IOW, Trump has his 30% or so who would support him even if he shot people in the middle of the street, but the vast majority of Republicans who do NOT want Trump are split among all the remaining candidates. When the herd thins, where will those people gravitate toward? Probably not Trump.
“The herd needs to thin,”
You’re darn right it does!
Otherwise they’re giving a helping hand to Trump.
If voters don’t want Trump, they should read the tea leaves and put their support behind Cruz now.
We’ll certainly see how this all plays out.
But again, I feel like I do KNOW this.
1. Trump has divided the base.
2. He has probably alienated a fair number of supporters of
other candidates who have, or had, considerable support
themselves, like Carson’s base and Cruz’s base. But oddly
enough, I don’t recall him being THAT hard on Rubio. On Jeb? I guess it depends on whether you consider it harsh to
almost pity him for being “low energy”.
But I am sure there will be Carson people and Cruz people
who will want nothing to do with Trump if he’s the nominee. Perhaps a number of them will still hold their nose. Perhaps a number of them will stay home.
Trump indeed has his own “personality” problems. I recall the Quinnipiac poll in which 50% of respondents said they would be “embarrassed” by a Trump presidency. I recall polls showing similar numbers of Republicans who said they would never vote for him. I believe the New Hampshire numbers showed a significant number of state Republicans who said they would never vote for him.
He can change that, but his mouth is his problem. He is a fighter. No one can deny that. But he also, with what comes out of his mouth IS the dream candidate of every media member and Democrat who thinks today’s republican is nothing but a racist, misogynistic, bigoted, hateful individual.
I don’t like Trump as a candidate. I don’t think he’s the greatest person in the world. But I don’t think he’s any of those things I mentioned based on what he’s said and probably will say in the future.
But I’m pretty sure a significant number of voters DO think that- or can be easily convinced of it. And when you actually have neo Nazis supporting him (not necessarily his fault, but it is what it is and his take no prisoners talk attracts those types at times), it will only reinforce that for those folks.
We’ll see how it plays out, naturally.