Trump - Three Lessons

Where to start... a blowhard, racist, liar, populist, canny, brilliant strategist.  He's quite possibly going to win a very divided Republican party nomination for US President.

As an unprecedented self-promoter, Trump is a natural for the role of candidate.  It's a job designed precisely for someone just like him that has always relied so heavily on the value of his name as a brand.   Of course, at some point his candidacy ends, and as many have pointed out, that's when the problems will begin.  Trump's track record of actual success achieved  is quite hit and miss, and I don't need to detail that here.

What can we learn from Trump ?  Well, for a start it's that the election process in the US doesn't deliver the best person for the job.  Perhaps that's not news as such, but it's never been more clearly highlighted.  The election process thrives on the outlier candidate that is repeatedly headline worthy, and a consumate chameleon.  If exposure directly correlates to popularity (and admittedly there other variables in this equation), then Trump has nailed how to do it right.  By contrast his indirect competition looks two dimensional and flat.  Others have run dull, uninteresting campaigns (hello Hillary), thinking the reality TV star type of hype has to come to an end.  I think she's called that wrong by the way. America has been tricked that the meta-campaign they are in is entertainment - the American Idol version of politics where voting isn't really impactful and at some point Ryan Seacrest will emerge and re-assure us that the country remains in good hands.  Trump is the perfect teflon candidate, and there are sad (I foresee repeatable) implications for that in the years to come.

What else can we learn ..?  Trump's populist attraction is also a condemnation of the establishment.  If a core tenet of the Republican platform in general is smaller government, than whoever has run it the past few years has lost sight of this.  Trump espouses blowing out the establishment in Washington, and that resonates really well across the heartland where people don't trust or want big infrastructures. In this sense, the Republicans have shot themselves in the foot - a Tea Party proxy is just another form of big establishment, and that group when maturing from a movement into an organization somehow missed that nuance.   In this sense, Trump is just in the right place at the right time.

Lastly, Trump will divide the party, between those that still believe in the core principles of what being Republican means, and those with a position of power that they wish to protect (read Governors, sitting Congress and others that bought into Tea Party backing as a means to get elected). Probably the last thing Republicans wanted  - certainly incumbent Republicans - was a mandate on what being Republican means.  This will mirror disagreements around faith, where each Christian Church claims to be the true interpretation of Jesus.  Quite possibly, this is a terminal set of disagreements for the Party.  In that sense, Trump is a great divider, albeit an unintentional one and somebody that happens to have come along at an opportune time to make that happen.

Obviously many questions remain.  But we are witnessing something historic and despite the emotional effect Trump has on people - we shouldn't overlook that.