Militant Normals: How Regular Americans are Rebelling Against the Elite to Reclaim Our Democracy

by Kurt Schlichter

The Militant Normals, written by one of the conservative movement's wittiest commentators, is a no-holds-barred takedown of the preening elites who have all but made normalcy a crime in America.

Donald Trump is only the beginning of a mighty disruption in American politics and culture, thanks to the rise of the militant Normals in America.

They built this country, they make it run, and when called on, they fight for it. They are the heart and soul of the United States of America, They are the Normals, the regular Americans of all races, creeds, preferences, and both sexes who just want to raise their families and live their lives in peace. And they are getting angry...

For decades they have seen their cherished beliefs and beloved traditions under attack. They have been told they are racist, sexist, and hateful, but it was all a lie. Their ability to provide for their families has been undermined by globalization with no consideration of the effects on Americans who did not go to Harvard, and who live in that vast forgotten space between New York and Santa Monica.

A smug, condescending elite spanning both established parties has gripped the throat of the nation. Convinced of their own exquisite merit while refusing to be held accountable for their myriad failures, these elitists managed to suppress the first rumblings of discontent when they arose in the form of the Tea Party. But they were stunned when the Normals did not simply scurry back to their flyover homes. Instead, the Normals came out in force and elected Donald Trump.

Now, as the ruling caste throws everything it can into the fight to depose Donald Trump and reestablish unchallenged control, the Normals face a choice. They can either surrender their country and their sovereignty, or they can become even more militant...

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Humor, History

289 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 2, 2018

About the author

Kurt Schlichter is a trial lawyer, and a retired Army infantry colonel with a degree from the Army War College who writes twice a week as a Senior Columnist for Townhall.com. His new novel "People's Republic" is now available!

Kurt was personally recruited by Andrew Breitbart in 2009 to write for Big Hollywood. He is often on the air as a news source, an on-screen commentator, and as a guest on nationally syndicated radio programs discussing political, military and legal issues, including Fox News, HLN, CNN (Well, maybe not anymore), the Hugh Hewitt Show, the Dennis Miller Show, Geraldo, the Greg Garrison Show, the John Phillips Show, the Tony Katz Radio Spectacular, PJTV's The Conversation, The Delivery with Jimmie Bise, Jr., the Snark Factor, and WMAL's Mornings on the Mall with Larry O'Connor, among others.

He appears weekly on the Cam and Company Show with his own brand of caring conservative cultural commentary.

His previous book "Conservative Insurgency: The Struggle to Take America Back 2009-2041" was released in 2014 from Post Tree Press

As a stand-up comic for several years, he has gathered a large and devoted following in the world of social media for his amusing and often biting conservative commentary. He is an active user of Twitter (@KurtSchlichter) with over 71,000 followers, which led to his #1 selling Amazon "Political Humor" ebooks "I Am a Conservative: Uncensored, Undiluted and Absolutely Un-PC," "I Am a Liberal: A Conservative's Guide to Dealing With Nature's Most Irritating Mistake," "Fetch My Latte: Sharing Feelings With Stupid People," and "50 Shades of Liberal."

Kurt is also a successful trial lawyer based in the Los Angeles area representing companies and individuals in matters ranging from routine business cases to confidential Hollywood and entertainment industry disputes and transactions. A member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, which recognizes attorneys who have won verdicts in excess of $1 million, his litigation strategy and legal analysis articles regularly run in such legal publications such as the Los Angeles Daily Journal and California Lawyer.

Kurt is a 1994 graduate of Loyola Law School, where he was a law review editor. He majored in Communications and Political Science as an undergraduate at the University of California, San Diego, where he also edited the conservative student paper California Review while writing a regular column in the student humor paper the Koala. He also drank a lot of Coors.

Kurt rose to the rank of Army infantry colonel on active duty and in the California Army National Guard. He wears the silver "jump wings" of a qualified paratrooper and commanded the elite 1st Squadron, 18th Cavalry Regiment. A veteran of both the Persian Gulf War and Operation Enduring Freedom (Kosovo), as well as the Los Angeles riots, the Northridge earthquake and the 2007 San Diego fires mobilizations, he is a graduate of the Army's Combined Arms Staff Service School, the Command and General Staff College, and the United States Army War College, where he received a master of Strategic Studies degree.

