The Democrats' greatest secret weapon

I give up. In the style of Stephen Colbert, I’m eating an Oreo. It’s just too irresistible.

Since announcing his candidacy for president, Donald Trump has captured the hearts of the Republican base, the envy of the media and the attention of literally everyone else. Though he usually regurgitates the same platitudes in every public appearance and television interview, the Donald seconds as a ticking time bomb, always at the brink of saying something just crazy enough to dominate political dialogue for the next week. Each time he makes headlines, pundits forecast the end of what has been an unexpectedly successful campaign, one fraught with hotheaded bluntness, party infighting and what must have been a hefty amount of hairspray.

Yet now that Trump has dominated the Republican polls for two and a half months — leading former frontrunner Jeb Bush by double digits in the five most recent ones — the pundits might be wise to reconsider. After all, if Trump has taught the American people anything, it is that he knows how to play the game. He has written a bestselling book and hosted a records-breaking reality game show. Why couldn’t he win an election? In a privileged irony, Trump’s excessive wealth (roughly $4 billion, if you don’t consider his name to have an intrinsic value of the same amount) is exactly what allows him to promise a political fairyland devoid of moneyed governance and corporate puppeteering.

Straight talk, considered political recklessness to almost every other candidate in the race, is the Donald’s greatest weapon. Much like surging Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders, Trump offers Americans an authentic choice for president rather than one shaped by wealthy donors or censored by the establishment in D.C. This rhetoric is powerful and easily understandable to even the most uninformed. Every time Trump lets loose, his comments are forgiven, at least according to polling figures. Following his claim that the Mexican government sends rapists and criminals over the border, his favorability rating among Hispanics shot up to 34 percent. In the wake of his questioning Senator John McCain’s status as a war hero, support swelled, even among veterans. After implying that Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly treated him unfairly during the first primary debate because of her menstrual cycle, his approval among women remained constant.

These unshaken trends may seem shocking at first, but they reflect a vocal minority of the Republican Party, so frustrated with the state of American politics that even an offensive candidate is preferable to a robotic one. Perhaps contrary to popular perception, Trump leads among all types of voters, not just the most conservative, and if derogatory comments about immigrants, veterans and women do not lower this lead among voters — even among those voters who identify within these groups — then pundits fool themselves when they envision the Donald as a candidate atop an unstable mountain.

Suggesting that Trump lacks any chance of becoming the Republican nominee indicates a lack of awareness about how best to win the primary election game. With 17 candidates in the race so far, any given candidate could clench the nomination without the support of the majority of voters. Simply winning a higher share of the vote than any other candidate is enough to gain all of the delegates in most states. In 2012, the first four states in the Republican primary were each won by candidates without majorities of the vote; eventual nominee Mitt Romney won the fifth state with 50 percent of the vote but only after three other candidates dropped out of the race. Across the board, Trump would defeat any of his competitors and secure a majority of the available delegates if the elections were held today.

Of course, because of diminishing stockpiles of campaign cash, underperforming candidates drop out of the race as more and more states are decided. As candidates end their campaign journeys, the need to earn a greater share of the vote necessarily increases. This is the Donald’s greatest strength: while his voters seem committed for the long haul, his ability to attract new voters likely shrinks every time he opens his verbally explosive mouth. Luckily for him and his loyal voters, the pool of Republican candidates is larger than it has been in a hundred years, signifying that the likelihood of the field being narrowed down to just a few candidates after the first four states have their elections is fairly low.

When I tell my friends that I am pulling for a Trump victory in the primary, I am only partially joking. As a moderate, Trump’s anti-establishment rhetoric appeals to me; I genuinely believe that he could shake Washington up. As a Democrat, his dismal chances of winning a majority of the national vote excites me even more. Not since Barack Obama’s rise in politics has the Democratic Party been handed such a gift. Let us make the most of it. My fellow Dukies: let’s make America great again! Push Trump through the primaries, and secure a Democratic White House for at least four more years!