Research Guru saw Trump phenomenon coming before anyone else

OK, I've seen a lot of post mortem on the election on Tuesday about what happened and why, and no one and nothing I've seen bloviating has really gotten why what happened ... did. Anne Sorock of The Frontier Lab really kinda nails it though. And it is really important for anyone reading this understand that what happened on Tuesday had a lot less to do with single issues or race or anything like that than it did with dissatisfaction over treatment by Washington, DC and its elites of both parties.

At the Frontier Lab, Anne has applied deep values methodology to numerous political topics, including why people decide to become politically active, Occupy movement participants’ motivations, and why Republicans won’t call themselves Republican, among others.

I saw Anne at CPAC 2015, and in the course of our discussions, I asked Anne who she liked among the many rumored presidential candidates. She said Donald Trump.

I was like, what is that all about? He’s never going to run, he always teases, and anyway, Trump? Seriously? She was serious. She said, look, he’s the one. She was insistent not only that Trump would run but that he’d win. It seemed totally incredible.

This lady has been doing research that led her to see that Trump was going to win back in March of 2015 ... before he announced. Her methods allow her to see the deeper heart that leads people to their conclusions on issues and other things, and what she was seeing guided her answer. This article in the link is an interview where she will explain her reasoning and methodology, make a prediction about the left that is scary, and I will say that she, more than anyone else I have read nails what is and has been my own internal mood.

When she made her answer at CPAC, she had been working on the phenomena of disaffiliation by conservatives -- basically where people like myself might not claim the Republican label, but still tend to vote that way. So she had been gaining some deep insight into how the regular voters were feeling about the so-called Republican and conservative elite.

These conservatives had had enough after 2012, being told to get in line and vote for Romney, and then the RNC Autopsy report came out basically as a rubber stamp to keep pursuing the same tired strategies.

Those aware of the Autopsy felt it simply confirmed what the Romney debacle had already shown them – that the GOP and its parasites were incapable of reforming themselves. The only answer was an outsider to blow it all up.

In other words, people were sick and tired of being told to hold their noses and vote the way they were tired and then get handed one loss after another, especially when they consistently felt like what they really wanted and cared about was not being at all listened to.

When working to uncover what people are really thinking and feeling, she uses a technique called "laddering" with her questioning. As she is currently working with the left her questions look like this:

Recently, for example, I found myself asking “why is it that Black Lives Matter appeals to you MORE than your time as an activist with Occupy?” And then, “why is it important that your classmates see you as affiliated?” As we continue to push we reveal the underlying values and emotions that drive this behavior.

At the time, I was following these threads about conservatism:

The desire for a concrete way to demonstrate the action of “standing up for your beliefs”
Concern that they had been enabling “bad behavior” of the GOP in the same way that a parent enables a child
A taste of empowerment that had come from interaction with the Tea Party movement, but yearning for more

So basically, the electorate was fed up and looking to send a message in a way that would not be ignored. An outsider was the way to do it. Trump wound up being that outsider. The reason people settle on an outsider is the perception of someone who can reject the kingmakers which is the repudiation the people are looking deliver.

There was so much anger I had been cataloging at those in charge. There was a seething sense of being disrespected by those in charge. One of the insights from my research at the time was that when people were asked to “choose the lesser of two evils,” they were basically dropping like flies from the Republican label.

Now, understand again that this is not anger at the left, but at the right -- at Republicans. There is no race involved in this. No issues in particular more or less than at any other time. This is the same sentiment that brought up Bernie, and if this is righteous anti-estbalishmentarian wrath, then you damn sure weren't going to see anyone voting for Hillary who embodies the establishment more than any other offering except perhaps Jeb!

WAJ: What were their issue differences with the CPAC crowd?

Anne: It was outside of the issue spectrum completely. There was a shift away from one-off issue concerns (taxes, health care, even jobs) in favor of the underlying heart foundation for those issues. Another event that those leaving the Republican label had in common (and yet remaining to vote that way) was an incident of perceived betrayal by the GOP establishment. Individual after individual had an anecdote to relate of an extremely negative interaction with a party official or candidate. Those peddling the issues simply looked down upon them and that showed.

