But Trump won’t be dismissed. For one thing, there are a lot of so-called crazy uncles out there and some of them vote. Sincerely or not, Trump is stoking fears and resentments genuinely felt by a nontrivial segment of the GOP rank-and-file.
As Trump’s would-be opponent for the Reform Party nomination once put it, these visceral conservatives “don’t read Adam Smith or Edmund Burke, but they came from the same schoolyards and playgrounds and towns as we did.” Tip O’Neill said all politics are local, but today all politics are identity politics. Trump reflects this as surely as Sarah Palin does.
Many conservatives are looking for someone who will fight for them, a trait some evaluate not on the basis of preferred marginal tax rates or five-point policy agendas but by ability to spark liberal outrage. That’s where Trump has a proven track record.
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