Bruce Murphy on "Trump Vs. The Wisconsin Establishment"

From his latest 'Murphy's Law' column at Urban Milwaukee.

"The ascendance of Donald Trump has raised questions about a big part of the Republican Party’s base — white people without college degrees — many of whom have been left behind by the global economy, and need help from the government. ..."

For example, if policy on trade and immigration costs them and benefits others economically.

"But as less-educated white voters have turned out in droves for Trump, he has defended their reliance on Social Security and Medicare and warned that Republicans like Rep. Paul Ryan (who was booed at a Trump rally in Ryan’s hometown of Janesville) want to cut those benefits. In response, conservatives are increasingly aiming their sneers at these Republican and 'Reagan Democrat' voters.

"As National Review columnist Kevin Williamson put it in a recent column excoriating Trump and his struggling low-income white supporters: 'The truth about these dysfunctional, downscale communities is that they deserve to die. Economically, they are negative assets. Morally, they are indefensible.'"

If any publication would have thought twice about saying such things, I would have thought it would be National Review.

"What Wisconsin, the nation’s most politically polarized state, is revealing, perhaps at its most naked, is the shocking split in the Republican Party."

Usually one tries to avoid conforming to the other side's slanders, ideally from principle, but if not, at least strategically.