{"id":5492,"date":"2026-01-04T01:30:36","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T01:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/billionaire-at-the-barricades-ingraham-laura\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T01:30:36","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T01:30:36","slug":"billionaire-at-the-barricades-ingraham-laura","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/billionaire-at-the-barricades-ingraham-laura\/","title":{"rendered":"Billionaire at the Barricades – Ingraham, Laura"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Book Preview<\/h3>\n
\n
\n

Introduction<\/p>\n

An Early Warning Sign<\/p>\n

I<\/span>f I had to pinpoint a single moment that foreshadowed the rise, and ultimate victory, of Donald Trump, I would choose June 10, 2014. That was the day a little-known economics professor defeated the Republican House majority leader Eric Cantor in a primary challenge. It had never happened before in American history. Not a single member of the media or political Establishment saw it coming. Yet Dave Brat\u2019s victory didn\u2019t come out of nowhere. It was actually a logical outcome after years of a Republican leadership that had grown smug, insulated, and totally out of touch with the concerns of its own grass roots.<\/span><\/p>\n

In early 2014, when filmmaker and Virginia native Ron Maxwell initially brought Dave Brat to my attention, I was skeptical for the obvious reasons. I\u2019d never heard of him and didn\u2019t know anyone who had. But Maxwell, a conservative populist, had done his homework and tilled the ground for several months before I ever entered the picture. Brat appeared on my show several times over the last four and a half months of the campaign. Although we had yet to meet in person, I found him to be humble, courageous, and smart.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Brat was doing precisely what I had urged interested Americans to do 10 years earlier in my book Power to the People<\/span>\u2014get involved, run for office, and pursue policies that give power back to the people. In 2009, the Tea Party\u2014the first authentically populist movement on the right in decades\u2014emerged in response to Obama\u2019s reckless bailouts and gained strength after the passage of Obamacare. Although the Tea Party helped elect a number of people to Congress, it was still a minority within the GOP. Undaunted by the very imposing barricade of Establishment money and power that lay before him, Brat took his case directly to the people. Most aspiring politicians would have been scared off by Eric Cantor\u2019s staff of 23, or the $5.4 million he had to spend on advertising. But not Brat. He had a team of two and had raised only $200,000. It was Dave versus Goliath. \u201cThey don\u2019t take me seriously,\u201d he told me a few months before primary day. \u201cAnd right now, that\u2019s just the way I like it.\u201d<\/p>\n

His drive and determination were inspiring. Disorganized and small in representation, the Tea Party movement had wandered since the 2010 midterm elections, and Brat\u2019s brainy fearlessness was exactly what it needed. Besides, I reasoned, how will we ever save America from a corrupt, unresponsive, ineffective federal government if we don\u2019t support those with real talent who are willing to stick their necks out and challenge the status quo? Even if Brat could come within striking distance of Cantor, that could spur other independent, strong conservatives to challenge lame incumbents across the country. Such were my thoughts as I weighed whether to throw in with the underdog.<\/p>\n

On June 3, 2014, a Tuesday night, my producer, Julia Hahn, another business associate, and I made the two-and-a-half-hour drive from Washington to the leafy Virginia town of Glen Allen to support Dave Brat. The Republican primary vote for Virginia\u2019s 7th Congressional District was just a week away, but as we rolled up to the Dominion Club, none of us knew what to expect. Incredibly, not a single national Tea Party group had given Brat any financial support, although the local Richmond Tea Party had endorsed him. The polls showed Cantor ahead by 25\u201330 points, and he was getting big money air cover in the form of ads from powerhouse lobbying groups like the American Chemistry Council, the Chamber of Commerce, and the National Association of Realtors.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s hope people actually show up tonight besides some snarky reporters,\u201d I told Julia, who personally took it upon herself to make my appearance happen. I wondered to myself whether the whole thing was a bridge too far\u2014a total waste of time. We were doing the round-trip in one day, after my three-hour radio show and an appearance on <\/span>Fox & Friends.<\/span> <\/span>I should be home eating dinner with the kids, <\/span>I thought.<\/span><\/p>\n

