The Rise Of Trump
Political pundits, professors, psychologists, the media, and even sports personalities and actors have all given their reasons behind the Trump phenomenon. It has been an interesting seven months thus far and the multitude of theories given have ranged from plausible to completely off the wall. I believe there are six factors that have come into play to help with this rise of Donald Trump. My thesis is that it isn't one thing, but a combination of several things, some more important than others, that have played into his success in the Republican Party run for the nomination to be President of the United States.
First of all, and I believe most important of the six factors, is the complete and utter failure of the Republican Party to live by their own conservative platform. The GOP has for too many years now, pandered and promised conservatives and evangelicals they would stand up and reverse the liberal policies of the Democrat Party. They have asked for the votes of conservatives to give them a majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate to reverse such things as Obamacare, funding for Planned Parenthood, wasteful spending, and the Iranian Nuclear Deal. They have consistently failed on those promises and have just paid lip service to it. They have gone native and have acquiesced to the go along to get along mantra of the liberals. They have consistently offered up RINO'S, Republicans in name only, as congressional and presidential candidates from Bob Dole to John McCain to Mitt Romney to John Boehner to Mitch McConnell. This selling out of conservative and evangelical voters, has led to a deep frustration and a very real distrust of the GOP. Those particular voters have migrated to Trump because he is not a career politician and an outsider running on the Republican Party ticket. Trump is far from being a conservative, and is really a moderate to maybe even a center-left candidate, but the depth of the frustration and mistrust overshadows his lack of conservative ideals. The true conservative thinker is Ted Cruz, but he has become the sacrificial lamb in this presidential campaign and wrongly typecast as a career politician who is part of the problem. Trump has definitely played that up as well to draw people on the fence, over to his side.
The second factor is somewhat linked to the first. The Reagan Democrats, who are normally Democrat Party voters who switched and voted for Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984, have been drawn into the Trump tent. They have been frustrated as well, just like their Republican Party friends, by the consistent and radical shift left by the Democrat Party. This is no longer the Democrat Party of JFK. The Democrats have become much more aligned ideologically with the Socialist Party and it is hard to truly differentiate between them as we have seen by the failed attempts of Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Hillary Clinton to try and do so on national television. These Reagan Democrats are typically blue-collar workers and Trump has been able to resonate with them, especially on the issue of immigration.
That leads to my third factor, immigration. Trump hitched his horse to the immigration wagon very early in the campaign and he has continued to be the one candidate who uses that issue to full success. Immigration is a key issue and the current Administration has not taken it seriously and has consistently thumbed their nose at the American people. With Trump promoting building a wall on the border with Mexico and being very strong on illegal immigration, he has touched a nerve and rode the wave of frustration like a skilled surfer on the ocean water.
The fourth factor that plays a role in this rise of Trump is the high amount of low information voters. With the dumbing down of America over the last few decades, common sense and critical thinking have been replaced by a mass of mind numbed sheep. Most people don't listen to talk radio or actively seek out quality sources for true facts about the candidates and their positions on issues. They tend to watch the mainstream media and get their information and cues from those sources. I have shared facts about Trump over and over again with his supporters only to be told that facts don't matter. They are voting for him because he is blunt and straightforward with an in your face approach.
That leads to my fifth factor, political correctness, or should I say, confronting political correctness head on. Donald Trump makes no apologies for anything he says or does and he is the anti political correctness candidate. In a country where political correctness has run amok and been used as a hammer against freedom of speech, Trump folks regale in his brash and bombastic brand of straight talk.
My sixth and last factor is open primaries. With several states holding open primaries, Democrats have chosen to vote in the Republican primary and help push Trump to wins he might not have had in a closed primary. Most Democrats want Trump to take on Hillary Clinton in the general election this November because they feel he will be the easiest to beat and the majority of polls suggest Hillary winning quite handily against him. Trumps ceiling is about 35% or so and in closed primary states, Ted Cruz has had much more success and victories. The open primary has allowed a certain amount of tampering, albeit quite legal and within the parameters of the campaign, and has given an extra boost to the Trump phenomenon.
Taking all six factors into consideration, you can see a full picture of why Donald Trump has continued this rise. He is in the right place at the right time and he is a master snake oil salesman who lures people in with his antics and carnival barker show. In our reality TV show age, he is the perfect candidate to play off of these frustrations of the American voters and use them to his full advantage. Whether or not he can continue to use these factors and ride them to the White House, remains to be seen. But, one thing is certain, we haven't seen a phenomenon like this and it will be very fascinating to see how it plays out.
