With the most under-qualified and racist candidate, Donald Trump, in a substantial lead in the Republican primary polls, the establishment Republicans are probably wishing that there was a college education requirement to vote in the primary. Ironically this would keep out certain white voters. The majority of Donald Trump’s supporters are white and uneducated, and this demographic tends to have the most negative views on immigration. In an era of globalization, it is understandable for white lower-class people to feel victimized by the system that seems to be corroding away American prosperity and dominance and feel resentment toward the establishment politicians. Nevertheless, the dynamics of the GOP primary are shaping out to have a disastrous candidate nominated due to the unilateral support of the uneducated white Republican voting sect.
Donald Trump has built a great company and is a great businessman, so I suspect Trump is not completely the ignorant and clueless person that his persona as a candidate exhibits. He most likely realized a trend from the 2012 election, deemed “the diploma divide.” According to the American Community Survey, Mitt Romney won the nomination due to the united backing of educated Republican voters and the split of uneducated Republican voters between Gingrich and Santorum. If Gingrich or Santorum dropped out and endorsed the other, Romney could have been defeated. The setup for Trump in 2016 was perfect; many establishment candidates that appealed to college educated voters like Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, and Rand Paul would split up the educated Republican vote.
Trump’s harsh xenophobic and fear-mongering tactics has therefore united the white, less educated Republicans to give him a commanding lead in the polls.
Trump is the quintessential American big businessman: he is out to win everything he does. Trump is merely playing the winning strategy to win by appealing to the people who believe that “building a wall” and “banning all Muslims from entering the U.S.” (both of which are the main selling points in Trump’s recent campaign ads) are the solutions to America’s so called “problems.” Many are baffled about how Trump is getting all his strong support, but it easy to pinpoint that it is from the people who tend to feel down on their luck and cheated out of a chance to have a prosperous American life. In addition, voters are becoming more averse to the political elite who only seem to be puppets of special interests. People who feel like they are not winning personally can be excited about someone who promises to be a “winning” leader and make the country great and “win” again.
The establishment Republicans need to understand that they need to do everything in their power to defeat Trump. His policy suggestions are highly damaging to the Republican brand, which will not be electable unless it appeals to people beyond the white demographic. Having the Republican nominee who calls Mexicans “rapists” and “criminals” is only going to have the opposite effect. In order to defeat Trump, most of the field needs to drop out and endorse a candidate to gain the united support of the college educated Republicans. Unfortunately for now, it looks like the GOP is stuck in a Prisoner’s Dilemma, and Trump is merely taking advantage of the candidates’ destructive self-interests.