Columnist David Martin“Nothing matters.”
I don’t know how many times I read or heard that statement throughout the 2016 presidential campaigns. It was a sentiment shared by countless folk who bafflingly scratched their heads while observing an election season that defied many familiar political rules.
Republicans souring on free trade? Rust Belt Democrats switching party allegiance? Evangelicals shrugging off Bill Clintonesque sexual improprieties?
Election 2016 often resembled an alternate world where, yes, nothing seemed to matter. But in the larger context of a political paradigm shift, which this year embodied in many ways, the “nothing matters” attitude made sense. The standards defining the political guardrails of the past few decades hadn’t yielded favorable results for millions of Americans, specifically economic comforts, so people felt compelled to cast those norms off. After all, voters tend to align with political parties because they want results, not lip service.
And though he’s done little more than talk himself, Donald Trump understood that truth. That’s how he captivated a Republican electorate, many of whom were disgusted by weak-kneed establishment takes on policy matters like immigration. Too, that’s how he made turncoats out of those Rust Belt Democrats who were sick of losing job prospects to foreign workers.