A Deeply Attractive Man

Donald Trump is on a roll. His recent speeches in Las Vegas and Arizona were extremely well attended by the conservative base. Ol' Sheriff Joe Arpaio had the honor of introducing the Donald at the Arizona speech, even taking the time to bring up that tried and true chestnut from the past-the president's birth certificate.

There's been quite a bit of talk about how Trump isn't a real Republican and is just doing this to promote himself. Yet if you take a look at him, the constant fear peddling, anger and hate that emits from his yap makes him a PERFECT representation of conservatives today. Combine that with his self centeredness on steroids, his wealth, and his titanic hubris and, if you are a conservative, what's not to like? Truly, a deeply attractive man...:)

There are a couple of interesting pieces on Trump that have popped up this week. The first comes from Paul Rosenberg over at salon.com who widens out the discussion to include Sanders and a broader look at what American voters want.

Subsequent research has intensified this division. Conservatives win by making broad, sweeping appeals, which can often have little relationship with the facts (Iraq’s WMDs, “voter fraud,” global warming denialism, etc.). Liberals win by focusing on how to fix specific problems. Thus “government spending” in general is seen as a negative, but spending on most specific programs is strongly supported. The pattern is clear: The more practical the question, the more liberal the answers. That’s just how U.S. politics works.

Yep.

Kevin Williamson at the National Review has looked at Trump and decided a new term was in order-the WHINO.

You know the RINO — Republican In Name Only — but you may be less familiar with the WHINO. The WHINO is a captive of the populist Right’s master narrative, which is the tragic tale of the holy, holy base, the victory of which would be entirely assured if not for the machinations of the perfidious Establishment.

The WHINO is a Republican conspiracy theorist, in whose fervid imaginings all the players — victims, villains — are Republicans.  

This certainly explains why there is so much division among conservatives. And why they can't win national elections. Williamson has a great take on an argument I've heard many times from some conservatives.

I did an interview with Matthew Boyle of Breitbart Radio, a nice enough guy but a pretty good example of the WHINO style in American politics. What about Romney? Boyle demanded. Romney, he said with absolute assurance, lost to Barack Obama because millions of conservatives stayed home, finding him insufficiently committed to their cause. 

The first aspect of what is wrong with this analysis is obvious: It assumes that a “real conservative” who couldn’t beat Mitt Romney in a Republican primary dominated by “real conservatives” would have defeated Barack Obama in a national election not dominated by conservatives at all, i.e. that Romney was the weakest candidate except for all the guys who couldn’t beat him. But the defects in this analysis do not stop there. I am not sure that the psephology actually says what the WHINOs think it does, but even if it were so, the further problem with this line of thinking is obvious: If you are a conservative, and if you believe that the way to reform American public policy is to elect conservatives, and you arrived at Election Day believing that Barack Obama and Mitt Romney were, from the conservative point of view, interchangeable commodities, then you are either a fanatic or extraordinarily ill-informed.

We must give some consideration to Trump, Breitbart’s Boyle informed me, because he is a vessel for the expression of the base’s frustration. The base should get a hobby. 

No shit. But this is exactly how much of the base thinks. And that's why they are supporting Trump.