But then as we approached the club\u2019s driveway, we saw the cars\u2014hundreds of them\u2014lined up, spilling out of the parking lots. The moment we walked into the lobby, I was overjoyed that we had made the effort.<\/p>\n

The \u201cBrat Pack\u201d was out in full force.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you for coming, Laura!\u201d chirped a 40-something woman standing in the hallway with her teenage daughter. \u201cDave Brat is the MAN!\u201d someone else blurted out. \u201cOur boy\u2019s gonna win!\u201d exclaimed a man who introduced himself as \u201cjust a plain old farmer.\u201d He had come at the last minute after learning about the rally from his neighbor. A few were wearing \u201cCan\u2019t stand Cantor\u201d buttons; most were just neatly dressed, everyday middle-class Americans.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got him right where we want him,\u201d Brat insisted, in reference to the incumbent Cantor, at what was our first face-to-face meeting. I laughed, and wondered if I would be that optimistic were I in his shoes. Tan, with his sandy brown hair combed back, in wire-rimmed glasses, Brat had the look of an all-American prepster. His smile was real and reassuring.<\/p>\n

More than the average politician, Brat understood the urgent need to \u201cdisrupt\u201d the old GOP hierarchy. Fundamental, conservative change would not be possible in Washington, unless and until the Establishment in both parties was exposed and defeated. For decades, on key issues, they had been in an alliance of convenience, working against the interests of everyday Americans. On no issue was this collusion more apparent than \u201cimmigration reform\u201d (aka amnesty).<\/p>\n

Over the years, I\u2019ve developed a pretty accurate rule of thumb for judging the conservatism of Republican politicians. If they refuse multiple requests to appear on my radio show, they\u2019re usually up to no good. Case in point: Eric Cantor. Majority Leader Cantor had turned down several invitations from my bookers to join us on air to discuss his 2013 legislation misleadingly known as The Kids Act. It was essentially his version of President Obama\u2019s DREAM Act and would have given a path to legalization to illegal immigrants brought here as children. Cantor thought he could dodge the tough questions by simply avoiding them. That told me a lot. Apparently it was that same aloof, \u201cI-don\u2019t-need-to-answer-to-anyone\u201d attitude that rubbed the voters of the 7th Congressional District the wrong way, as well.<\/p>\n

In the final week before the June 10 primary, we covered the race every day on radio. I begged Glenn Beck to get involved and to his credit he did, by interviewing Brat on his popular radio show. Radio host Mark Levin had been in the pro-Brat camp for some time and was also extremely influential. Likewise, the populist website Breitbart played a critical role in this historic primary by covering the race and the issues motivating Brat\u2019s challenge. As for the rest of the media\u2014many of the same people and institutions that look down on talk radio and conservative websites\u2014they barely touched on the race at all.<\/span><\/p>\n

On June 10, after my radio show wrapped up at noon, I said a silent prayer for a surprise Brat victory. If he could pull off this sneak attack against Cantor and the big corporatist forces that backed him, anything was possible. None of my staff would take bets on the outcome. We were all too nervous.<\/p>\n

Later that night, I was celebrating my son Dmitri\u2019s sixth birthday at the home of a close family friend. Through dinner and cake, I didn\u2019t have my cell phone handy. I was so focused on his<\/span> big day, I had put Brat\u2019s big night out of my mind. Their home telephone rang. It was one of my friends\u2014a Brat supporter. \u201cWhere have you been? We\u2019ve been trying to reach you! He won! He won! Dave won!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes!!\u201d I screamed, with a mouth full of frosting, still sitting at the dining room table. Those gathered must have thought I\u2019d hit the lottery. I ran for my phone where the texts and emails were pouring in. Not long thereafter, I was on Fox News\u2019 special coverage of Cantor\u2019s loss.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe really just didn\u2019t have very much money, but what he did have was a lot of heart,\u201d I said of Brat, in a telephone interview with Megyn Kelly. \u201cI think there will be a lot of people out there saying this could be the beginning of something really big for the Republican Party.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Fox News political analyst Brit Hume disagreed, and he was not alone among conservative commentators in expressing dismay over Brat\u2019s massive upset of the GOP Old Guard.<\/p>\n

