Co-authored by Salena Zito, syndicated columnist, and Brad Todd, Republican political strategist, the book focuses on attitudes in key Midwestern swing state voters that proved fatal for Hillary Clinton and her Democratic Party. The book’s main theme, however, is that middle America’s blue-collar and uninformed voters became angry at the Washington political elite. This has been true in Mississippi since 1817 when it was established. These crucial Midwest swing voters were “hiding out in plain sight” by America’s political decision-makers, as Zito, Todd and others argue throughout the book. How then is Mississippi perceived by this elite political class? This question can be best answered by looking at Mississippians’ recent tendency to elect populist politicians, and their desire for radical anti-establishment views. The Great Revolt is Zito’s and Todd’s presentation of key 2016 themes. They also provide demographics and data, much like many books that followed the 2016 shocking presidential race. This book stands out because it provides a comprehensive overview of the faces and stories that helped Trump win. It is a refreshingly personal account that goes beyond the simplistic generalizations that fuelled the anger of those voters. Zito and Todd offer a detailed narrative about the experiences and backgrounds of voters in Iowa, Michigan and Wisconsin. They also include profiles of voters from Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Ohio, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. They describe the ideological breakdown points of the voters, including many who voted for Clinton and her Democratic primary challenger Bernie Sanders weeks before voting for Trump in 2016. The authors don’t attempt to predict the future of American politics, and who would? They do provide some clues through compelling context they discovered during their reporting. They write that Trump voters believe they are part of something bigger than a president and that it began before the last election. “The sense that they are part of a mission to right the wrongs done to middle-class Americans by indifference to big business, big media and big government is expressed independent of their trust in Trump,” they write. Tate Reeves will likely be a senior advisor to Reeves in his 2019 gubernatorial race. Salena Zito will be appearing on the panel “Inside American Politics” at 2:45 p.m. in the C-SPAN/Old Supreme Court Room. Former Gov. Haley Barbour, a former governor, and Alan Abramowitz, a renowned political writer.