He loves military history, red meat and the Second Amendment. His favorite caliber is .45.

Reviews

[Charles Haywood · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Militant Normals" is an enjoyable read, a rollicking journey with the acid tongue of Kurt Schlichter as our tour leader. It is full of facts that are impossible to dispute, because they are facts. It draws difficult-to-argue conclusions, including that our near future is likely grim. That said, I think Schlichter’s elite/normal framework misses important nuances and is a bit too glib. But even so, the well-deserved spanking Schlichter gives the Left is worth the price of admission.

Schlichter, a combat veteran, former Army colonel, and now trial lawyer in Los Angeles (apparently being in enemy territory is in his blood), is a popular media personality. Part of that is his bewitching ability with the funny-yet-edged sound bite, visible on Twitter (on those rare instances I visit that cesspool) and in frequent television appearances. It’s also visible in his earlier books, all near-future histories, one of peaceful conservative dominance of the United States ("Conservative Insurgency"), and two of civil war between Left and Right ("People’s Republic" and "Indian Country"). The overriding theme of all his writing, even if he occasionally tries to gloss it over with optimism, is that the modern Left and Right are locked in an inescapable and existential conflict.

For years I resisted this idea. Sure, the Left in the rest of the world was responsible for the vast majority of unnatural human suffering and death for the past century. But in America, we had American exceptionalism, and part of that was a constitutional structure that permitted us to all get along. It turns out, though, we cannot all get along, and that’s because of the way the Left views the world—as a place that can be perfected, and where those who block that perfection must be made powerless or destroyed. Now it is clear to us all that there can be only one, that either the Left must rule or it must be destroyed, and the Left’s hobgoblin behavior in the Brett Kavanaugh farce this past week is only the most recent and glaring confirmation of this basic truth.

What Schlichter offers here is “a simple and coherent explanation for why American society has become so polarized over the last few decades.” On the surface, this is not necessarily about Left and Right. In short, he tells us America has long been divided into the Elites and the Normals. How did the Elites become the Elites? “The Normals ceded the Elite the authority to do certain work organizing and running society’s institutions with the understanding that the Elite could collect certain benefits (money and prestige) in return for competently executing these tasks for the benefit of Normals.” Thus, the Elites chose to be Elite; the Normals chose to live their lives without paying much attention to who was running the institutions. Now, for me, this is a little bit too pat and smacks of Lockean social contract fantasies. Aristocracies, which is what the Elites really are, are organic, not bargained exchanges. On the other hand, in the American context this comes fairly close to the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century truth. By itself, in any case, this structure actually makes a lot of sense. Everybody wins. But the polarization results because our modern Elites have corrupted it.

The most relevant “institution” here is the government, but there is an entire web of institutions that rule society, consisting of branching aspects of the media, entertainment, and academe. Collectively they have immense direct power, as well as the power to inflict social harm. Instead of accepting that the institutions are a trust, our modern Elites have greatly expanded the power of the institutions, for their own benefit, while at the same time removing any Normal influence over them. As A. J. P. Taylor said of England, “Until August 1914 a sensible, law-abiding Englishman could pass through life and hardly notice the existence of the state, beyond the post office and the policeman.” The same was true in America, but no longer. Moreover, in the past, the Elites shared many of the values of the rest of the country, and if they didn’t, they kept their thoughts to themselves. And they mostly did a reasonably competent job running institutions. Now, the Elites openly hate and despise the Normals, and run the institutions alternately incompetently and in an evil fashion (e.g., handing the bill for the 2008 financial crisis to the little people while bailing out the bigwigs; encouraging illegal immigration; and humiliating the rubes by demanding they let mentally ill “transgender” men use the bathroom with their little girls). That is, it’s not that Schlichter objects to the existence of elites. It’s that he objects to this set of elites. He is the first to admit that every society develops elites, and that, in fact, if the Normals disappeared, the Elites would then divide into the New Elites and those excluded from that group.

