt Lake Public Library (210 East 400 South).

In accordance with our quorum-revision policy of 6/12/2013, instead of waiting until the last week before each monthly meeting to request RSVP’s and canceling if we do not have our minimum quorum of six, RSVP’s are requested in our first-of-the-monthly-cycle weekly e-mail.

Those who have RSVP’d will be informed immediately when we reach six so that they can proceed to read the materials with assurance that a discussion will take place.

If there are not six RSVP’s by 11:59 pm next Friday, then next week’s weekly e-mail will announce that the 6/13/2018 meeting is cancelled.

Non-SLCounty residents (and residents who are out of town) are invited to participate in our meeting via Skype. If you would like to do so, please press your reply button and type “request participation via Skype” and we will contact you to make appropriate arrangements.


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OUR FOCUS BOOK FOR JUNE 13TH --

"The Great Revolt: Inside the Populist Coalition Reshaping American Politics” by Salena Zito and Brad Todd [Crown Forum 5/8/2018 – 266 pages sans notes & index].

Amazon.com -- $16.80 Hardcover + Shipping or $14.99 Kindle.
Salt Lake Public Library – no copies have arrived yet.
Salt Lake County Library – only 1 copy which is checked out with 5 holds.


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DESCRIPTION FROM THE BOOK’S FLY LEAF

Was Donald Trump’s election a fluke, or did it represent a fundamental shift in the electorate that will have repercussions – for Republicans and Democrats – for years to come?

The political experts wrongly called the 2016 election and they keep blowing it – constantly predicting the coming demise of President Trump without pausing to consider the durability of the winds that swept him into office. In “The Great Revolt” Salena Zito and Brad Todd challenge readers to view the winning 2016 coalition through the lens of not only partisan realignment but also of broader cultural change – and beyond the prism of a single candidacy.

“The Great Revolt” delves deep into the minds and hearts of the voters that make up the new populist-conservative coalition that brought Trump and Republican majorities into office. As the authors travel over 27,000 miles of back roads to interview more than 300 Trump voters in ten Great Lake Swing counties, they identify seven clusters of voters integral to the winning coalition.

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[Reading Liberally Editorial Note --

The authors had already obtained detailed survey responses from 2,000 Trump voters of which 400 came from each of the “rust belt” states that President Trump “flipped” -- Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Iowa and Wisconsin (Florida was the only other “flip” state in 2016).

NB: that 400 greatly exceeds the number of people surveyed in the “microscope” of most national/state voter polls -- according to the National Council on Public Polls (www.ncpp.org/?q-node/6) the average sample size for polls of national or state voters is only 1 out of 200,000 voters. So, for example Pennsylvania’s population of 12.7 million which is the largest of the “rust belt” states that President Trump “flipped” and which, per www.ncpp.org, implies there are 8.2 million Pennsylvania voters, would involve an average sample size of only 41 people to represent ALL (not just Trump) voters in Pennsylvania!!!
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Continuing with the description from the book’s fly leaf –

The mass media ascribes Trump’s election to angry, ugly impulses, but Zito and Todd reveal a coalition that defies those stereotypes. When encountered in the places and routines of their daily lives, these voters explain the deliberate, sometimes conflicted choices they made to support Trump that transcend one election.

Spanning a wide range of careers, economic classes, and prior electoral habits, these voters include ex-labor union leaders, newly pragmatic evangelicals, lifetime political cynics, and college-educated professionals who resisted the pull of a Clinton campaign message crafted just for them. Reacting to a culture increasingly driven by distant elites, these voters seek a movement larger than themselves, a cause that puts pragmatism above ideology, puts localism before globalism, and demands respect from Washington.

Pairing Zito’s signature reporting skills and Todd’s big-picture political and cultural analysis, “The Great Revolt” marries on-the-ground investigation with the hard data analysis of electoral trends. The book reveals that the pivotal voters who unexpectedly turned the 2016 election had been hiding in plain sight – ignored by both parties, the media, and the political experts all at once. Deeply rooted themselves in the work-based, faith-driven traditional culture of the nation’s interior states, Zito and Todd reframe the discussion of the “Trump voter” to answer the question – What’s next?


