"No one with a brain would vote for Trump." "How can people even listen to Trump?" Anyone can hear these things wherever they go, and they probably will even more in the coming days and weeks. However, as the Republican National Convention looms, and the Republican establishment's attempts to stop Donald Trump become more and more futile, it becomes inevitable that we have to discuss why Trump will win, and not if. Why do Trump's seemingly idiotic comments draw masses of people to his side every time he opens his mouth? If Trump and Bernie Sanders are both considered the "anti-establishment" candidates, why are people trying to make America great again instead of feeling the Bern?
The Republicans are simply just more fed up with the establishment. Twice in a row, the Republican establishment candidate has been defeated by Barack Obama, the Democratic establishment's golden boy. Mitt Romney and John McCain are synonyms for the same words: disappointment, failure. Two feelings that the Republican Party has become familiar with over the last 8 years, as every policy Barack Obama sits at the helm of causes a furrow of the brow or an open sigh. And then, in steps Donald Trump, as far from the establishment as one could expect, promising two things that every Republican wanted to hear: winning, and a Republican America.
This still doesn't account for the fact that Trump gets to say whatever stupid, offensive thing he wants, and actually gain votes. Well, the people who do choose to support Trump take everything he says with the same motto: "They can't control him!" It all circles back to the establishment. Offensive statements, incorrect statements. It all means that the establishment isn't backstage writing his speeches.
So why isn't Bernie Sanders winning? He is all of the same things as Trump: progressive, brash, and ant-establishment. The only difference is that the Democratic establishment produced Barack Obama, a winner who has been fighting the Republicans tooth and nail for a Supreme Court Justice and other key issues. The Democrats, then, are not near as angry at the establishment because the establishment is winning. In the same way that victors write history, they also garner votes. Most Democrats flock to Hillary Clinton's side as she promises to follow in Obama's footsteps, riding in his coattails as hard as she possibly can. The young, progressive liberals that fill colleges, however, jump at the idea of Bernie Sanders, a man who actually wants to make a difference. They attack Hillary's campaign money, as she is as attached to the establishment as anyone before her, but she is allowed to get away with it because people think that she will win.
Recently, parallels have been drawn from Hitler to Trump in order to exaggerate the belligerence of his ideas and his statements. However, the talk is not completely unwarranted, as Trump is springing from the ashes of a defeat in the same way that Hitler did after World War One. Trump may not be genocidal, but he is in the process of writing the same story about winning in politics, and who gets to win the people over in the end.
