Donald Trump is more emotion than candidate. His prescriptions are more reaction than policy.
A woman blows a kiss to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (R) after Trump autographed her chest at his campaign rally in Manassas, Virginia December 2, 2015. Reuters
Most professed supporters of Mr. Trump probably don’t want the brash billionaire as their president or their nominee as much as they want him to keep saying what he’s saying. The Trump-backers I speak to in Iowa and New Hampshire also aren’t endorsing his discriminatory and authoritarian policy prescriptions—but they don’t hold his pronouncements against him.
His success is less a sign of his proposals’ popularity than a reflection of the elite’s failure to be honest about tough issues.
Trump’s shocking statements—on immigrant rapists, disabled reporters, and Muslim immigrants—have only boosted his popularity. Their shocking nature is their virtue. Every pundit and politician who condemns Trump and demands he apologize thus helps Trump.
Political correctness has grown so rampant in this country that college officials are drummed from their jobs for not criticizing Pocahontas Halloween costumes and a Democratic presidential candidate had to apologize for saying, “All lives matter.”
With so much pearl-clutching and speech-shaming out there, Trump seems like a refreshing truth-teller—even when his remarks are dead false and truly foul. Because the PC police freak out about everything, many voters dismiss all criticism of Trump as PC overreaction.
Similarly, his policy proposals are welcomed as an antidote to the trite falsehoods offered by the political class on tough issues like immigration and terrorism.
For working-class Americans, massive low-skilled immigration looks like a threat the their livelihood. Bipartisan elites (whose jobs aren’t threatened) ignore these concerns and instead issue platitudes about a “nation of immigrants,” and “jobs Americans won’t do.” These lines strike millions of Americans as transparently false, creating an opening for Trump’s anti-immigrant talk.
Americans also see that the terrorism threat in Europe and at home is largely rooted in a radical strain of Islam. When President Obama avoids talking about radical Islam, he exacerbates the distrust among the people—again leaving an opening for Trump’s anti-Muslim extremism.
Trump’s support in polls amounts to a minority of the minority of the country that identifies as Republicans. Does some portion of that 10% to 15% of America want him to be President? Yes, but not all. Would some portion of that 10% to 15% sincerely want a blanket rule suspending all Muslim immigration? Yes, but not all.
But Trump’s success in polls should be seen less as a sign of his popularity or the popularity of his ideas, and more as a reflection of the political establishment’s failures and aversion to honest engagement in tough issues.
Read AEI Political Corner scholars’ take on the 2016 presidential field thus far
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