The margin is amazing. . . . The conventional wisdom on this . . . that this is bad news long term for the Republicans and great news for Democrats. It is argued by some that immigration reform now will never pass with Republicans who were very much chastened by what happened to Eric Cantor. So that\u2019s dead for now. That means that Republicans will go forward into the 2016 election without their name associated with immigration reform, which will make it very difficult for any Republican to become president.<\/p>\n

Or so he thought.<\/p>\n

Every news outlet in America reported on Brat\u2019s unprecedented victory. \u201c[O]ne of the most stunning primary election upsets in congressional history,\u201d wrote The<\/span> New York Times.<\/span>1<\/span> \u201cThe loss wasn\u2019t just big, it was historic,\u201d said NBC News.2<\/span> The<\/span> Washington Post<\/span> called it \u201ca historic electoral surprise that left the GOP in chaos.\u201d3<\/span><\/p>\n

As for Cantor himself, he had little to say on election night except that he \u201ccame up short.\u201d4<\/span> (According to The<\/span> Washington Post,<\/span> he was so confident on Election Day that he was hanging out with lobbyists at the Starbucks on Capitol Hill.)5<\/span> When approached leaving a DC Italian restaurant the night his heir apparent crashed and burned, Speaker John Boehner had no comment.<\/p>\n

Other GOP bigwigs seemed intent on spinning the Brat victory as a one-off. The party\u2019s 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney dismissed the notion that the Cantor defeat was a harbinger of change to come in the GOP. \u201cI know it\u2019s our inclination to look at races and suggest that somehow a national movement is causing what occurs,\u201d he told NBC\u2019s David Gregory.6<\/span> When asked specifically whether a rising conservative populism was in the air, Romney batted away the suggestion, noting that the Republican senator Lindsey Graham, disliked intensely by the Tea Party, easily won his primary challenge in South Carolina. To his credit, he did cite the frustration of voters on the immigration issue as a driving force in the race.<\/p>\n

Contrary to what many pundits and \u201cWall Street Journal\u201d<\/span> Republicans claimed in the aftermath, Cantor\u2019s support for immigration amnesty was a major factor in his loss. Brat pounded that theme relentlessly, along with Cantor\u2019s cozy relationship with K Street and his overall disregard of the concerns of his constituents. The six-term congressman had become everything that the Tea Party and other grassroots conservatives hated about the GOP.<\/p>\n

The Sunday after the primary, I was part of the ABC panel to discuss the Cantor primary loss. Eric Cantor was on the panel before us. Saying little of interest, he still didn\u2019t seem to fathom why he lost. Zero insights. When his segment was over, he exited the studio out of a side door to avoid crossing paths with me.<\/p>\n

\u201cObjectively thinking, I really believe it was the beginning of everything that followed\u2014and led directly to Donald Trump,\u201d Ron Maxwell posited. <\/p>\n

Although Tea Party groups launched other primary challenges against Establishment GOP candidates in 2014 and weren\u2019t successful, it didn\u2019t matter. Brat\u2019s win was cataclysmic\u2014and gave encouragement to conservative-populist activists coast to coast. For the first time, they had proof positive that the Establishment doesn\u2019t always win.<\/span><\/p>\n

One year later, Donald Trump crashed the Republican Party when he announced his presidential bid. Even Cantor\u2019s defeat hadn\u2019t prepared the Establishment for the possibility that their grip on the GOP was weakening. Yet given the voters\u2019 building discontent with Republican politics as usual, they should have seen Trump coming.<\/p>\n

His populist counter-insurgency campaign was brash and bold, and entirely predictable after years of failed GOP and Democrat efforts to grow our economy and put America on the right track. If the people were mad enough to oust a sitting majority leader, anything was possible.<\/p>\n