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AUTHOR BIOS

Salena Zito, born and bred in Pittsburgh, she worked for a Pittsburgh-based newspaper for 11 years. Since 2016, Salena has joined the New York Post, acts as a CNN political analyst, and a staff reporter and columnist for the Washington Examiner.

Brad Todd, a sixth-generation native of rural East Tennessee, is a founding partner at OnMessage media firm. His candidate clients have included six U.S. Senators, three Governors, and more than two dozen congressmen.


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BOOK REVIEW EXCERPTS

“Most of the national pundit class has tried to explain the rise of Trump voters by pointing to racism, or economic resentment, or racism, or cultural change, or even, you know, racism as an explanation. But Salena Zito and Brad Todd tried something different: They went to those voters and asked them….in two ways: Face to face, in a series of deep and sensitive interviews, and en masse in a large opinion survey. Both inquiries produced a lot of useful material that both Democrats and Republicans would be well advised to study and internalize.”
—USA Today

"Syndicated columnist Salena Zito and GOP strategist Brad Todd find well-educated voters were more likely to shift left if they lived in communities that had disproportionately high levels of education...Zito and Todd argue that disparity is evidence that social pressures are driving both groups toward political homogeny."
—The Hill

“While Donald Trump's election shocked the Washington establishment, Salena Zito and Brad Todd show that his coalition was hidden in plain sight. Far from a ‘basket of deplorables,’ they're the forgotten men and women of America, people who work with their hands and on their feet, and who want a government that rewards their work and respects their communities. Zito and Todd tell their story, and anyone interested in American politics would do well to listen.”
—Senator Tom Cotton

“Salena Zito picked up on a political phenomenon long before polls or pundits had any idea of what was happening. Her drives from Pittsburgh to Cleveland opened her eyes about the rise of Trump and her shoe leather reporting and skills as a journalist helped her understand why. Her voice channeling and explaining these voters is invaluable for the Trump era.”
—Jake Tapper

“If you want a fuller understanding of the political moment we’re in, and you should, you read Salena Zito. I mean this both literally and seriously.”
—Peggy Noonan

"Reading the words of the farmers, gun-toting women, former union bosses and others who found their way to Trump, you get the feeling that Zito's and Todd's blue-collar, flyover country roots opened doors and hearts that might have remained closed to some big city reporters. The revealing conversations peel back the layers of a complicated American onion."
—Courier Journal

"Ms. Zito and Mr. Todd have done a service by portraying Trump Nation in a way that goes beyond either academic data-crunching or breathless coverage of presidential rallies."
—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“Empathy might be what Zito and Todd convey best, profiling voters in Iowa, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin to bring President Trump’s oft-misunderstood coalition to life. Relying on survey data, Zito and Todd outline seven archetypes of the ‘most surprising’ voters Trump attracted, fleshing out each category with compelling voter interviews that make the numbers easier to understand.”
—Washington Examiner

“The mighty Trump voter gets some significant analysis...revealing the authentic spirit and iron-willed determination of some 63 million voters who brought President Trump victory”
—Washington Times

"Reading the words of the farmers, gun-toting women, former union bosses and others who found their way to Trump, you get the feeling that Zito’s and Todd’s blue-collar, flyover country roots opened doors and hearts that might have remained closed to some big city reporters.”
—Bowling Green Daily News

“Salena Zito is unique: a truth-telling reporter who found the America that elected Donald Trump. She listened to them. Understands them. Respects them. Not only did she get the election right, but by employing the lost art of shoe-leather journalism, she uncovered an amazing national political realignment that was—and still is—completely invisible to the Wizards of Smart who inhabit our distant capital. Whenever I see her byline, I stop and read. I know it will be that good. You should, too. Don’t doubt me.”
—Rush Limbaugh


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We hope to see all of you on June 13th.

Your friend,

John K.

PS -- To un-subscribe, please press "reply" and type "deletion requested."

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