Why Is Donald Trump Winning, Leading GOP Polls?

While most democrats I know brush this question off with a simple, “because the right-wing republican base is full of ignorant hee-haws who like bombastic a**holes“, I have a couple other theories why Donald Trump continues to lead the polls as the Republican Party’s (current) choice as their presidential nominee.

Since The Donald doesn’t like to have his time wasted, lets jump to it.

Trump is ahead in the polls because he is very good at communicating a simple message.

Anyone who is incapable of donating at least a million dollars to a politician hates politics. Trump understands this. But instead of yapping on about campaign finance reform, he shares the distaste with his audience. Ironically, of all the presidential candidates, Donald Trump is most capable of expressing empathy. But he only empathizes with their anger, which is why every press conference or town hall turns into a mob scene. It’s a very special kind of empathy that quickly excites the mob.

Trump also is the only candidate who is able to speak with casual language. He whittles down every issue to a two-option, multiple-choice question.  Black or white, yes or no, “best” or “worst disaster in the history of the world”. Like it or not, that’s how most of us want the world to be: easy to understand. “I feel your anger, I express it, and I’ll make life simple again.” That’s something that no other presidential candidate has been able to do as effectively as The Donald.

Why Trump is ahead in the polls: the Republican base is perpetually angry, and historically embraces purification.

This is the runner-up easy answer. Trump embodies the anger that the right wing has been feeling since 2008. His immigration “policy” perfectly fits the centuries-long conservative world view that the all things should be purified so that what they see on a daily basis is only that which they like and approve. He also speaks to a large swath of retirees who are at that point in life where it feels as though the world is changing too quickly (it happens to all of us eventually). Every country in every corner of the globe has that faction. It’s the “world has changed and gone to hell” group of older voters who want things to be the way they were when they were young and their joints didn’t hurt so badly. Trump plays well to that crowd. It’s a bitter sort of anger than Trump knows how to exploit just as effectively as the Tea Party Express.

Unfortunately, the constant coverage of Trump’s expressions of bitterness is making America even more so. Emotions and style are contagious.

“Leading in the Polls” Donal Trump also carried the flag on birtherism, so he’s a champion of the whacky right. Moreover, he’s brilliant at stoking the flames of the “Hate them damn democrats!” DNA.  It’s the political DNA found throughout the south and rural America where being a republican is who they are because it’s how it’s always been. No matter how crazy the Republican Party gets, or how encroaching into personal life GOP policy becomes, “Hate them damn democrats!” remains strong just like their grandpappy, and his gradpappy before him.

It’s easy to forget how incredibly stupid we get when we’re angry – and the GOP base has been angry for many, many years. Trump is the personification of the, “Take my country back” anger inside certain areas of America. He is the angry uncle at Thanksgiving dinner.

Trump is winning because the GOP base sees strength measured by cruelty, and success measured by money.

We’ve already covered in POLITUSIC how the average hard-right wing voter believes that cruelty is the purest demonstration of strength. Trump is very good at giving off that cult of personality; particularly with that intense, frowning scowl expression he so often employs on camera. Couple that facade-based strength with the fact that Trump is obscenely wealthy (on paper, anyway, in spirit is another issue), and you have a hero of the Republican base: rich and tough!

In the same way that the average person feels “more important” if they get close to and share some words with a celebrity, the average GOP brain believes that by aligning with Trump they will somehow also “be more” as well. Everyone wants to be more. Trump just knows how to play to that desire. It’s one giant game of Apprentice.

Why Trump is ahead in the polls: it’s a republican primary. Republican presidential primaries are always a circus.

Michele Bachmann once lead presidential polls. Remember that? All the early states up through South Carolina are basically dress rehearsals for the real candidates while the whacky ones get all the attention because they’re willing to swallow swords or light their eyebrows on fire. It’s the GOP presidential primary. This is simply how it works. Its purpose is to entertain and say “Ronald Reagan” as many times as possible.

Trump will last much longer than Michele Bachmann, however. Where this circus ends is currently unclear.

Why Trump is leading GOP polls: it’s one massive conspiracy. We’re being played.

This is coming mostly from the republican side of the aisle; that Trump is friends with the Clintons and he’s secretly trying to disrupt the GOP primary (which he’s doing very well). However, this does not explain why all the GOP base voters are actually falling for it. I have a new theory.

We all know that the Republican Party is very, very good and keeping its people in line (only recently with Ted Cruz and the Tea Party have we seen internal fighting). My theory is that a very large part of the Republican Party Base is playing one massive joke on the rest of the county. There must be some hidden right-wing blog out there on which it was decided to play a joke on America and the American media by means of keeping Trump’s poll numbers high.

And why not? American politics has become a Joke. Why not, then, have a little fun with the republican primary polls by getting a few friends together and saying “Trump” every time the phone rings? The extreme-right wing has been complaining for decades about liberal bias in the main stream media. This is their chance to have a little fun by intentionally skewing polls (rather than just hoping they’re skewed), and watch the media run around like deep fried chicken dipped in butter served on a slab of pork served in a paper cone.

… yeah, you’re right. That’s probably not why Donald Trump is ahead in the polls. The republican base actually does like Donald Trump. It’s astonishing. But then again, I know plenty of democrats who vote for people simply because they think the person is “a nice guy” – even though when you look at voting records that person might as well be leading the freakin’ Tea Party. People don’t vote and people don’t like with the logical part of their brains.

That’s all it really boils down to: Trump is a gut feeling personified. No brains required.