Ross Douthat Cannot Figure Out Trump's Appeal Either

Ross Douthat, the liberal NY Times' favorite conservative writer, replacing or supplementing David Brooks proves he is just as inept at explaining Trump's appeal as the rest of the conservative chattering class. He finally figured out it is the White Working Class fueling Trump. But he still does not understand why.

He reinforces the problem with the conservative elite. For years they have drifted libertarian. They became fiscal conservatives and social liberals. Their attitudes mirrored their libertarian/libertine country club Republican mores.

So who was alienated by this? Well, certainly not the Left. After all they differ from the modern American libertarian/libertine, conservative Right only to the extent of how much taxes they will pay.

No, the people alienated by this were the White Working Class. The people who do not think that homosexual marriage, abortion-on-demand, marijuana legalization are noble crusades for which their lives should be sacrificed. 

The White Working Class does not think repealing civil forfeiture  laws, reducing the amount of drug dealers in prison, baking cakes for gay weddings, or removing crucifixes from national parks are the right things to do. But this is what is driving the libertarian/libertine, conservative, Republican elite establishment. They acquiesce to these demands.

So until the conservative elite figure this out Trump will prevail. He should. Trump is certainly no worse than those he is displacing and probably will at least acknowledge his debt to social conservatives insteading of belittling them. If nothing else, at least the Republican elite will now realize their mistake in abusing the trust of social conservatives.

Here is the link to Dothan:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/opinion/sunday/from-obama-to-trump.html?_r=0