Let me start with a statement of disclosure: as anyone who regularly reads this blog knows, I am no Donald Trump fan. I refer to him as “the world\’s richest barroom loudmouth” – because I see him as an egomaniacal, bombastic man whose popularity is not as a viable presidential candidate, but as someone running for president whose direct, blunt opinions are a) shared by a lot of people and b) stated not in political-speak, but the way a normal human being says things.
Trump\’s popularity is partly a positive reaction to his direct blunt talk about issues other politicians do nothing but fudge on, and partly a negative reaction to the politicians running against him, on both sides of the aisle, who sound like a bunch of BS artists covering their backsides instead of talking honestly about what they think…if , after all the years of doing this, they even know what they think anymore.
That said, if it weren\’t for mainstream media, which have done little but cover Trump for the past month and a half, he would not be where he is in the polls.
Think about it: over this time, what percentage of the total Republican presidential coverage has been of Trump? 50%? 75%? More than 75%? Other than an occational reference to Jeb Bush and maybe Ted Cruz, how many candidates have been mentioned more than in passing, if even that much?
When the preponderance of coverage is on one person, then political polls stop being comparative in nature, and instead become referendums on the person getting the coverage. The numbers you see now, in other words, are not necessarily Trump versus the other candidates, but whether people like or dislike Trump.
And when Trump loudly, confidently spouts off opinions, with barely a hint of how he could ever turn them into enacted legislation (can you possibly believe Trump is capable of working with congress, the co-equal legislative branch?), it makes people say “Yes! I like what he\’s saying!”; something I have personally heard, just in the past few days, from several people – believe me, not Republicans – who I would never have thought of as Trump supporters in a million years.
Is this a short-lived phenomenon? Common sense tells me that, yes, it is.
But is it already longer-lived than I would have expected? My ears and eyes tell me that, yes, it is.
I still do not expect the Trump phenomenon to last. But I would lie to say I\’m as sure of it now as I was weeks ago.