Schlichter notes that the Normals have occasionally risen up to express their displeasure and, this being a democracy, to impose their will by pushing back. Ronald Reagan’s election is a classic example; also intermittent tax revolts, and the Tea Party. Those eruptions dissipated, though, in part because Normals do not derive their meaning from political action. But now, Normals are coming to realize the existential nature of the fight forced upon them by the Elites, so they have become Militant Normals, who are not going back to their normal lives, because they realize they can’t. The most visible effect of this fire hardening is Trump, to whom the Normals turn, most of all, because he offers to fight for them and for what they hold dear.

You will note that so far, much of this discussion is not around the politics of the Elites, but their abilities and general relationship with the Normals. We know viscerally that our Elite acts Left, but there is no obvious reason that elites have to be Left. And, in fact, Schlichter says some of today’s Elites are conservative. By that he seems to mean two groups: individuals like me, who are Elite by background and career, but are not interested in being part of herd Elite behavior, and “Conservative, Inc.,” the emasculated traitors for whom Schlichter saves many of his most vicious attacks, exemplified by the unholy trinity of Bill Kristol, David Frum, and Jeb! Bush. (I didn’t know that in 2013, as head some fungible Elite institution called the National Constitutional Center, Jeb! gave Hillary Clinton a “Liberty Medal” for her dedication to the Constitution. Enough said.)

I suppose that’s true, but the reality is that today’s Elite in the sense Schlichter uses it is indistinguishable from the Left, in its Alinskyite/Bill Ayers/Pol Pot manifestation. In practice, Elite and Left are interchangeable. Yes, some Elites may be conservative, but when push comes to shove, they are not allowed any influence at all over what the Elite dictates, regardless of whether they want to exercise influence, which Schlichter would say is almost never. On the other hand, Normals are not conservative, necessarily, except inasmuch as having the freedom to not be crushed by government taxes and commands is inherently conservative. Many are apolitical; most could be most accurately characterized on the spectrum as center-right.

And the elephant in all this is Donald Trump. Schlichter admits that he started out, during the 2016 campaign, as very anti-Trump, often invited on CNN as a #NeverTrumper (until his apostasy, whereupon he was kicked off). This book is in some ways an explanation of how he came around. (I was always pro-Trump, vaguely at first and then emphatically, and predicted his victory, though his performance has far exceeded my actual expectations.) Schlichter makes a lot of good points about Trump, but he makes one of particular interest to me—that, although the Elites can’t see it because they viscerally hate the very idea of such a creature, Trump is, boiled down to his essence, an alpha male—a competitor and winner. “He was manly in a way few men in the public eye had been in a long time.” It is no surprise, given the Left’s demands for the forced feminization of society, that they hate Trump (though that is far from the only reason). Moreover, I think Schlichter is correct, that “He was best understood as a third-party candidate infiltrating the party apparatus and taking it over for his own purposes like some sort of political virus.” I don’t know if Trump is a genius, but I’m more willing to entertain that than I have been in the past, and his masterful handling of the Kavanaugh circus, which has been tremendously destructive for the Left, and more importantly, tremendously illuminating for the Right, suggests that he is.

The book does ramble and repeat. What I outline above is not particularly clearly laid out, but it’s there. "Militant Normals" is at its best in chapters that describe exemplars of the life and political development of a Normal (let’s call him “John,” though Schlichter says “you”), ending in why he votes for Trump, and of an Elite (nastily named “Kaden”), who begins and ends as a clueless social justice warrior. The characterizations are spot-on and hilarious. What is important to note, though, is that to any Normal, both types are clearly recognizable and, to a point, understandable. If you asked John to neutrally describe Kaden’s arc, he could do it pretty easily. But Kaden could not say anything except negative caricatures about John. This is an example of the bubble that all Elites live in—they can go through life with no exposure to Normal people or Normal ideas at all, while the same is not true for Normals. Irritating for Normals, to be sure, but it gives the Normals power relative to the Elites, since to defeat your enemy it helps to understand him.

