BLOOMBERG
The
Texas senator flatly rejected the idea of a contested convention on
Friday at CPAC, warning that it would lead to a "manifest revolt."
BLOOMBERG
His mix of nativism and protectionism has proved a winning formula for far-right parties across the continent.
From the volume of the outrage, you’d think Europeans had never dealt
with the likes of Donald Trump before. The French newspaper Libération called him “the American Nightmare.” The German newsweekly Der Spiegel
slapped his face on its cover in front of flames crawling up an
American flag. (Online, the fire was animated.) Wherever one looks in
the continent, there’s rising alarm in the media about the possibility
that Trump could become president of the U.S.
And yet, as much as the headlines make him out to be an American
phenomenon, in Europe, Trump would fit right in. His mix of
nationalistic nativism and economic protectionism has proved a winning
formula for far-right parties across the continent.
In late January, Donald Trump held one of his final rallies before
the Iowa caucuses at the Dubuque airport. On the tarmac, with
loudspeakers blasting the theme from the Harrison Ford movie Air Force One,
a crowd of shivering supporters roared when Trump’s Boeing 757 made a
flyby. Many of the estimated 400 people in attendance had been notified
about the event through NationBuilder, a digital hub for campaigns that
handles website design, fundraising, organizing volunteers, and social
media.
As Trump has moved from outsider candidate to Republican front-runner, his campaign has been collecting e-mail addresses, cell phone numbers, and other information from supporters and feeding the data into the NationBuilder system to automate the voter-outreach process. The software lets campaign staffers target individuals with e-mails about issues in which they’ve expressed an interest and notify them of events occurring near their homes. It can also track social media so a campaign can see who’s liking or sharing a post.
NationBuilder’s technology is pretty much turnkey. It’s not as sophisticated as a custom-built platform, but candidates who subscribe to the service can immediately start tracking voters and organizing volunteers, for far less money. In the world of retail politics, the company has become a great democratizer since its founding in 2009. It’s given a political novice like Trump access to the type of sophisticated tools that Barack Obama and Mitt Romney had to build in 2012, helping Trump get his supporters to turn out for primaries and caucuses.
As Trump has moved from outsider candidate to Republican front-runner, his campaign has been collecting e-mail addresses, cell phone numbers, and other information from supporters and feeding the data into the NationBuilder system to automate the voter-outreach process. The software lets campaign staffers target individuals with e-mails about issues in which they’ve expressed an interest and notify them of events occurring near their homes. It can also track social media so a campaign can see who’s liking or sharing a post.
NationBuilder’s technology is pretty much turnkey. It’s not as sophisticated as a custom-built platform, but candidates who subscribe to the service can immediately start tracking voters and organizing volunteers, for far less money. In the world of retail politics, the company has become a great democratizer since its founding in 2009. It’s given a political novice like Trump access to the type of sophisticated tools that Barack Obama and Mitt Romney had to build in 2012, helping Trump get his supporters to turn out for primaries and caucuses.
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