Ah, the curious case of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. The billionaire has had social media spats with nearly all of his opponents, and even managed to get into a rather nasty dust up with Fox News commentator Megyn Kelly. Yet he's still able to soar well above his opponents in the polls.
And here's why.
Trump is the anti-hero of politics. He's the guy that goes against the grain of how traditional candidates usually conduct themselves and he tries to accomplish his goals by any means necessary. A barb at Jeb Bush? No problem.
Now please, don't take this as glowing endorsement of Trump from the O.A.W. Report. That's not what this is. There are numerous comments the Donald has made that we take issue with. We're simply trying to understand and quantify why Trump seems to hold the election captive with his antics that hardly have anything to do with a substantive plan to help improve this country.
In our minds this election so far has been less about policy and more about social media attacks (via Twitter) and the use of private emails being used to conduct business (the latter is best left for another blog).
Trump's bid for presidency comes at a time when the American public is craving for crude transparency. Just look at the access we now have in the lives of celebrities. Look at the prevalence of reality T.V. shows. We want to know what a person is thinking or feeling and the more outlandish and salacious that person is, the more we accept it.
Traditionally, presidential candidates have been the opposite. They reveal as little as possible and give us a cookie cutter platform on which to base our opinions on. They provide a quaint little narrative which contains only a smidgen of truth. They're friendly to people they don't like even though the public knows otherwise.
Trump isn't any of those things. He's real. He’s transparent and you already have a pretty good idea if you're going to vote for him or not. That's why he's soaring in the polls, and that's why he's the anti-hero of politics.
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