OK, so that’s Schlichter’s framework. It is useful, but imperfect in a few ways. First, Schlichter’s definition of Normals is too simple and gives too much agency to Normals. He defines a Normal as “someone who does not choose to identify with the Elite.” The reality is that most of the time, the Normals are not given the choice to identify with the Elite, even aside from that aristocracy is largely an organic process. True, part of being Elite in America today is the aping of certain manners and beliefs. But part of it is passing through filtering mechanisms that are simply not available to most Americans. I, for example, went to Indiana University, but never once heard the term “investment bank” until I was in law school. The children of elites, on the other hand, are told throughout college about desirable jobs in investment banking or management consulting, jobs that act as feeders to other Elite activities. Such small examples could be multiplied until it becomes obvious that most Normals are born to their role; the rare exceptions, like J. D. Vance, prove the rule.

Second, Schlichter’s definition and analysis of the Elites is a bit too slick, because almost nobody is actually “elite,” in the traditional use of the term, in today’s American society. Schlichter’s use of the term “Elite” confuses matters; really, a better term would be something like “Dominants.” To the extent they are an aristocracy, they are a rotten aristocracy. A more precise way of looking at elites within a modern, democratic framework is "José Ortega y Gasset’s," in his classic The Revolt of the Masses. For Ortega, the elite is those who demand excellence from themselves. (Note that this excellence is not the excellence of the technician, such that, say, top scientists are elites. Rather, it is broad excellence of mind and character, so almost all “experts” are not elite in any way.) In this framework, Schlichter’s Normals are not the Elite; they are “mass men,” mediocre and proud of their mediocrity. But the Normals are mass men too. In fact, nearly everyone is a mass man nowadays, which was the “barbarism” that Ortega predicted and feared. Real elites, those who demand of themselves excellence, are a lot rarer for us than they should be in a well-functioning society, and unlike in a normal, well-constructed society, those elites are not prominent and have no power. Who could be considered elite in this way today? Probably some private citizens of whom you and I have never heard, along with a few conservative academics. This is an underlying problem to what Schlichter describes, which is concealed by the obscuring double meaning of the term “elites.” I suppose, though, in a popular book, and given the contempt that conservatives have come to associate with the word “elites,” Schlichter’s choice makes sense.

How this will end is anyone’s guess. Schlichter clearly thinks, from what he says here and from his novels, that conservatives will win, because when roused, they have the weapons—that is, the weapons that go bang. I tend to agree, but rousing conservatives is a lot harder than it seems, and the Left offers seemingly sweet things, as Satan offered the apple to Eve. Plus, the division between virtue and vice is not only between Left and Right—certainly, all the Left offers is vice and evil, but all of America is shot through with decay, the inevitable fruit of the Enlightenment, and the Right is not at all immune to this rot. If the Left converted en masse to Schlichter’s way of thinking, which I call Agnostic Pragmatic Libertarianism, we would still face enormous problems and political divisions. But removing the Left from all power, permanently, is the place to start; we can argue about the best way to restore virtue and competently run the country thereafter. And, it is important to note, absence of the Left does not mean rule by the Right—it could just mean going back to an America just like the pre-1914 England of A. J. P. Taylor, where everyone gets to live his life as he chooses, within a weak framework that, hopefully, encourages virtue. Everyone but the Left can agree that would be a huge improvement.

Regardless of mechanism, I think the Left in America, and in the modern West, is doomed. It has merely taken longer to reach the breaking point than it took under Communism, but the principle is the same—political systems that deny reality are fatally compromised from inception. And the mechanism of their fall is always the same—their reach exceeds their grasp, and calls forth a reaction from the Normals, led by a real elite. The Normals are slow to come to this point, both by temperament and, where conservative, by principle, but eventually they will reach it. A cornered animal always fights. The best example of this is the beginning of the Spanish Civil War—Communism gained power through the usual mechanism of lying, but then, because they couldn’t help themselves, proceeded to slaughter their ideological enemies, to which Franco’s rebellion was a response. The exact same mechanism, minus the killing and the rebellion, has been on display the past two weeks in the Kavanaugh nomination. One of these days, probably soon, it will no longer be “minus.”

[Simon Mee · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sometimes it feels pretty derivative to write a bunch of snarky paragraphs about someone else’s book. It’s easy to try to tear down a person’s work than come up with my own input. Perhaps I should just respect Kurt Schlichter’s contribution to the conversation…



…nevermind.

The thesis of Militant Normals is that there is a split within American society between two groups that Schlicter refers to as the Normals and the Elite. Apparently, this split has no respect for party affiliation. Kurt’s angle to an otherwise unoriginal take that there are cross-party groupings lies in his definition of Elite:

“To be an Elite today, you just have to decide you aren’t like regular people”

...so yeah, revelational.

