Why Trump Wins

 

 Global Guerrillas

"The fault line in American politics is no longer Republican vs. Democrat nor conservative vs. liberal but establishment vs. anti-establishment. This is an inevitable result of serial failure in establishment policies." Failure as a Way of Life  Bill Lind

Donald Trump is crushing the establishment candidates of the Republican party.  Sanders is doing the same with the Dems.  With that in mind, here are a few insights into Trump that I found useful:

• Donald Trump isn't a fool.  Here's a recent interview that shows Donald Trump is much more interesting than the performance art of his stump and debate.  BTW:  he's a non-interventionist when it comes to foreign policy.
  
• "From the start, Trump targeted the (mostly) white working class, which happens to be 40 percent of the country. And he’s done it not just with issues, but with how he talks — the ball-busting, the “bragging,” the over-the-top promises... 
• But it speaks volumes — whole encyclopedias — about the ignorance of our political and media elites that they’re only now realizing that much of what Trump’s been doing is just busting balls.  It’s a blue-collar ritual, with clear rules — overtly insulting, sure, but with infinite subtleties. It can be a test of manliness, a sign of respect, a way of bonding and much more.
  
  America hasn’t been great for the working class for decades — which is why “Make America Great Again” is a great slogan for a guy who’s talking tough on the problems that blue-collar Americans (and more than a few middle-class folks) see as killing them."  And it is killing them:  "The rise in mortality from 1999 to 2014 was 22 percent: Up 134 deaths per 100,000 for whites aged 45 to 54 whose education ended in high school....  (due to) jumps in suicides and in deaths from drug abuse." Donald Trump has Invented a New Way to Win Mark Cunningham
  
• Nils Parker:  "He is the first true social media/internet candidate. He is not only harnessing its tools like no one before, but he is both speaking to and responding from the culture social media has created. It is social media more than any other influence that has created the cowed culture that the 40% white male demo he is going after feels alienated by and furious at.
  
  The trolling, the bombast, the bragging, the conspiracies--it's quintessential Internet.  also he understands the temporariness with which all normal people treat social media engagement on Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram. It's a bottomless scroll that effectively disappears since no sane person goes scrolling back more than a week's time in order to find something to get pissed off or offended about. So he pops off and then lets it go--which his supporters fundamentally understand.   When opponents and media pull up a tweet from 2012, literally no one gives two shits and it only ends up reflecting (poorly) on the person pulling up the tweet."