Taking Trump seriously: He's as close to a protest candidate as the GOP has

Here’s the important thing to remember about Trump, or any other political candidate, for that matter: Maybe you think he’s a clown. But some voters, perhaps a significant number of voters, take him seriously. They’re not dumb. So the question is, what concern of those voters, what need, is being addressed by Donald Trump?

For Trump, the key was at the very beginning of his South Carolina speech. “Sadly, politicians are all talk and no action,” Trump told the crowd. “They’re not going to get you to the promised land, that I can tell you.” Although Trump is appearing at Republican events, and pursuing, after a fashion, the GOP nomination, he’s really running against the politics, and the politicians, of both parties. He’s presenting himself as the man who gets things done, party be damned — and the man who is so rich he won’t be beholden to any party boss or fat cat donor.

“One thing that sums it up for me is Trump is about the closest thing to a third-party candidate without having to leave the party,” said Laudner. “He gets the I’ve-had-it-up-to-my-eyeballs vote. We’re catching a lot of those people who are just fed up with both parties.”