And here it is -- the crux. They didn't want Trump, and they made it plain they didn't want us. So we shoved him down their throats. Pure and simple. Disrespect your electorate at your own risk. You still work for us and it's time you remember that.

Something else she goes on to mention when asked why, then, Cruz was not acceptable is that she had a mentor tell her that when things are really bad, regular people will get back into politics (doctors, scientists, businessmen -- you know, the successful people ), and we did see that with a neurosurgeon and a businessman both running. 2012 saw a businessman in the mix too with Herman Caine, but it simply wasn't his time yet.

The GOP insiders didn’t realize “things had gotten truly bad.” They were still working. These people weren’t.

Even though Trump was so wealthy, he offered a sense of fairness in life. His show the Apprentice asked people to perform, and if they didn’t they were gone — that’s fundamentally what everyone was asking for. An economy where hard work could be rewarded. Not a handout.

Ted Cruz being so conservative simply wasn’t enough to win the hearts of people. It was as though he was disliked rather than respected for going against the grain. Trump succeeded at this outsider status.

(to be continued)

A reality TV star status actually may have helped him because of the nature of the way he ran the show. It appealed to his base who value the idea of meritocracy. Then Trump came along and hit on the two things that really stuck: sovereignty and respect. He told people they were not being respected and listened to by either Democrats or the GOP who neither one think anyone without an Ivy League degree is competent to live their own lives, and he answered the immigration and terrorism issue which really ties in with Globalism v. Sovereignty.

Is American culture worth preserving and protecting? Is it a unique thing of value?

Then he said he’d address the issue of sovereignty. We’re being told constantly, even and maybe especially by the GOP, that we must orient ourselves to global opinion. That it’s old fashioned to have borders, to insist on constants in our values. Diversity as an end in itself must be kow-towed to, instead of our country’s unique set of historic values.

Immigration and border security, even terrorism, relate to the broader ideas of “is our culture in America unique?” “Do potential immigrants need to share those values?” even “what is diversity without shared values?” And of course, “is sovereignty important, or does the broader global community offer better guidance than we can?”

The GOP just missed out that small v. large government, while still important, is less important if you don't have your own culture left to you. Why do you think people get so upset when they are told they can't have Valentine's Day, for example?

WAJ: Are you saying small government doesn’t matter?

Anne: No, it’s not that it doesn’t matter. Just like the Constitution didn’t cease mattering before the Civil War. But slavery needed to be addressed. Today, sovereignty and elitism are those issues, is what Americans were saying.

Then as now, despite this historic rebuke of the GOP’s management capabilities, many Republicans are insisting on broadcasting where they are along this “right vs. left” spectrum. They aren’t answering the fundamental questions driving Americans anymore. It’s like when the Whigs failed to give an answer on slavery, and the Republicans came along and said, “abolition,” this is what the GOP will be built upon.

And that's it in a nutshell. The larger heart issues aren't the things they used to be. The "burning house" issues are sovereignty and elitism. Those are things that need to be addressed right now before we go one with everything else. And if the Republicans can't catch on to this, they do deserve to go the way of the Whigs. What point is there to a party that can't or won't address the most pressing needs of its would-be constituents?

And when the others did their polls, they missed out on what was really going on because they asked about the old issues - economy, immigration, etc. They were very focused and while those things can give them a small window into a part of those two bigger issues, if they aren't asking about them directly or don't know to, then they are likely going to miss it. It's like how Trafalgar polling managed to figure out how to poll for the hidden Trump vote by asking people whom their neighbors were voting for.

WAJ: What should we understand about the Americans who supported Trump that we still continue to miss?

Anne: They may care about all these conservative issues too, but they recognize that the enemy is within the gates. Our culture is what’s’ being eroded. Small government may be the mechanism to restore much of our country’s greatness but it isn’t the emotion, the value, that drives our country’s unique role in the world.

And this is the first of the warning statements. We know we are infiltrated. We know that people inside our own nation are busy tearing apart our culture by labeling it as every evil thing under the sun and seeking to undermine it in favor of a polyglot of nothing. This election was the first shot in our fight to keep what is ours as Americans of all stripes and creeds.

