Figuring Out Trump
I was wrong about Trump's level of support plateauing, it seems. His level of support has continued to grow, and I've watched his campaign with a certain morbid fascination. I'm trying to figure him and his campaign out. His supporters are much more diverse and their motivations much more varied than I'd guessed. The Guardian has a revealing article featuring letters from Trump supporters, many left-leaning, and closeted. Their reasons for supporting him go the beyond the CNN/MSNBC racist/nativist narrative. Some are actually supporting him with chaos and tumult a desired result. A 'burn the village to save the village' approach. I'm certainly a fan of what his success has done to the corrupt and laughable Republican Party.
His appeal is much more broad than his critics are willing to, or want to admit. The fact that many prefer Bernie, but Trump is their number two choice over Clinton is an amazing revelation. I've seen their two candidacies successes stemming from the same angers and frustrations with the same old party lines, inherent corruptions, etc, but two months ago, I wouldn't have drawn a Venn Diagram where there was significant overlap in their two circles.
As a libertarian, his stated positions are almost universally anathema to me, but I've certainly enjoyed watching him act as a raging bull in the GOP's neo-con china shop. He's probably more of a centrist than Cruz/Rubio or Clinton on many issues that matter a lot to me, mainly living in the pockets of Goldman Sachs and more war, more war, more war! In other words, every single candidate running is terrible, including Trump, but he really isn't worse than any of the other contenders. He's just more open about what a creep he is. That's refreshing to many people.
The latest big news in the Trump campaign over the last couple days is the reappearance of Mitt Romney in Presidential politics. He's arrived to suggest that any and all measures should be taken to keep Trump from being the nominee of THEIR party, even if they have to force a brokered convention, and give the Presidency to Clinton. I suggested this would be the basic strategy back in December.
That Romney and company have so blatantly and desperately laid out their plan to do an end-run about the primary process is remarkable, going so far as to suggest they will modify Rule 40 (again) to stymie his nomination. The linked article is from December and suggests Cruz/Rubio as the top two contenders, and a Rule 40 change to PREVENT a floor fight at the convention with a large swath of delegates voting against the de facto nominee. The rule first gained notoriety when it was changed to prevent Ron Paul delegates from announcing their support at the 2012 convention. Now they may amend the rule to CREATE a floor fight and hopefully force a floor vote beyond the first to install anyone but Trump. Amazing. The Democrats have been far less subtle and created their 'superdelegates' a few cycles back, allowing them to tightly control their nomination process to shoehorn in their establishment candidate in any remotely close primary situation. Clinton holds a vast majority of those party insider, party elite, establishment linked delegates. Bernie was never going to get a significant number of those, he would have to absolutely crush her in every state to even be a real threat.
A brokered convention will absolutely destroy the already fractured GOP, showing utter contempt for a large part of its potential voter base. They will see their votes as stolen by a powerful elite, and the nominee as a puppet of that same elite. Those voters will leave and not return. Which is no less than it deserves.
My guess is Trump's poll numbers will spike again as a result of this coordinated attack by the exact cabal that his supporters absolutely despise.
I see Donald Trump as analogous to the 'Cool Heel' Pro Wrestling archetype that emerged in a big way in the 1990s and Mitt Romeny is his Vince McMahon. He comes out and cuts a promo on The Donald, giving him plenty of heat, and setting Trump up for a stunning rebuttal, leaving him more popular than ever.