To be charitable, Kurt's definition reflects the tension between:
(a) Kurt wanting to advance the narrative that the Normals rose up and put Trump in power; and
(b) the implicit acknowledgement that Trump didn’t even win a plurality of the votes in 2016, making class-based definitions difficult to sustain.

Kurt tries to bridge the above divide by stating that an Elite doesn’t have to be rich or smart,
apparently being distinguishable by how they consume. The Elite live in high-rises, drink pumpkin infused IPAs and ride bikes. The Normals drive Ford Explorers with three rows of seats. Like I said, revelational. Kurt doesn't even remember this lazily constructed divide, later writing “it’s all about class”, so it’s clear he hasn’t proofread his own work.

So what is a Normal? Generally, a white male. There is some very carefully coded white supremacy adjacent thinking in this book with: arguments about immigration changing the “culture;” a description of Michael Brown as a “thug;” and an explicit disinterest in what Colin Kapernick was protesting. Of course Normals don’t care about race, Kurt tells us. His evidence is reference to the statement that Normals don’t care about race, which doesn't even qualify as circular reasoning. Normals also care about faith, family and the flag, as best evidenced by the below:



However, I am going to accept that Kurt’s definitions are sufficiently precise. I am happy to concede this because Kurt still hilariously screws it up and renders his entire book junk. The heart of this book is a story about a Normal. He's a guy from Fontana, California who served in Iraq, works hard at a job below his worth, and just wants his fair share. Kurt invites us to feel empathy for this guy and his struggles against the Elite, just a Normal wondering how a white male on the margins could be “privileged”.

The problem with this story is that this guy doesn’t exist. Kurt explicitly makes him up.

I cannot emphasise enough how stupid this is. Kurt believes there’s enough Normals out there to put Trump in power, yet Kurt didn’t bother to interview a single one to tell their story. He didn’t even bother to find interviews of Normals by anyone else and put them in the book. Kurt isn’t exactly rigorous about citing sources for his wider arguments anyway, so he needs real stories about Normals to convince me. Without them, Kurt is just a guy telling us that: Hollywood can’t sell even a naked Jennifer Lawrence these days; kale is a noxious weed; and driving a Prius is lame. This book becomes Kurt’s extremely hot takes on what annoy Kurt.

Kurt laments the debasing of what makes a “star” to include YouTube broadcasters with millions of viewers. I am obliged to point out here that the “About the Author” describes Kurt as a Twitter activist with over 150,000 followers. Kurt rails against the “Frankfurt School of Liberalism”, without even bothering to define it. Don Lemon is a “little weasel” and a constellation of conservative writers receive Kurt’s ire. I’m not here to say Kurt is wrong on every point, just that it is painfully obvious that Kurt doesn’t really care what Normals think.

I guess there is humour in this book, and his best line is describing Hillary as an elderly warmongering corporate collaborator. Unfortunately, Kurt believes a joke about preferred pronouns is as funny the eighth time he wrote it as the first. Transgenders in bathrooms also gets heavy circulation, with jokes about kale and IPA to lighten the tone. In multiple paragraphs Kurt clearly thought he was on a run of purple prose unloading zinger after zinger. That might work in an article on Townhall.com or a review on Goodreads but it is fatal for the internal coherence of his book.

You might read Militant Normals and feel that Kurt speaks for you. But just remember it’s Kurt speaking. If you want to read the voices of the true Normals, read anything by Matt Taibbi.

[Nathan J Wiens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing!

This book provided a very different way of looking at our current political situation. The Elite/Normal distinction makes what is currently happening completely clear. It makes much more sense that the left/right or liberal/conservative distinction in common use. More importantly, it makes it very easy for each of us to see which we are. This book is important and needs to be read by everyone, especially Normals!

