Must-Read: In my view, this understates it. Not only have Republican voters been primed for a generation to vote for an entertainer candidate, but the governing institution on the Republican side welcomes such a candidate--as long as he can be managed, and does not for an instant imagine that he has anything to do with setting policy or governing the country: Cf.: Dan Quayle and William Kristol...
Jonathan Bernstein: [Why Republicans Are Suckers for Trumpism - Bloomberg View][]:
Republican voters really are distinct... repeatedly easier marks for people who have no business getting anywhere near the Oval Office....
Republican voters have been educated by their opinion leaders that magical solutions are worth pursuing: Defeat the Soviet Union by exposing traitors in government! Cut taxes to raise revenues! Build a wall to solve immigration! Democratic politicians, on the whole, have been less likely to go down that path, or to demonize a group of outsiders as the source of all troubles. Inexperience may also appeal to conservatives for other reasons: If you want less government, you may be less inclined to respect government experience....
Some of the conservative fascination with unready candidates may stem from a misunderstanding of Ronald Reagan, the only president conservatives truly seem to like.... Finally, there is the ugly part of the equation: A Republican tradition of demagoguery stretching from Joseph McCarthy to Richard Nixon, Spiro Agnew, Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin and Ted Cruz. In their own ways, each has taught Republican voters to ignore experts, trust in easy answers and believe that the normal frustrations of politics (and geopolitics) are the product of villains, collaborators and fellow travelers. Likewise, each made the case to Republican voters that the news media is a den of biased liars. (The lesson is so ingrained that Trump was able to use the charge even against the conservative Fox News.) And, of course, they succeeded in convincing many Republican voters that any conservative politician who engages in the norms of democratic compromise is a traitor to the cause....
[All that] has made Trump more likely by reinforcing the desire for superheroes instead of suppressing it