WAJ: You predicted Trump more than two years ago. What’s your next prediction?

Anne: I’ve been focusing my work these past few years to studying the attraction of mass movements on the left. The problem is that the left is provides through its mass movements the fulfillment of deep human needs. Sense of purpose. Meaning in life. A community of like-minded individuals. A sense of belonging. Etc.

Much of this comes from my work on Occupy Wall Street and more recently a project on Black Lives Matter operatives and activists. Their stated aim is “total social upheaval.” I’m afraid that these programmed participants will engage in escalating levels of violence as our culture continues to fracture completely into two different sectors.

Through this the left has been programming a separate society, with values utterly fractured from mainstream, conservative America. What BDS, Black Lives Matter and Occupy provide is quite compelling to a segment of young people who fear being ostracized from the left’s cultural community. That’s hard to replace in the short-term, although there are pathways. We are failing to provide a competitive product to the left’s cultural community and enforcement mechanisms (ostracization from your peers on campus or in the workplace, for example).

And this is the second warning statement.

And we do in fact see this happening. Right now, most of us are still laughing although there are some on this board who have been nearly victimized by this violence, and it is escalating and if she is right (and she nailed the Trump Train before he even announced), then it will ... we are in deep trouble because we are only headed for more and worse trouble as time goes on and this continues.

There is a counter she offers and it's one I've mentioned a time or two myself. These young people need something as fulfilling as a cause. She and I both suggest deep spirituality.

actually I had it pegged since the first two weeks after he came down the escalator. Then when I heard the liberal media pounding him every day then I knew he was the guy. Now they are inciting riots and protests. They are crazy and low with their tactics.

a reply to: ketsuko

Interesting analysis, by the researcher and yourself Ketsuko, thanks for putting on such a great effort!

originally posted by: beeeyotch
actually I had it pegged since the first two weeks after he came down the escalator. Then when I heard the liberal media pounding him every day then I knew he was the guy. Now they are inciting riots and protests. They are crazy and low with their tactics.

Yep the venom spewed by the NWO crowd in my mind enhanced his image greatly.. Several of my golfing buds voted for him simply because the power elite were doing everything to destroy him... Most realized MSM was a sick joke with their reporting, polls, and views..

Now it is up to Trump and his new government to prove to those who thought he could pull out the downward death spiral (which many believed the country was headed for) in reality and not just words.... I do wish him extraordinary perseverance and luck at dogging the real NWO and the progressive/liberal bullets that are sure to follow.

Excellent article, best article I've read regarding Trump's emergence. Her conclusion in particular was spot on, and extremely troubling. Today's mass movements on the left are the result of several generations of Americans slowly drifting away from religion, spirituality, morals, and American values. Today's liberal kids don't have any sense of purpose to guide them, and their parents can't guide them because they don't have any sense of purpose either. The result is to latch on to the next mass movement to fulfill their need for a sense of purpose.

The issue with mass movements is it promotes blind progress. These mass movements strive to achieve arbitrary goals, which when achieved, do nothing to solve the problem, but only succeed in fulfilling the participants' sense of purpose at having achieved something. Looking back to Occupy Wall Street, I couldn't tell you what or why they were protesting, and I'm even more at a loss to list what they actually accomplished. Black Lives Matter has only succeeded in making the entire country more racist and agitated with blacks.

The best part is, the American Liberal movement is fueled by this country's urban and suburban elites. They own the cities, and the mass media, government, and big businesses are centered in cities. These are often adults who were given everything in their lives, and while they wear the veil of religion by attending church on occasion, they have foregone any sort of true spirituality. I know this because I grew up with them, and in a way, I am one of them. There is a general attitude throughout most of the country that if you are raised rich you are a piece of s*** human being, because how are you going to be any sort of respectable human when you were given a Porsche at the age of 17? Many liberal elites are conscious of this attitude, and are troubled by it. They tend to defend liberal mass movements in order to feel a sense of not being a total piece of s***. But the trouble is they are just as aimless as the movements they are supporting. They are just doing it for a sense of fulfillment without any consideration for long-term consequences. It is more of an emotional response than any rational thought.

