Despite Donald Trump saying John McCain is not a war hero, and bullying nearly every GOP candidate, he remains at the top of the latest polls, proving some GOP voters are the real bigots and bullies.
Many expected it would never last.
Donald Trump threatening to run for president, then actually entering the race, then surging to the top of the polls.Â
Many thought his anti-immigrant attacks might be too virulent to allow him to remain in the race.
They were wrong.
Many thought his attack on John McCain last weekend, first saying he was “not a war hero,” then acquiescing, saying “perhaps” he was a war hero, but only “because he got caught,” might have summoned the proverbial Vaudeville cane pulling him off the political stage.
They were wrong.
Many thought his outrageous attacks this past week on his fellow GOP presidential candidates would turn off GOP voters.
They were wrong.
In the latest CNN/ORC Poll, released just this morning, puts Trump solidly still in first place among registered Republicans.
Trump lands once again in the top spot, now with 19%. That’s up seven points from one month ago in the same CNN/ORC poll.
Jeb Bush takes the second slot with 15%, down four points from one month ago.
Scott Walker gets third place with 10%, up four points.
Those are the only three with double-digit scores.
The next tier, in order, are Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Mike Huckabee, Ben Carson, Chris Christie, and John Kasich.
Lest you think this is an anomaly, Trump is also in the top slot in a new just-released NBC News-Marist poll of New Hampshire potential GOP primary voters, and in second place in Iowa, just two points below frontrunner Scott Walker.
What does this all mean?
There is a significant number of Republican voters who like immigrant-bashing. They like lies about entire groups of people. They don’t actually care about the treatment of vets, nor about our service members whom they keep wanting to send off to war, and refuse to pay for their needs upon returning home.
This part of the GOP electorate who supports a man with no actual policies or solutions likes having a scapegoat to explain their own failures, their own bad choices, on whom to pin their own hate, their own xenophobia, their own selfishness, bigotry, and hate.
Donald Trump doesn’t have any actual beliefs – other than money, fame, and ego. He has merely held up a mirror to the Republican electorate. It is not he who is the ugly American – for he is merely the reflection of a large part of the GOP electorate’s beliefs.
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Image by DonkeyHotey via Flickr and a CC license
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