Billionaire at the Barricades (Ingraham) - Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for Billionaire at the Barricades ... then take off on your own:

1. Nearly everyone — in media and politics — dismissed the candidacy of Donald Trump early on. What was it that tipped Laura Ingraham off about the power of Trump's appeal?

2. Follow-up to Question 1: Consider Dave Brat's stunning 2014 victory in Virginia over then House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. Ingraham called Brat's win "cataclysmic." Why? What did it reveal about the party and the voters?

3. What were your initial reactions to Candidate Trump? Did you dismiss him at first … or take him seriously? Did your reaction to him change over time? Has it changed since he has taken office?

4. How would you define the progressive movement and its supporters? Consider Ingraham's observation that voters "didn’t care about [Trump's] rough language." Instead, “they cared about saving their country and knew the only way to do it was to elect a renegade — a disruptor — someone who owed the Old Guard nothing.” What do progressives want to save the country from? Why does it take a renegade to save it?

5. Follow-up to Question 4: In what ways was Trump a "disruptor?" How did he pit himself against the Establishment Republicans? How did (does) he differ from the "Old Guard"?

6. Ingraham reports that in a private GOP meeting, everyone "laughed out loud at the idea that Trump's border wall would ever be built." Are people laughing now? What do you think of the wall — and what do you think its chances are of being built? Ingraham predicts that if it is not built "the president and his part will pay a severe political price." Do you agree?

7. Pointing to politicians' hypocrisy, Ingraham notes that while many claim they had never seen populism before, all successful "presidential candidates invoke the populist style because it connects with working people." But, she goes on to say, except for Regan, once in office, all presidents have "governed as globalists." First, define globalism: what policies, specifically, does the term refer to? Second, do you agree with her assessment that previous presidents have all been globalists? Talk about the reasons populists and Trump oppose globalism. What is the argument in favor of it?

8. Ingraham also posits, however, that there is an overlap between conservative and populism. In what areas do the two blocs agree?

(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)

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