Trump is appealing to an electorate that is 'dissolving before his eyes': columnist

Writing in The Atlantic this Thursday, Ronald Brownstein says that Donald Trump is running for reelection for an America that "no longer exists."

"Trump in recent weeks has repeatedly reprised two of Richard Nixon’s most memorable rallying cries, promising to deliver 'law and order' for the 'silent majority,'" Brownstein writes. "But in almost every meaningful way, America today is a radically different country than it was when Nixon rode those arguments to win the presidency in 1968 amid widespread anti-war protests, massive civil unrest following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., white flight from major cities, and rising crime rates. Trump’s attempt to emulate that strategy may only prove how much the country has changed since it succeeded."

When it comes to religion, marriage, race, LGBT rights -- Americans are more progressive than they were in the past, and that fact makes Trump's attempts to build a winning coalition behind his alarmist rhetoric all the more difficult.

While there are still elements working in Trump's favor, namely a growing older population and a dedicated base of evangelicals, the groups Trump hopes to mobilize—non-college-educated, nonurban, married, and Christian white voters—"have significantly shrunk as a share of the overall society in the past 50 years."

"The groups most alienated from him include many of the ones that have grown over those decades: college-educated white people, people of color, seculars, singles, and residents of the large metro areas."

Read his full op-ed over at The Atlantic.