By now, I’m sure that you have read, watched, or heard just about enough about Donald Trump. I have for sure, but he’s apparently not going anywhere. When the mania started a few months ago, I never would have supposed that it would have lasted this long. I figured he was winning on the basis of his celebrity and bravado and that, eventually, those with actual policy provisions and experience would expose Trump’s clown show.
Clearly, I hadn’t been paying close enough attention because, in several ways, Trump’s rhetoric caught many of the Republican candidates off guard. In the beginning, these candidates likely didn’t see Trump as much of a threat. Of course, the polls would start to even out as people actually started paying attention, right? Wrong (apparently).
One thing has now become certain, though, the audacity of Trump has awakened something within the American people. People seem to be paying attention to politics now more than ever, and the continued support for the Donald has taught us something: many Americans are fed up. Fed up with what, exactly? Now, that’s a good question.
The outrage and bravado of Donald Trump, his willingness to lash out at any and everyone–the media, Democrats, Republicans–depicts the frustration found, primarily within the conservative base. By verbally bludgeoning his opponents, he’s living out the fantasy of several people who feel like their views have not been represented by the political elite (Left or Right, but especially the Right). I would argue, though, that the vast majority of people don’t exactly know what their views are. Better yet, they don’t know what their views should be.
Politics in this Age of Trump are driven more by mere rhetoric than articulate reason. And that’s what worries me the most.
Cross Section 