Explaining the Trump Phenomenon

Billionaire.  Braggart.  Blowhard.  Birdbrain.  Those are just a few of the sobriquets the unscrupulous media have showered on presidential candidate Donald Trump. The media cabal is flabbergasted by his poll numbers and outraged by his naked contempt for journalists.

In an callow attempt to explain his meteoric rise, journalistic imbeciles have resorted to amateur psychology.  Their theory is that The Donald speaks for the great unwashed, those slow-wits who are drawn to celebrities like moths to a flame.  Their fascination will wane and Trump's star will fade.

These self-anointed pundits are dead wrong on both counts.  Trump's seductiveness can be explained in the context of the Republican Party's fall from grace with its conservative base. Despite media and Republican insider efforts to destroy him, Trump will outlast most in the crowded field.

He may not capture the GOP nomination, but the fiery Trump has exposed the chasm of dissatisfaction that is tearing at party unity. The disaffected are fed up with the inside the Beltway political clique. They no longer trust their own party to do the right thing.  They hunger for change.

Ironically, the man running against the party's Old Guard is a product of their pathetic failure to deliver on their promises.  Republicans vowed, "Just give us the House and we will stop Obama." Voters responded by handing the GOP a decided edge in the House of Representatives.

The flaccid House leadership produced only symbolic votes.  Then Republicans whined, "Just give us the Senate and we will stop Obama." In the last election, the GOP assumed the majority in the Senate. Despite the upper hand in Congress, Republican leadership has squandered its plurality.

Republican voters have watched as the weak-kneed political aristocracy has botched every opportunity to brake the Obama agenda. The president has run roughshod over bumbling Republican leaders, while mocking their ineptness.  No wonder most voters have lost faith in the party.

Trump, despite the media's smear tactics, has emerged as the candidate who best articulates the antipathy GOP voters feel toward party nobility. He unabashedly derides Washington's political elite, sneering at their incompetence.  He eschews political correctness to the chagrin of party pols.

His message has helped other Washington outsiders like fellow candidate Ben Carson benefit from voter frustration.  Trump is giving a voice to the bubbling rebellion within the party against the ruling class symbolized best by Congressional leaders John Boehner and Mitch McConnell.

Trump has also tapped into a smoldering issue with the Republican base. Many GOP voters have thrown up their hands in exasperation over their party's impotency in dealing with illegal immigration. Most Republicans want their leaders to adopt a hard line on the issue.

A Pew Research poll conducted in June found nearly 60% of Republicans say their party no longer reflects their views on immigration.  A majority (58%) view a path to legal status for illegal immigrants as a reward for breaking the law.  By comparison, only 23 percent of Democrats agree.

There is deep-seated unrest among conservatives with what they see as the party's breech of contract with its base in an effort to pander to the Hispanic vote.  Capitalizing on that disgruntlement, Trump has made illegal immigration reform the centerpiece of his presidential campaign.

Whatever you think of Donald Trump, he has correctly read the GOP political tea leaves. Republicans covet a candidate who will be hard-nosed on illegal immigration.  They pine for someone who will fearlessly challenge the good old boy Washington lobbyist cartel.  

Those in the media and his detractors would be wise not to underestimate Donald Trump.  He has struck a nerve with many disgruntled voters, who are weary of hearing the latest feeble excuse from the GOP-controlled Congress on why it cannot change things in Washington.

Those in the Republican hierarchy who openly loathe Trump have no one to blame but themselves for his surge to the top spot among party presidential candidates. Trump has found traction with voters because the GOP establishment has turned its back on its conservative base.