Stranger things have happened in the good old USA. Take, for instance, a personal example:
Sorry, I know you've had this awesome health insurance policy for twenty years, but we've just slapped a 40% excise tax on it, and now your employer is forced to cancel it, and it's out of here.
Exactly the example I was going to use. The Lefties have no problem kicking our grannies out of the hospital and telling her Medicare has been cut by $700 billion. But they think Republicans are too weak to tell illegals they can no longer get free health care at the ER. They also think they're too squishy to tell illegals to go back to the countries WHERE THEY ARE CITIZENS.
Trump and Cruz are challenging the ruling class's world view and they can't stand it.