Ehrlich: The GOP is now the party of the working class

Former Maryland governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. said President Donald Trump’s election victories secured in part with the strong support of working-class voters suggest a political realignment in which Democrats are no longer the party of blue-collar America.

“Republicans are still the party of big business and small business and entrepreneurs. But now they are also the party of people who work with their hands,” Ehrlich, a Republican, who served as the state’s chief executive from 2003-07, told Baltimore Post-Examiner.

“It is a function of both Trump and a move to the far left by the Democratic Party.”

Ehrlich made the remarks in an exclusive interview on Tuesday in which he discussed his new book: Trump 2.0: Revolution, Redemption, Revival.

The 168-page book published by Post Hill Press is available on Amazon.com and is the third installment in a series Ehrlich has written on the 45th and the 47th president.

Trump 2.0. attempts to explain the former real estate mogul’s staunch appeal to voters in “flyover” country and why efforts by his political foes to damage his brand, keep him from elected office, and even put him in jail have all failed.

Below is an edited excerpt of the interview:

BPE: A common theme throughout the book is the political realignment of the GOP from the party of Wall Street to the party of Main Street. What exactly does this mean, and how did it occur? 

Ehrlich: The general descriptions of the parties still hold. But you need to create more perspective during the Trump era because Trump is such a consequential political leader. He has so impacted both parties’ establishments.

[Late-N.Y. GOP Congressman and 1996 Vice-Presidential nominee] Jack Kemp talked about this realignment for decades. Kemp was the leader in that regard at the time, with the focus on Hispanic votes and African-American votes coming to the GOP.

BPE: What does the mainstream media really miss when it comes to understanding what you describe as voters in “flyover” country, namely the average guy on the street? 

Ehrlich: There is an attitude that sometimes accompanies highly-educated people. And it is a syndrome of: “We know what is best for you. We are bright. We have the degrees. We live on the coasts. And we are not only right, but we have your best interests at heart. Trust us!”

But it took Trump as the agent of change for working class America to understand: “Well, that might be all well and good, but the last time I checked over the last 40 or 50 years the War on Poverty, endless wars abroad, COVID-19, the American education system—they all failed bad.”

And so the message from the working class back to the really smart people on the coasts now is: “Well, we trusted you, but you failed. And you failed repeatedly. You did not make our quality of life better. And you put at risk our belief in the American dream.”

BPE: On page six, you evoke former President Richard Nixon’s famous term: “silent majority.” Do you see a parallel between the 1968 Nixon supporters and today’s MAGA movement supporters? 

Ehrlich: Yes. And a lot of it has to do with the media. The unrelenting bias of media/journalism. Journalism is not dead. But it is on life support. You saw this play out last week with the early leak of intelligence from the bombing run on the Iranian nuclear sites. CNN and the lefties around the country just ran with that story.

It is almost as if they hate good news. They hate for Trump to be successful. It is difficult to watch. And it has made flyover America really question the legitimacy and neutrality of the media.

BPE: There is a lot of discussion in the book about “wokeness,” Kamala Harris, pronouns, speech codes, etc. Looking back, how much do you think those things impacted the results of the 2024 presidential election? 

Ehrlich: Kamala was fond of saying: “Live your own truth.” No! That is not how life works. That is one of the basic facets of woke and wokeism. “Live your own truth. The sky is blue. No, the sky is green! No, I don’t think men have a biological advantage in women’s sports.” It just flies in the face of objective reality. People just did not buy it.

The second part of woke is that you are required not to recognize the objective reality. You are supposed to accept going to a swim meet and watch a biological male win by ridiculous seconds and accept it. And not think that there is something wrong with it. People just got fed up with it.

BPE: On page 122, you compare the way Trump communicates with the way former President Ronald Reagan communicated. Could you elaborate on the comparison? 

Ehrlich: Both are more plain spoken than the average president, especially Trump. Reagan had that friendly demeanor. Trump can be funny, very funny. The parallel is the blunt, plain folks verbiage. Trump has taken it to another level. It is this plain-spoken language that really appeals to average people.

