Some have called it the candidate version of jury nullification, which makes sense. Something explainable within our common frame of reference must account for Donald Trump’s ongoing viability as an unconscionably uninformed presidential candidate.
Think back to the O.J. Simpson trial. We now know that the Los Angeles jury figured Simpson was guilty–but another agenda took precedence. It was a rare opportunity to strike back at white establishment oppression–as manifested by police brutality to black residents. Rodney King was hardly an exception. It was a way of taking all those pent-up frustrations and degradations and finally finding a vehicle to express them. Take that. Simpson wasn’t “not guilty?” So what? His case provided the perfect-storm opportunity to vent.
Fast forward to now. If you want a vehicle to express how much you want your country back–because the global economy, the tech culture and alien demographics symbolized by immigrants and a black president have been conspiring against you and yours–you have it in a Trump candidacy. Pat Buchanan never looked so civil and moderate.
Sure, Trump isn’t “presidential” and he’s hardly a policy wonk and NATO is worried–but so what? Trump “tells it like it is,” and he also hates the establishment. So, crude, bigoted and beyond-simplistic, bumper-sticker language becomes a “politically incorrect” dog whistle to followers. That’s how a movement-meets-concert-tour presidential campaign happens.
Especially when the media can’t help doing what they do best–saturation coverage of a celebrity candidate who is great copy and an audience guarantor.
Then add just enough “Crooked Hillary”-hating independents, spineless GOPsters and clueless millennials to make this election alarmingly close.