Trump’s win is a repudiation of elite condescension

You may remember it from high school science class — a law of physics known as Newton’s Third Law of Motion. In plain English, it tells us that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Apparently, there is a similar law in the world of politics. That helps explain why former President Donald Trump will be heading back to the White House in a few months.

Yes, the election was a rejection of the Biden administration. It was a rejection of inflation and illegal immigration and urban crime. It was a rejection of Vice President Kamala Harris, who had trouble answering almost any question without taking a trip to “word salad” city.

But it was more than that. It was, most of all, a rejection of elite condescension.

To put it another way, just because you wear a red MAGA hat, doesn’t mean you’re a bigot — no matter how many liberal and progressive pundits go on CNN and MSNBC and say you are, while some elite liberal “journalist” sits there like a potted plant nodding in agreement.

For quite some time, elites have looked down on ordinary Americans. The elites thought they were smarter than the folks who live in “flyover country,” who they often saw as hayseeds who ate at places like Red Lobster. And you got the impression that they not only thought they were smarter than ordinary Americans, but that were better than ordinary Americans.

So, as far as those elites were concerned, if you thought inflation was a problem, it wasn’t because it actually was — it was because you were too stupid to realize that Bidenomics was a great success.

If you didn’t believe our Southern border was “secure,” it must have been because you were an anti-immigrant bigot.

If you thought that biological boys shouldn’t be allowed on play on girls’ sports teams, they called you "transphobic."

Ordinary Americans noticed when Hillary Clinton dismissed half of Trump’s supporters as “a basket of deplorables.” They noticed when Kamala Harris said Trump was a “fascist” and when President Biden called Trump supporters “garbage” and when billionaire Mark Cuban said that the only women Trump was comfortable with were weak and stupid women.

Democrats lost the presidential election not only because people were going broke just buying food at the supermarket or filling up the tank at the gas station. They also lost because of the contempt they’ve routinely shown half the country.

And so millions of those ordinary Americans not only handed Harris a defeat, but they also sent a message to the elite political, academic, media and cultural establishment as well. Payback is a word that rhymes with witch.

Don’t read any of this as high praise for Trump. His dishonesty and crude demeanor are well-known by now. I have made the case that on character alone, he’s unfit to be president.

But there’s no escaping this truth, inconvenient as it may be to the elite crowd: As bad as his critics find Trump, Americans found Harris and her party to be far worse.

No one likes being on the wrong end of condescension, because sooner or later is be an equal and opposite reaction. And on Nov. 5, 2024, that reaction occurred.

Bernard Goldberg is an Emmy and an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University award-winning writer and journalist. He is the author of five books and publishes exclusive weekly columns, audio commentaries and Q&As on his Substack page. Follow him @BernardGoldberg.