The whole world’s gone crazy.  There are a lot of things in this election that don’t make much sense.  The media has been completely bamboozled.  The republican party has been taken over by aliens.  Cats and Dogs living together, mass hysteria.

…and we owe it all to “The Donald”.

He has put on a pretty amazing display of showmanship.  He acts like a blow hard.  He acts like an arrogant self-promoting narcissist.  He attacks, attacks, attacks.  Anybody lands a blow on Trump gets a surprising amount of payback, and Trump is a master. 

He acts wounded, he whines, he cries, he retreats… for about 3 seconds and then he counterattacks with tremendous speed and ability that it takes people off their feet most of the time.  Some have even said that he has studied military tactics and applied it to campaign warfare.

His opponents have been studying his tactics.  They have gotten better at taking blows and returning fire.  My guess though is that it is too little, too late.  Scott Adams the creator of the Dilbert comic has a tremendous series of blog posts about Trump’s persuasion techniques and it is a master class for anyone who wants to learn more about persuasion and influence.

He built a campaign strategy on dominating the free air time game.  He says outrageous stuff that triple dog dares the media pundits.  They can’t resist trying to bait him or to make him look dumb.  They are so smart and he is so dumb, they just can’t resist.  He pretty much has engineered things to get the most people talking about him – on either side.  Love him or hate him, he is clearly the most talked about and most visible presidential candidate in a long, long time.

The rambling, random, harsh, sometimes nearly incoherent things that come out of his mouth during speeches, interviews, debates are tremendously interesting because they they seem to come from someone who is either stupid, evil or both at the same time.  But when you read his campaign website, things don’t seem that way.  Of course when you read the military grade bull crap on any campaign website – we all know that none of that is really going to happen – what they really reveal is who the candidate is trying to appeal to – Trump comes off as a pretty conservative, pretty patriotic, mostly rational candidate.

So then why is the Republican Party working so stinking hard to take down one of their own? …and have they met their match?  I suspect that the Republican Party is terrified because they let Trump onto their ticket thinking that he would draw attention early then fall over.

The Republicans have become increasingly fragmented over the last 20 years.  Becoming increasingly distracted by special interests that have trouble forming a coalition.  Big business, Gun Nuts, Rich Old White Dudes and the Religious Right don’t all line up on the issues.  If you add that with the last few Republican presidents under whose supervision both the size of government and the national debt and the deficit went the wrong way.  Finally mix in a dash of Republicans in congress allowing the democrats to take moral high ground positions on some of the procedural issues and behaviors that make most ordinary citizens feel like our legislature is broken – and the Republicans are the reason why.  This creates a cocktail of discontent that is very potent.  Many conservatives feel that the Republican party has neither the will to do the right thing, nor their best interest at heart.  And although its true that the Democrats have a similar problem (reason why Bernie Sanders has any poll numbers right now), the democrats have a lame duck president and 8 years of running the country to keep their constituents discontent under control.

Conservatives in this country have pretty much completely lost moral high ground positions one after the other over the last 50 years of sexual revolution.  Strangely enough, most of them are completely baffled as to how and why.  Al Mohler, President of the Southern Baptist Convention is in the middle of a blog series about this topic that is very instructive.

Conservatives and Republicans (not always the same thing) are tired of taking it on the chin.  And that is one thing that Trump appeals to.  He is all about projecting power.  He is not afraid of a fight.  He is not afraid to speak his mind.  He is not afraid to attack, defend, or counterattack.

The Republican party is just not willing to admit how they have “lost” the trust and respect of the people, and they believe that Trump has stolen something that they simply left lying on the ground.

So why does everyone else get so crazy about Trump?  Is he really the next coming of Hitler?  Is he really that bad?  What is clear is that he is very pragmatic.  He is an “ends sometime justify means” guy, one that has shown a capacity to take risks and bounce back from failure.  He has a reputation for being an absolute beast as a negotiator, one who knows how to use the power he has.  He is clearly one of the wealthiest men in America, and so he cannot easily be influenced because of his own needs or desires (he already has every toy and excessive bauble he will he wants).  Yet as completely crazy as he appears, he has grown children and grand children who respect and adore him, and who appear to be well adjusted, productive, highly successful in their own right, in short children any parent would be proud of.  Trump like many other highly successful entrepreneurs and leaders is a classic “productive narcissist“.  So why is Steve Jobs the idol and hero of so many, and Donald Trump who has many similar traits is not?

My take is this.  Trump attracts republicans who are tired of the party line, especially when the line has a hook and a worm on the end.  He attracts conservatives who want to reclaim some respect and moral authority.  He attracts conservatives who are tired of the “moneyball” politics within the PAC’s and SuperPAC’s that have created the mess we have.  He attracts conservatives who are smart enough to know that you have to compromise – and the tougher the opening gambit in the negotiation is, the further you can compromise and still declare victory.  He attracts non-conservatives who have become tired of the liberal and progressive politicians saying that they have a better way, while things continue to get worse and worse and worse.

Trump is for:

1. American Citizens rights and safety, before the rights of anyone else who lives here or anywhere else.
2. Justice – which sometimes has a mercy component, a retribution component AND a deterrent component.
3. Better balances with our national trading partners.
4. Better balances with our corporations in terms of keeping jobs here, and paying taxes here.
5. Better balances with our people to increase tax revenue, without crushing the poor or the middle class.
6. American Pride and Patriotism so that Americans can feel positive about their country, government, and their own chances of success.

What Trump is not:

1. A Theologian – I can’t say whether he believes or not, but he is not going to quote scripture or discuss translation from the original language.
2. A Lunatic – From where I sit, everything he does is designed for a specific purpose and to a specific effect. He is playing his game, and it has frustrated the crap out of everyone else.
3. A Tyrant – Trump does not appear to be someone who will try to grab and retain power for himself.  At nearly 70, what is the point, when you are rich enough to buy a small country, why would you try to steal a country?
4. A Philosopher, a Zealot, an Evangelist – for any scheme, idea, or creed.  He is not a “true believer” type who will bleed or die for his cause.
5. Without Fault or Flaw – he knows his weaknesses and flaw well.  Everyone who has failed and succeeded does.  He is successful because he doesn’t make the same mistake, the same way twice.  He clearly has learned and adapted since his last campaign.
6. Real – The person you see is mostly a caricature or a shell that he has invented over a long period of time.  That image or persona is a useful defense from personal attacks – because he can use it as a human shield.  Hard to tell what he is really like behind closed doors, but I suspect that he is both kind and loyal to people he trusts, and impatient and harsh to people who disappoint.

I am concerned that he is somewhat naive, that the cesspool that he is wading into will mire and swallow him whole.  What I expect to see as he gets closer to winning the republican nomination, is a turn to some more reasoned negotiating points, signals that his initial gambits were negotiating tactics completely in line with his strategies as described in his own book “The Art of The Deal”.