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I can’t stand Trump because he has brought an unprecedented level of crudeness, nastiness, old man’s bile and anti-intellectualism to this campaign - one in which we actually started out with some good younger candidates.

But I wouldn’t say he courted “the base,” simply because he probably didn’t even know there was a base. He was never involved in conservative politics in NY. He tried to run for mayor of NYC but bailed when he got opposition, because he doesn’t really have a program and isn’t reaching out to anybody.

Being the entertainer that he is, he’s just looking for an audience.

And he found one, because while he’s horrible and I wouldn’t vote for him (seriously, and I was even involved in Tea Party things), he’s tapped into a lot of anger out there among a group that feels (rightly) that it’s been marginalized and even demonized. That would be white males, particularly older white males.

Trump didn’t start with any particular group in mind, but like any good populist, he stumbled onto the vein of anger that he could exploit. And what he knows is exactly what Hitler, Stalin and all European populists knew.

Once you have gotten your personal base, appearing as their savior, it doesn’t matter what you say or do. Trump can say things like “American workers are paid too much” and working people cheer him. Huh?

We gave you your chance four years ago with Mitt Romney, who was the polar opposite of Donald Trump. He ended up getting shellacked, proving the adage that nice guys finish last.

The Democrats play for keeps. We could have nominated one of our "nice younger candidates" as you point out, but Clinton would have run them over like a freight train. Shrillary Clinton is a nasty, vile, scheming Marxist who if elected, will make us pine for the days of Obama. If we are going to beat this old shrew in November, we are going to have to get down and dirty. Another polished nice guy like Mitt Romney, Jebbie Bush or Marco Rubio is not going to cut it this year.

I canâ€™t stand Trump because he has brought an unprecedented level of crudeness, nastiness, old manâ€™s bile and anti-intellectualism to this campaign - one in which we actually started out with some good younger candidates.

I don't disagree. I am also fearful that this was inevitable (and really started in presidential races with Clinton, with roots in the '60s counter-culture that has now become our modern anti-culture).

If you are a Carlist in Spain and the Anarchists and Communists are destroying your country, Franco starts looking pretty good even if he isn't your first choice.

There has been a long brewing need to purge the Republican Party of its plutocrats, and bring in a lot of decent folks who have bought into the Democrat Party on the vapors of past generations.

Our bigger fight is for the culture itself, but the political fight is part of that, too.