When they see a president with that amount of education, that amount of success, that amount of wealth speak in such plain terms, it may annoy and frustrate the elites. But it really plays well in middle America.

BPE: President Trump got approximately 32% of the Jewish vote in last year’s election, according to exit polls. That is pretty solid for a Republican presidential candidate. The book talks extensively about the prevalence of anti-Semitism/pro-Palestinian sentiment on college campuses. How much do you think that influenced Jewish voters?

Ehrlich: When you combine Israel and the recent surge in anti-Semitism on the progressive left, it explains that 32%. Thirty-two percent is historically high. But it is not good enough for me or for most Republicans. It needs to continue to proceed north.

This president is serious about rooting out anti-Semitism. You see that seriousness unfold every day on the front page.

When you combine this intolerance about anti-Semitism with, i.e.: “You are here as a privilege on a student visa. And you are going to come here and shout anti-Semitic slogans; I don’t think so! See ya!” It is very popular with the American people.

There is a mutual friendship between [Israeli Prime Minister] Bibi Netanyahu and Trump. It is like the friendship between Reagan and [former British Prime Minister] Margaret Thatcher. You can see what that type of underlying trust brings. You saw it last week.

BPE: The book features a chapter on political polarization and how that has become so pervasive as to influence everyday consumer choices, such as where someone buys coffee or even what type of razors they shave with. How do you think we got to this point? 

Ehrlich: There are two factors. One is social media. It has made politics more immediate and even meaner.

The second is the rise of Trump. The rise of Trump has made the Republicans more of a populist/nationalist party. The rise of Trump and the reaction on the left drove the Democrats further left.

So, what I am describing is the further polarization of the culture.

BPE: What is “lawfare” and how does it apply to Trump’s legal cases?

Ehrlich: Trump so discombobulated the American left that over time the strategy became singular to which anything goes.

Throw it against the wall: He’s a secret collaborator with Putin. He had a secret meeting at Trump Tower. Just fill it in. All of the phony story lines ever since he came down the escalator at Trump Tower [in 2015].

It’s anything goes. Anything that will stick. And lawfare was a major arrow in the quiver and the effort.

They were shocked it did not work. They were shocked that people did not buy into how weak the cases really were, especially in New York. They thought that once they had that “guilty” verdict, that would be the end.

It just goes to show that people are not stupid. If people really thought that Donald Trump had committed a felony or serious offense, he would not have won the election. People just did not buy it. They saw through it.

BPE: What do you hope people take away from reading this book? Not just Republicans, but people of all political stripes? 

Ehrlich: I wrote the book for people of all political stripes. If you look at this book—as well as the previous two—I am a conservative. I like a lot of what President Trump has done. But not everything. He is not without faults.

I wanted to get into more second- and third-level analysis of what he does and why he does it.

And the consistent themes that have been there over the last 30 or 40 years: the hollowing out of middle America through bad trade deals, not having a secure southern border, not being fearful of talking about the border in the context of the Hispanic vote. Being unafraid of China and calling them out, especially their theft of intellectual property. And their saber rattling around the world.

I want to make the point that I am not a sycophant. Nor am I a detractor. Trump is different. He is unique. He is so consequential. He has changed and disrupted everything in American politics from both political parties, to the foreign policy establishment, to the business establishment, to our culture, and even the White House itself.

Bryan Renbaum

Bryan is an award-winning political journalist who has extensive experience covering Congress and Maryland state government.

His work includes coverage of the election of Donald Trump, the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and attorneys general William Barr and Jeff Sessions-as well as that of the Maryland General Assembly, Gov. Larry Hogan, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bryan has broken stories involving athletic and sexual assault scandals with the Baltimore Post-Examiner.

His original UMBC investigation gained international attention, was featured in People Magazine and he was interviewed by ABC’s “Good Morning America” and local radio stations. Bryan broke subsequent stories documenting UMBC’s omission of a sexual assault on their daily crime log and a federal investigation related to the university’s handling of an alleged sexual assault.