Several years ago, before Mr. Trump became President Trump, Peggy Noonan wrote a very good article called, Trump and the Rise of the Unprotected to explain to those who oppose Trump, the cause of his rise. Ms. Noonan, hardly an admirer of Trump, pointed out that those who oppose Trump were in the process of going through the five stages of grief but were still stuck between steps four and five. His opponents could not understand how anyone could support this crude man when his faults were so evident to “everyone.”
The gist of her argument was that there were two groups in America, the protected and the unprotected. The protected held the best jobs, lived in the best neighborhoods with the best schools and the finest police protection. They wrote the rules and made sure that the rules were slanted in their favor. They were the captains of industry, especially the new tech industry; they were the faceless bureaucrats who had secure jobs protected not only by civil service rules, but by powerful unions who contributed to the politicians who depended on their campaign funds to remain in positions of power far removed from the “little” people, often called taxpayers.
The unprotected were the mirror image of the protected only in reverse. The unprotected lived from day to day, struggled to pay huge college bills, increased taxes and fees, inflation, etc. The key driver of the unprotected that gave such a boost to Trump was migration which according to Ms. Noonan, was based on the realization that, “Democrats won’t protect you and the Republicans won’t help you.” Thus, the unprotected had to face the impact of immigration while the protected were sheltered from the reality of their decisions.
While the article was good, it did leave out a couple of items which were important. The first is that her article seemed to imply that the numerical difference between the protected and unprotected was minor; in reality, the unprotected realize that it is more of an imbalance somewhere in the range of the 1% vs. the 99%. Such an imbalance makes the unprotected realize that the game can never change unless something radical happens. That radical change was Trump. He spoke their language, he knew how the game was played (although not as much as he thought), and he offered simple solutions to the fears of the unprotected.
The other area where she missed the boat, through no fault of her own, was the idea that no one in power was going to answer the problem of illegal immigration. Trump did so even though he had to fight the process for years of his administration. The proof of his success we see today, and we have seen it for three years in an out-of-control border put in place the first day of the Biden administration via Executive Orders. The unprotected see illegal immigrants sheltered, fed, and tolerated while their own children are forced into virtual classes and their tax dollars are diverted from local police protection and local service to benefit the illegals.
Today, the protected are still, after spending tens of millions of dollars in hearings, lawsuits, and special investigators asking how is it that Trump is still standing. Perhaps, just perhaps it is because they themselves are so blind to their own arrogance and hypocrisy. Their policies, however well-meaning, run contrary to the history of humanity and human nature. The unprotected remember that despite all of Trump’s faults, there were better times when he stood against the protected. That is his strength.