First of all, and I believe most important of the six factors, is the complete and utter failure of the Republican Party to live by their own conservative platform. The GOP has for too many years now, pandered and promised conservatives and evangelicals they would stand up and reverse the liberal policies of the Democrat Party. They have asked for the votes of conservatives to give them a majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate to reverse such things as Obamacare, funding for Planned Parenthood, wasteful spending, and the Iranian Nuclear Deal. They have consistently failed on those promises and have just paid lip service to it. They have gone native and have acquiesced to the go along to get along mantra of the liberals. They have consistently offered up RINO'S, Republicans in name only, as congressional and presidential candidates from Bob Dole to John McCain to Mitt Romney to John Boehner to Mitch McConnell. This selling out of conservative and evangelical voters, has led to a deep frustration and a very real distrust of the GOP. Those particular voters have migrated to Trump because he is not a career politician and an outsider running on the Republican Party ticket. Trump is far from being a conservative, and is really a moderate to maybe even a center-left candidate, but the depth of the frustration and mistrust overshadows his lack of conservative ideals. The true conservative thinker is Ted Cruz, but he has become the sacrificial lamb in this presidential campaign and wrongly typecast as a career politician who is part of the problem. Trump has definitely played that up as well to draw people on the fence, over to his side.
The second factor is somewhat linked to the first. The Reagan Democrats, who are normally Democrat Party voters who switched and voted for Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984, have been drawn into the Trump tent. They have been frustrated as well, just like their Republican Party friends, by the consistent and radical shift left by the Democrat Party. This is no longer the Democrat Party of JFK. The Democrats have become much more aligned ideologically with the Socialist Party and it is hard to truly differentiate between them as we have seen by the failed attempts of Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Hillary Clinton to try and do so on national television. These Reagan Democrats are typically blue-collar workers and Trump has been able to resonate with them, especially on the issue of immigration.
That leads to my third factor, immigration. Trump hitched his horse to the immigration wagon very early in the campaign and he has continued to be the one candidate who uses that issue to full success. Immigration is a key issue and the current Administration has not taken it seriously and has consistently thumbed their nose at the American people. With Trump promoting building a wall on the border with Mexico and being very strong on illegal immigration, he has touched a nerve and rode the wave of frustration like a skilled surfer on the ocean water.
The fourth factor that plays a role in this rise of Trump is the high amount of low information voters. With the dumbing down of America over the last few decades, common sense and critical thinking have been replaced by a mass of mind numbed sheep. Most people don't listen to talk radio or actively seek out quality sources for true facts about the candidates and their positions on issues. They tend to watch the mainstream media and get their information and cues from those sources. I have shared facts about Trump over and over again with his supporters only to be told that facts don't matter. They are voting for him because he is blunt and straightforward with an in your face approach.
That leads to my fifth factor, political correctness, or should I say, confronting political correctness head on. Donald Trump makes no apologies for anything he says or does and he is the anti political correctness candidate. In a country where political correctness has run amok and been used as a hammer against freedom of speech, Trump folks regale in his brash and bombastic brand of straight talk.
My sixth and last factor is open primaries. With several states holding open primaries, Democrats have chosen to vote in the Republican primary and help push Trump to wins he might not have had in a closed primary. Most Democrats want Trump to take on Hillary Clinton in the general election this November because they feel he will be the easiest to beat and the majority of polls suggest Hillary winning quite handily against him. Trumps ceiling is about 35% or so and in closed primary states, Ted Cruz has had much more success and victories. The open primary has allowed a certain amount of tampering, albeit quite legal and within the parameters of the campaign, and has given an extra boost to the Trump phenomenon.
Taking all six factors into consideration, you can see a full picture of why Donald Trump has continued this rise. He is in the right place at the right time and he is a master snake oil salesman who lures people in with his antics and carnival barker show. In our reality TV show age, he is the perfect candidate to play off of these frustrations of the American voters and use them to his full advantage. Whether or not he can continue to use these factors and ride them to the White House, remains to be seen. But, one thing is certain, we haven't seen a phenomenon like this and it will be very fascinating to see how it plays out.
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