Weak Links

As we are seeing now, not all breaks need be harmful. Case in point, Donald Trump's presidency. Much has been said about his unorthodox campaign, how he's rethinking the entire art of politics and creating a new path to the presidency, one the likes of which hasn't been seen for years and years. What I find interesting is that both parties seem very angry at the idea of him ascending. The left, naturally, is scared of the right becoming further polarized and becoming a credible threat to them and their cause. However, the right is seeing the formula that they thought would win thrown in their faces by the electorate. People are rejecting the watered down Tea Party line of low taxes and free markets, and the neo-conservative hegemonic attitude toward foreign policy. He has severed ties with this crowd and created a beast that they neither know nor understand, and the people have rallied behind him.

If it was simply the stereotype, the "angry white racists," it would be impossible for him to have the numbers he has. What I believe it is, is that he's rewriting what it means to be right-wing, taking the ideas that are popular with the people on the right today and applying them, while rejecting the dated ideologies of the right that define the establishment. In this end, he has drawn people to embrace him that would otherwise only tepidly vote for a Republican frontrunner, if at all. The establishment right's ties to the people have been broken, and their ties to a Trump-like politician, one unfrightened to speak his mind, one that pitches the ideas of placing the people first rather than big-money donors or abstract ideologies, have drawn new ties that strengthen his bonds. In this regard, breaking or refusing ties to dead weight that has found itself incapable of success can be beneficial.