The Populist Movement Made It Possible<\/p>\n

The force behind Dave Brat\u2019s victory was populism\u2014the belief that people should have power instead of ceding it to elites. Americans are used to left-versus-right political disagreements, like judicial activism versus judicial restraint, union versus nonunion. Populists understand that there\u2019s a top and a bottom, too. The Establishment\u2014composed of powerful elites on both the left and the right\u2014does not trust individuals to make decisions for themselves. Instead, they believe Washington \u201cexperts\u201d and bureaucrats must fill the void. Populists believe individuals should have more control over their own lives.<\/p>\n

Presidential candidates invoke the populist style because it connects with working people. Except for Reagan, all modern presidents of both parties campaigned as populists but governed as globalists. Populism isn\u2019t new. It arose in the 1890s when the so-called robber barons\u2014businessmen who gained wealth and influence through unethical business practices\u2014amassed power that hurt workers. Populists revolted and formed a short-lived national People\u2019s Party. Its platform was essentially left-wing. It was pro-labor and anti-capitalist and was especially hostile to banks and railroads. That party effectively merged with the Democrats in 1896 and ultimately disappeared in 1908. But the populist style\u2014with its emphasis on the commonsense wisdom of the working class\u2014remained a potent force that Democrats and Republicans both co-opted for years to come.<\/p>\n

Because populism is not an ideology, it often appears with a descriptor, like \u201cprogressive populism\u201d or \u201cconservative populism.\u201d On the left side of the political spectrum, progressive populism wraps big government schemes in the guise of populism. Bill Clinton\u2019s Arkansas everyman populist style ultimately gave way to disastrous globalist trade deals; Obama\u2019s \u201chope and change\u201d morphed into a historic growth in government power. In 2016, Establishment Media tried to portray Bernie Sanders as a \u201cleft-wing populist.\u201d In reality, of course, Sanders was little more than a socialist retread. Nevertheless, he ran an impressive campaign\u2014one that managed to draw massive crowds of over 20,000. (It\u2019s amazing what promising young kids free college tuition can do!)<\/p>\n

On the surface, Sanders seemed to agree with Donald Trump\u2019s populist opposition to bad trade deals, foreign interventionism, and Wall Street corruption. But on domestic issues, Sanders\u2019s proposals were the same old failed big government power grabs and massive tax gambits that are antithetical to economic freedom. As President Reagan put it, \u201cas government expands, liberty contracts.\u201d Instead of returning power to the people, Sanders\u2019s plans would have squelched workers\u2019 wealth and freedom. Still, the fact that a man of Sanders\u2019s age could be a thorn in Hillary Clinton\u2019s side was just as much a compliment to him as a sign that Clinton\u2019s candidacy was deeply flawed.<\/span><\/p>\n

By contrast, conservativism and populism overlap in their opposition to \u201cbig things\u201d\u2014big government, big international organizations, big media, big business cronyism. These distant, uncaring entities rob people of decision making and ignore their interests. Pat Buchanan and Donald Trump summarized conservative populism best when each vowed to put \u201cAmerica first.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conservative populists tend to support a policy of economic nationalism\u2014people-centered economic policies that put the nation and its workers first. They oppose a massive national debt because it weakens America and makes its citizens beholden to lenders. They also believe high taxes are bad because they sap workers\u2019 wages and economic freedom. Similarly, they are against huge trade deals and international organizations like the World Trade Organization because they take power out of the hands of voters and give it to a far-away and often hostile global elite.<\/p>\n

In foreign affairs, conservative populists oppose broad military interventionism and believe military force should only be used when American interests are threatened. Populism\u2019s critics like to toss around the term \u201cisolationism\u201d to dismiss populist foreign policy, but that doesn\u2019t describe any populist I\u2019ve ever known. Throughout the Cold War, populists were among the strongest voices opposing Soviet communism. At the same time, they believe squandering the nation\u2019s wealth and blood on unwinnable wars and nation-building is unwise. Instead, they support a pragmatic foreign policy based on achieving \u201cpeace through strength\u201d by maintaining a strong military and using it prudently.<\/p>\n