[Alari Rammo · Rating 1 out of 5]

jesus

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. Realigning the two sides from Right and Left into Normal and Elite, the author explains “How you got Trump”. Of particular interest are the Conservative elites (think Jeb! or McCain or Flake or GWB, the Compassionate Conservative).
Not for those on the Left, or the faint of heart (their is some bad language), but those in the middle and on the right ( Normals, or Hillary’s deplorables) will find a lot to like here.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this account by Kurt Schlichter on the schism that has opened between "Normal" Americans and the so-called "Elites" that run the day-to-day operations of our nation's institutions - like the government, the media, academia, and of course Hollywood. Having read many of Mr. Schlichter's brilliant and entertaining articles from Townhall.com, I knew that this book would be chock full of cutting satire as well as substantial reasoning and historical perspective that is so often lacking in today's public discussions. He certainly "hits the nail on the head" as he describes the Elite as self-serving snobs who believe that the rules simply don't apply to them (although they are certainly applied to the "Normals"). And, how they have nothing but contempt for the masses that they presume to rule. This book delivers an insightful and penetrating explanation of the nature and history of the "Elites" whether they fall under the banner of Democrat or NeverTrumpers. I highly recommend this book.

[Randall · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book through in one sitting (well, standing, rowing, running, etc.) and I have a few thoughts. First, gone are the days when you have to wait 20 years for history to be written about recent events. Perhaps it is because of the massive combined output/volume of data coming forth every day, or perhaps people are just more engaged than before. Whatever, this book seeks to explain why there is a cultural divide in America, how this resulted in our current political environment, and even to suggest what may happen next. For anyone still (!) wondering how or why Trump won the election this book is made for you. You may not agree with Schlichter's version of America, but you can't help but agree that it explains current outcomes. His predictions of the future are frankly dark. He does however make a good case that in the battle between the Elites and the Normals, neither side will back down, and in the end the Normals have more guns.

[Scott Holstad · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very generous 2,but likely deserving a 1 IMO. The bitchiness makes cattiness look playful. I'm so fucking sick of those on the hard right being unable and unwilling to act older than adolescent reprobates. We have Rush and Newt to thank for that. What awesome legacies. Not recommended.

[Jeff P · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good book, but gets a little repetitive some times. It basically discusses why President Trump was elected, why it matters and maybe where do we go from here.

[cool breeze · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is 280 pages of Kurt Schlichter’s trademark snark. If you liked it at 280 characters on Twitter, you’ll love it at 280 pages in the book. At its worst it’s good, at its best it’s weapons grade.

It is enjoyable enough when he is skewering the Left, but when he starts harpooning Capt. Billy Kristol and Conservative, Inc. – “Ahoy, matey!”. Few are spared.

[Jon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mr. Schlichter has done an excellent job of analyzing the divide our country is going through. It isn't between red and blue, this is about the Elites who would run our lives and how the Normals who have been radicalized by the overt hatred of those elites.

[John Munkenbeck · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Right Stuff

Great read. Concise,chronological, and funny as hell. Just hope there are a lot more folks like Mr Schlichter out there in our wonderful country. Gave me faith that we can turn things around

[Jeff Koloze · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a scholarly book, but a worthwhile essay to “get out the vote” for President Trump.

Kurt Schlichter admits that his book is not scholarly or one that has many references, although sources are provided in endnotes. It does, however, remind us why the Miracle of 2016 (President Trump’s win over the corrupt Hillary Clinton) occurred and why it must be repeated in 2020.

Schlichter traces the history of “Normal” Americans vs. the Elite from the sixties to today, Normals being people who follow “faith, family, and patriotism” (xii) and the Elite being the opposite. He argues cogently that the political axis has changed from left and right to Elite and Normal (16). This is a key idea to understand why President Trump won in 2016.

Trump listened to ordinary Americans, who are not part of the Elite class, and won. A memorable line from the book to summarize Trump’s victory then and continuing victories now is that “Trump didn’t give a shit” (192). Trump’s focus on achieving goals desired by Normal Americans explains why the president does not cater to the Elite establishment (academia, entertainment, government, media—all of which should be prefaced by “so-called”) or establishment types in his own party.

