what's he doing? his appeal was that he was out of the paradigm. but as time has gone on, he's just picked up talking point after talking point. and, he's starting to sound like every other republican.
if you line up bush and trump so they agree on every point, bush clobbers him. there's not a person in the world that votes for trump over bush, unless he's presenting some policy differences. bush is a safe bet - well, i'm saying that very carefully; from a republican voter perspective, he's a safe bet, anyways. trump is a massive gamble. and, he knows that, too.
this is how trump loses the primary - he loses his policy edge. he starts to fade in. then, he's not competitive.
slashing taxes and spending doesn't eliminate the comparative labour advantage that asia has over the united states in attracting producers, and it doesn't reverse the technology of automation. it's just a continuation of the same policies that have created the problem. it's the status quo.
he doesn't get back on message, and he's going to get destroyed.
listen: his immigration policy sounds deplorable, but he's just being honest in saying things that all of the other republicans (and most democrats) are thinking. i'm reminded of a policy paper in 1969 that the liberals in canada produced on aboriginal policy. for the first time, it explicitly cemented an assimilation policy and put the issue up for debate as to what the fairest and most just way to accomplish that assimilation policy was going to be. see, it recognized that it's past assimilation policies were often ham-fisted and repressive, but it concluded that it was (then, more than ever) the only rational way forwards and that it needed public input. there was massive uproar. but, the reality is that the government of canada had spent the previous 200 years operating a stealth assimilation policy. it wasn't a change of direction, it was just the government being honest about it for once and trying to open it up in the sake of fairness and transparency. in response to the uproar, they withdrew the paper and went back to pushing assimilation by stealth; in fact, the sneaky policies got even worse (with the eventual introduction of a blood quantum rule meant to abolish the definition of aboriginal within a few generations).
the truth is that america has a choice between carrying out a repressive, racist border policy in practice and not talking about it, and addressing it in the open so that it can be modified in ways that are more fair. and, trump was really moving in the right direction on it, relative to where this party has stood in the past.
there's been these other glimmers of hope that he's willing to take a fair, if autocratic, hand. see, this guy is a tyrant. sure. but he comes off as a sort of a fair tyrant. and, decades of slashes in education have perhaps left that as the best short term option in america - imperfect, but we may have to be realistic.
i'm not endorsing this guy. i don't like him. but, in a roundabout way, he was doing what needed to be done - before the party snapped him into line. now, he's just getting boring.