"The reasons behind Trump's rise" https://t.co/jkjTuhHQ01 pic.twitter.com/s62a9Wvm8p
— The Hill (@thehill) March 18, 2016
Many voters, Democrats and Republicans alike, feel abandoned by their respective parties. As it relates to the GOP in particular, many see the party elites as manipulators, willing to discredit anyone who attempts to critique them. From some voters' perspective, no sufficient efforts have been made to assess those individuals critically; at least, not until Trump came along. And to no surprise, the establishment is vehemently resisting Trump's presence.
Trump deems it his duty to correct a system perceived as flawed. He says that it is critical for America do things differently in order to be "great again." Trump claims that the political class is beholden to special interests and lobbyists, and in part, he is correct. As Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page noted in the journal "Perspective on Politics" in 2014, the influence of ordinary registered voters is "minuscule, near-zero, and non-significant." To his supporters, Trump has made it his incumbent duty as a leader to dwell upon and critique the political class, which is exactly what those voters want. He has positioned himself as a necessary product that the consumer — the voter — must have in order to feel complete.
Anger is not enough to explain the disillusionment voters feel toward the party establishment and its abandonment of conservatism. It is more than that; it is pain, it is disappointment, and those feelings are far deeper than the surface may reveal.
