The dateline is my hometown.
As I put it… wow, 9 months ago:
What [Trump\u2019s messaging on hispanics is] targeted at \nis places like my homeland, the \u201ccollar counties\u201d around Philadelphia \nthat determine which way the state swings. Places full of nice, \ncomfortable, suburban whites who vote that identity and those interests,\n chief among them that they can keep thinking of themselves as nice (and\n ideally not have to think of themselves as white).
Their concern\n with immigration and racial policy isn\u2019t with its effects but with its \naesthetics - they recoil from deportation and interdiction only insofar \nas the attached adjectives are \u201cmalicious and hateful\u201d, but if Trump can\n sell the exact same policy as \u201ctough but fair\u201d\u2026
Interesting point that the locals seem to view him as culturally moderate for a Republican because the relevant axis to them is religiosity. Knowing the area I can totally see that - Pennsylvanian Republican primaries are pretty heavy with the type of people that have bumper stickers about the Catholic radio stations they listen to, which was where Santorum came from - and the speculation that this would be just the moderation necessary to stop or reverse the Republicans\u2019 suburban slide is totally plausible. Now enough to take the state who knows.