A bit of Trump’s attitude is mirrored in Schlichter’s style of writing. While the book is repetitive (tenets of Normal American beliefs are often repeated in every chapter), its rhetorical features make it an easy read. The fictional accounts of a typical Normal American, whom Schlichter calls “the story of our guy from Fontana [California]” (35-49), and a typical Elite, a hilarious narrative of Kaden, the son of a typical West Los Angeles liberal (73-88), demonstrate why Schlichter is a published fiction writer as well as a columnist. Schlichter slams everybody with impunity, brutal analysis, and often trenchant sarcasm: CNN, page 9; the FBI, page 114; Romney and George W. Bush, who were gentlemen and stupid to be such, page 183; Jeb Bush, the Kennedys, and the Clintons, chapter nine; and George Will, page 206.

Speaking of whom, Schlichter helps the reader see that the major conservative figures of yesteryear (George Will or Bill Kristol) are as much has-beens as the Clintons or the Obamas. The election of Trump changed everything, and Normal Americans are not returning to the status quo pre-Trump.

Several of Schlichter's ideas are worth repeating, especially in this election year, which will help to get out the Normal vote for President Trump. First, Elites want Normals either kept subordinate or dead [143]; videos of Antifa zealots attacking Normal people wearing MAGA hats verify this. Also, a year after this book’s publication, two facts support Schlichter’s contention that Normal Americans must support President Trump: first, the Mueller report vindicated the president; second, the Democratic presidential candidates are losers (248, 253).

Since the book is not a scholarly analysis of the two sociological camps in the country today but more an essay, the use of litanies to recapitulate lists of Normals’ reasons for voting for Trump can be cumbersome, especially for those readers used to seeing full paragraphs (see, for example, page 218). The use of repetitive phrases, however, often helps to organize his material, as in the “Why You Got Trump” repetition, ending paragraphs on page 226.

Unfortunately, the book has no index. Many names may be familiar to older readers, but younger readers may need to whip out the “OK, Google” commands often to understand even the relatively recent historical figures whom Schlichter skewers.

[Reading Cat · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has an audience problem. The people who are most likely to read it are the people who know who Schlichter is, read his Townhall columns, etc. And to them, well, this book is a) unnecessary (he really doesn't say anything here he hasn't said repeatedly online) and to be frank...less well-crafted than his columns. His snark is often hilarious, but there were really only a few places in this book where he approaches wit. Which is disappointing. I expected more.

The people who SHOULD be reading this book are the ones who will never read it. Because thin premise and lightweight wit aside, it has some strong home truths in it--that the major political divide is between what he calls Elites and what he calls Normals. Normals, selon lui, want to live their lives and will, historically, trust Elites to make the big political decisions. And that's fine, except that the Elites now have broken that trust. More than that, the Elites view the Normals with complete contempt. In Schlichter's thesis, the Elites, in solidifying their political control from LBJ through Clinton, have allowed violations of normie rules to fall by the wayside, so that now, in, say 2016's presidential election, when someone (Trump) came up who had done exactly the same character things that they let people like JFK and Bill Clinton get away with...it doesn't work anymore. We can't hold Trump to a high moral standard, because the Elites have already sanctioned Elite candidates getting away with some pretty abysmal morals.

[Hayley · Rating 3 out of 5]

My mom really enjoys reading a variety of books about politics, both modern and historical, and this is one she has been after me to read forever (well for the five years since it was written). I listened to the audiobook. The positives for me included the basic premise of “elites” vs “normals” and how this dichotomy was largely responsible for Trump’s election in 2016. Some of the authors stories were amusing. The made up life of Californian Kaden did crack me up at times. But I also thought the author painted with a bit of a broad brush. This is an emotional rather than scholarly book, which I guess fits the premise. But I would have liked having more real life examples to his various ideas. I do think there is definitely truth to the idea that if you pester “normal people” enough they will eventually turn around and punch you in the face. It takes a long time to get to that point but it does happen. Trump is the result of that. And it is five years after this book was written and we have learned absolutely nothing. The country is, if anything, more polarized than ever. Everyone is an armchair activist and each elected politician seems to be a wild over correction to the one that came before. I think the idea of career politicians should be completely eradicated from public life and we would all be better for it. I would like to see more people reaching for common ground and compromise with less focus on landing cheap political shots.