So then comes the troubling conclusion. Liberals need spirituality. Does this mean a Christian revival? I am almost as troubled by the notion of a Christian revival as I am of the lack of Christian influence. Christianity is so fragmented and incoherent in this country that I cannot see Christianity being the force that comes to rescue the United States from its Liberal uprising. Each generation, kids are becoming more and more liberal as they become more and more detached from morals, values, and spirituality. Kids are being thoroughly brainwashed by the mass media and mainstream culture. Honestly, I don't know what the solution is. But I believe that Trump is a step in the right direction.

a reply to: ketsuko

"Anne: They may care about all these conservative issues too, but they recognize that the enemy is within the gates. Our culture is what’s’ being eroded. Small government may be the mechanism to restore much of our country’s greatness but it isn’t the emotion, the value, that drives our country’s unique role in the world."

And this is the first of the warning statements. We know we are infiltrated. We know that people inside our own nation are busy tearing apart our culture by labeling it as every evil thing under the sun and seeking to undermine it in favor of a polyglot of nothing. This election was the first shot in our fight to keep what is ours as Americans of all stripes and creeds.

"Anne: I’ve been focusing my work these past few years to studying the attraction of mass movements on the left. The problem is that the left is provides through its mass movements the fulfillment of deep human needs. Sense of purpose. Meaning in life. A community of like-minded individuals. A sense of belonging. Etc.

Much of this comes from my work on Occupy Wall Street and more recently a project on Black Lives Matter operatives and activists. Their stated aim is “total social upheaval.” I’m afraid that these programmed participants will engage in escalating levels of violence as our culture continues to fracture completely into two different sectors."

And this is the second warning statement.

Your first and second warning statements are the signs that the U.S. is suffering from a PSYOP. "PSYOPS or Psychological Operations: Planned operations to convey selected information and indicators to foreign audiences to influence their emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of foreign governments, organizations, groups, and individuals. The purpose of psychological operations is to induce or reinforce foreign attitudes and behavior favorable to the originator's objectives."

The purpose is to destabilize the United States by causing internal civil strife. This type of operation has been used by the United States several times against other countries. (eg. Syria recently). Someone is doing payback.

The election revealed something close to a 50/50 split between the "Conservative" and "communitarian culture"

The historical American character that celebrated the equal promise inherent in each individual regardless of race, religion, or creed, and that rejected the rigid class structures that prevailed in Europe, now has competition from a divisive and freedom-undermining philosophy. I call it the communitarian culture.
NationalReview: The Frontier Lab Thesis

Anne Sorock has a BA degree in history, yet, she is writing as a Marketing and Branding professional.

THE FRONTIER LAB conducts cutting-edge, private-sector-based market research to understand how and why Americans form their opinions about the civic, cultural, and political landscape.
...
THE FRONTIER LAB employs the latest methodologies, from laddering analysis and behavioral event modeling to framing psychology, as well as traditional surveys, to map “political consumer” behaviors and the psychology behind their choices.

Our work includes:

+Publishing groundbreaking research that realigns the current political paradigm system;
Frontier Lab: Manifest Marketing

She is a player in the psyop. On the board of directors is JACK FOWLER, publisher of National Review. Sorock is the Alt-Right contributor to National Review, as an incursion of extreme/divisive views into main stream conservative realm.

The "Communalists" are the 50% of Americans who know and feel that the United States as we know was founded on genocide and built on the backs of slaves. Our demographic makeup reflects that reality.

Anne Sorock valorizes the Westward Expansion and incorporation of territory into the U.S. as the mythological beginning of American Identity, ignoring the wars, against the natives and the fight between ranchers and dirt farmers. You can watch the movie Shane as reference.

What is also ignored in her mythology is the fact that the colonies (Jamestown and Plymouth) were not unified in religion. The Puritans were the exiles of the losing side of a civil war. Later, before independence, colonies warred against colonies. (see bio of Roger Williams).

Back to the "warning signs". Those are warning signs that the civil unrest may result in the rise of an autocratic government after traditional norms of representative government are sufficiently weakened.

Trump openly ran as the anti government candidate. Think of the irony of the people in the commercial wanting the DJ to still be their financial advisor after learning that he has no training.