If all this sounds familiar that\u2019s because conservative-populist Ronald Reagan remade American politics with his two landslide presidential victories in 1980 and 1984. The populist movement that propelled Reagan into office came roaring back in 2016 to produce the most stunning political victory in American history.<\/p>\n

This is the story of how a man with zero political experience overcame the Establishment in both parties and a hostile press to capture the presidency. It\u2019s also a book about how a lot of us who supported Ronald Reagan, and who worked together for decades, came to disagree so strongly over the next steps for this country.<\/p>\n

There is also a caution here. Trump\u2019s victory was only the beginning. The forces he overcame during the campaign have now created a barricade to block his\u2014and the people\u2019s\u2014agenda permanently. Choreographed and well-funded protests, endless investigations, and a slow-walking of his agenda on Capitol Hill have reinforced the barricades to real reform. To overcome this, the president will have to avoid the mistakes of his predecessors and remain close to the principles and people that got him elected. Donald Trump in his gut understands Americans better than most \u201cexperts\u201d who have spent their lives in politics.<\/p>\n

Despite conventional wisdom (or whatever it\u2019s calling itself today), Trump didn\u2019t win because of \u201cfree air time\u201d or because he hosted The<\/span> Apprentice.<\/span><\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t win because of his tweets.<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t win because he is a celebrity.<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t win because of FBI director James Comey.<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t win because the Democratic National Committee was hacked.<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t even win because Hillary was a lousy candidate and a worse campaigner.<\/p>\n

Trump won because his message of economic nationalism and a less-interventionist foreign policy reflects the will of the people. He won because he vowed (\u00e0 la Buchanan) to put America first again. He won because both parties had gotten fat off the status quo, while many in the middle were being squeezed. He won because he was not a politician, but a self-made outsider who fearlessly called out the collusion among politicians, the media, and even big business. He won because Americans had had it\u2014with Washington\u2019s failed promises, with political correctness, with open borders, and with career politicians, consultants, pollsters, and pundits.<\/p>\n

In the end, voters in Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Ohio didn\u2019t care about his rough language. They cared about saving their country and knew the only way to do it was to elect a renegade\u2014a disruptor\u2014someone who owed the Old Guard nothing. Ironically, that someone was a Manhattan billionaire. Donald Trump won because on the biggest issues of the day, he had the guts to stand with the \u201csilent majority.\u201d Just like Dave Brat and Ronald Reagan before him\u2014he was right and his opponents were wrong.<\/p>\n

The elites had been blindsided before\u2014by Reagan\u2019s 1980 election. Many in the party dismissed him as well. He was just an actor. He was \u201ctoo divisive.\u201d Remember, after he narrowly lost the GOP nomination in 1976, Reagan came back in 1980 and won big. Southern states that had been Democrat strongholds for decades flipped to the GOP. An anti-Establishment conservative who was almost 70 years old was just the breath of fresh air our country and political system needed.<\/p>\n

Sound familiar?<\/p>\n

The conservative-populist movement that powered Ronald Reagan to historic landslide victories reemerged in 2016. Against all odds, the people rose up and propelled Donald Trump to the presidency. It did not happen in a vacuum. Indeed, as this book reveals, the forces that aligned and made his victory possible had been gathering for decades as Establishment elites in both parties accumulated ever-increasing power for themselves. Time will tell whether Donald Trump can clear all the barricades in front of him, make good on his promise to drain the swamp, and return power back to the people. Either way, the conservative-populist movement proved it will remain a dynamic and powerful force for years to come.<\/p>\n

Power to the people, indeed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Read the full book by downloading it below.<\/p>\n

DOWNLOAD EPUB<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Book Preview Introduction An Early Warning Sign If I had to pinpoint a single moment that foreshadowed the rise, and ultimate victory, of Donald Trump, I would choose June 10, 2014. That was the day a little-known economics professor defeated the Republican House majority leader Eric Cantor in a primary challenge. It had never happened … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5491,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[365],"class_list":["post-5492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-laura-ingraham"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}