The reason's Trump is doing so well.

7 years of the Obama adminstration

A complete and total distrust of "establishment" republicans

A complete and total distrust of the "media" and their spin on the "truth"



Oh and lets not forget what Trump supports are called by the left and media types:
Gleeful Democrats have made clear that Trump’s lead in public opinion polls throughout 2015 vindicates their allegations about the ignorance, stupidity, and bigotry of the GOP base and conservative movement.
Trump’s supporters are the “culturally alienated, conservative white male voters” who have “been manipulated … into a perpetual state of aggrieved indignation” by right-wing talk-radio, which constantly assures its listeners that “their ill-informed, illiberal, anti-government, anti-Washington, anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim views are irrefutably, indisputably, incontrovertibly correct.”

That is why Trump has touched American voters.

Rongone wrote:

I think you forgot an apathetic, angry, and ignorant minority segment of the general electorate.

I didn't forget anything, especially since I didn't write the article.  Nor did the author when they wrote:

Gleeful Democrats have made clear that Trump’s lead in public opinion polls throughout 2015 vindicates their allegations about the ignorance, stupidity, and bigotry of the GOP base and conservative movement.

I think the take away point is the last paragraph:

Demagoguery flourishes when democracy falters. A disreputable, irresponsible figure like Donald Trump gets a hearing when the reputable, responsible people in charge of things turn out to be self-satisfied and self-deluded. The best way to fortify Trump’s presidential campaign is to insist his followers’ grievances are simply illegitimate, bigoted, and ignorant. The best way to defeat it is to argue that their justified demands for competent, serious governance deserve a statesman, not a showman


 

Speaking for myself, I do shake my head in wonderment at the Trump supporters.
Not because I find their concerns and fears silly, but because I think that their fears have been manipulated by a con man.

One has to acknowledge that there exists an inherent conflict between what Trump supporters say they want, and their choice of a candidate.

They eschew elites. And support the billionaire son of a millionaire who's youth included prep schools and an Ivy league business school.

They deplore the nasty partisan politics and support the king of personal attacks

They are tired of politicians lying to them, and despise Obama and Clinton for their supposed lying. Then they support Trump, a man whose relationship with the truth is so tenuous that Factcheck.org crowned him the "King of Whoppers" for 2015.

They don't trust government, but support a guy who wants to create a security force capable of rounding up 11 million people.

They say they want a staunch conservative who doesn't flip flop.
Trump has been a democrat, a republican and a independent in his life.
He even supported terry mcAauliffe, the clintonista when he ran for Gov of Virginia.

They say that they want a candidate who embodies christian values and a man of faith. The thrice married Trump has never been particularly religious..


So, I'm left scratching my head. And - although I will enrage Trump supporters by saying this - some of the criticism that makes their blood boil is actually true.

There has always been a dark side to populism, and Trump embodies it. Complex problems are met with simple solutions. Knowledge is disdained. Collaboration is not desired. Blaming people for your lot in life is embraced. Elites, intellectuals, immigrants, Muslims have all had their turn in being offered up as villains.

Sadly, a great deal of the support for Trump is just anger based. It is the result of irrational, directionless rage. And, there is some appeal to our darker angels, like bigotry.
Sorry if that offends the Trumpites.

When people lose hope and reason, fear and paranoia fill the void.

Trump, knowingly or unknowingly, is filling the void.

A GOP New Year's Eve special featuring Donald Trump?  This is a joke right?