Kurt Schlichter, I had no idea who he was until a few months into the Trump Twitter world. He was a prominent figure there, dare I say one of the top people to follow. Immediate opinions and information and snark on any subject that comes up in our fast moving news world. The ex-CNN contributor is like the anti-thesis to modern political discussions where a bunch of uppity people use big words and do almost nothing as a result of the discussion. In comes Trump with his wrecking ball rhetoric and simple way of talking, and right behind him is Kurt Schlichter. So as a token of my appreciation for the chuckling his snarky tweets allow for me to experience, I decided to purchase his book Militant Normals: How Regular Americans Are Rebelling Against the Elite to Reclaim Our Democracy.

For years now I have been trying to tell others that Trump supporters are people too. I especially tell this to the people who despise President Trump and his supporters. I say to them “want to beat him in 2020? Understand his supporters. Understand WHY they put him in the White House. Understand WHY they are so loyal to him.” Then maybe I’ll go into people losing their jobs and how illegal immigration stagnates wages. And just for a second, the Trump-hater looks up, ready to say “I want to learn more!” But instead they go back to business as usual, flailing their arms screaming something about “Orange Man Bad!” and their hatred for red hats.

I sigh and walk away, blaming myself because I failed to word why exactly people voted in droves for President Donald J. Trump. And that is what this book does: perfectly explain why people voted for Trump. Why people felt the need to rebel against the establishment on Election Day. And most importantly, WHO voted for the Donald.

That is what this book does, it defines who the normals are and who the elites are. As Kurt had a bit of life in both of those, he is able to explain the difference well. It feels like though, the chapters grow in specificity of who is “normal” and who is “elite.” The specifics begin to eliminate some people I feel would fit into those categories based on the definitions given in earlier chapters.

Where Kurt Schlichter falls short (and only marginally) in delivery terms of defining the who, he does a perfect job of defining the why. He describes often in this book how the normals left the elite to do governing. Just so we could live our normal lives, work our jobs, drive our kids to soccer practice. But when the elites overstep their bounds and take away our jobs, shame us for using our CO2 emitting SUV to bring our kids to soccer, demean us for our privileges as we struggle to make ends meet, the normals get back into the ruling process. The elites are shocked, lost, and embarrassed. Kurt has fun highlighting the frustration of the elites.

One thing someone who is elite would criticize, is how this book is written. Kurt is someone in the political world an a former lawyer. Knowing that you would assume his writing would be dry and sometimes complex. The opposite, to a fault, is the case. His writing is like a casual conversation. Easy to read and digest for “normals.” Finally, I have been begging for a book written like this. His columns are similar written, if you don’t purchase this book I highly recommend reading his columns for Townhall. The issue with this form of writing is that you have to be “in the know” in order to understand some phrases and “memes” used throughout this book, thrown in without explanation. For me, an explanation would be lame and take away from the flow of the book. Which puts me in a tough position when reviewing, I have to determine if this book is simply for us “normals” that voted for Trump and know the culture surrounding it, or is it an examination for the uninformed and ignorant to gain knowledge of why Trump won? I honestly would recommend for anyone who is a “normal” or a “deplorable,” to read the whole book, it is fantastic. As a piece of analysis of why Trump won and a peering into who his voters are, for the “elite” and others scratching their heads at how the 2016 election ended with an orange reality TV host taking the White House, I recommend the first half of this book. That way the brilliance of the why Trump is President and why people felt the need to vote for him isn’t lost in the jumbled MAGA-culture jargon that progressively grows in use as the book goes on.

Overall, I would give this book a 4/5.