[Jason · Rating 1 out of 5]

A left coast lawyer writing about the plight of fly over country. This reads like the absolute bottom srapings of the fringiest corners of the web. This is your corrections officer uncle with a high school education going on a unhinged rant and ruining your grandmother's wake. His understanding of history is shocking, and he has that divided mind that so many of Conservative Inc (which he is clearly a part of, while decrying it in this book) where they acknowledge the problems of capitalism in destroying middle America, while still embracing capitalism as a core tenant of capitalism.

A retired military colonel who is all in favor of Trump's saying we should stop sending our guns and boys to fight wars that don't matter to America, unless it is an "elite liberal" who says exactly the same thing.

He has also apparently written a series of Treason Porn "action novels", so there's that.

Would not recommend. This guy reads like a barely under cover Ted Cruz supporter trying to make a buck off of Trump Supporters.

[Jason Bray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good read. A nice explanation of the problems facing our country, but with a little too much of constitutional conservative rah rah. Not that I think he’s entirely wrong. His explanation of the behavior of Conservative, Inc as he calls them, along with his insight in the patterns of the actions of the Elite, are both forthright and excellently depicted. Unfortunately, I think he has failed to see the obvious fact that the constitution would not have led us here if it hadn’t been inherently flawed. We cannot rely on politicians to respect the Constitution, or we wouldn’t be in this situation. He does not acknowledge that the incentives are all in the wrong direction. On the other hand, few do see this, so it doesn’t count in his disfavor. Five stars for readability, insight, enjoyment, even if I disagree with some of his conclusions.

[Søren Warland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although the author's framework of Elite/Normal is simplistic and does not take into account important facts like the huge support for Randy Bryce in Wisconsin, it is an important read for many who would describe themselves as "Democrats." It is important to understand where people who disagree with you politically, or vote for different candidates, come from. It is time to stop talking past each other and genuinely listen to the concerns of our fellow citizens. As an atheist socialist, I found plenty of point with Mr. Schlichter to disagree with, but there are still many important takeaways from the book. One book that the author mentioned was "Hillbilly Elegy." I would recommend reading it after you read this one.

[Janel Cox · Rating 3 out of 5]

I quickly read the first 25% then more slowly another 25% and then skipped to the last chapter due to repetition. So I maybe missed some crucial descriptions.

Addendum: I finally completed the whole book.

By education, salary, geography I am always assumed to be a staunch Democrat and supporter and probably Elite at that. So I seldom engage in any political conversations that would give me away as a “Normal”.

Yet I’m not comfortable with that description either. I needed to hear more specific examples of Normals. What kind of work do we do? How many are lawyers, doctors, bankers? Vs. Blue collar workers, farmers, factory workers, on welfare, on food stamps.
Are only Christians Normals? Who all do we need to reach to fight the Elite?

[Jeff J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book works best in its explanation of who the Trump voters and are and why they are so fanatically loyal despite his personal failings. Too much of the focus is on "elites", on both the Left and the Right, and their discomfort with the Trump revolution. While the hypocrisy of the elites can be amusing they are also an easy target, and can best be ignored.

[Aubrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

The information in this book is all valid, but the people who pick it up already know it, and the people who need to know it won't read it. The author has a lot of really clever word choice, and it would be great to see that focused on something higher than name calling. Not that the name calling isn't a lot of fun, it just gets old after a while.

[John R Francis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb. And incredibly passionate.

Required reading for any Westerner who detests what the so-called progressive elites have done to destroy the world that our fathers and grandfathers fought for in WWII. Absolutely brilliantsu-superb and passionate.

Forget TDS and read this book—if you are normal.

[Sarah Bahner · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m giving this book to everyone I know for Christmas.

[Héctor Espinosa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Funny, a bit long

[Bobbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely amazing book Possibly the best I've read this year. Schlichter gives voice to what many of us want to say but don't have the platform

[Brad Garton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed this book. It's a unique perspective on Elite vs populist views on politics.

[Chris Griffith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perhaps a bit over-simplistic but biting and fun read nonetheless!

[Darrell Keller · Rating 4 out of 5]

More than a bit repetitive, but a good read.

[Jerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Schlichter does a great job explaining the Trump upset and how the arrogance, incompetence, and blindness of our elites are asking for more. Salty read, but a lot of fun.

[Jonathan Mauney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good. Try’s to give some thoughts as to why the previous election cycle played out they say it did.