Frank Luntz and the establishment Republicans are still in a tailspin over the immense support the Republican party base is giving Donald Trump. Luntz conducted another focus group and came away with a Chris Matthews-type reaction after it ended.
At the end of the session, the vast majority said they liked Trump more than when they walked in.
“You guys understand how significant this is?” Luntz asked the press breathlessly when he came back into the room behind the glass. “This is real. I’m having trouble processing it. Like, my legs are shaking.”
The Beltway media and the Grand Poobahs of the GOP do not want to come to grips over the monster they created when they welcomed the right-wing fringe into their party to stymie President Obama. It's not rocket science. These same people helped topple President Bush's attempt at immigration reform, and that's before they formed the Tea party.
I've been saying for some time that the issue matrix Republican voters care about right now is national security, immigration and American Exceptionalism. Trump is delivering nationalism, nativism and chauvinism in response and they like it. The Republicans have long been pointing them away from the real reasons for the loss of their status and their economic insecurity by scapegoating foreigners, liberals, African Americans, immigrants etc. The Donald synthesizes all of it into someone who has come out on top. He's a winner.
Time Magazine has the goods: Pollster’s Legs Wobble After Fawning Donald Trump Focus Group
Luntz conducted a focus group of 29 people from Washington, D.C. and its suburbs that either like or adore the GOP front-runner, paying each participant for the more than two-hour session Monday night, the magazine reported.
“I used to sleep on my front porch with the door wide open, and now everyone has deadbolts,” one man said during the session, according to TIME. “I believe the best days of the country are behind us.”
“I’m frustrated beyond belief. I feel like I’ve been lied to,” a woman said. “Nothing’s getting better.”
“We know his goal is to make America great again,” another woman said. “It’s on his hat. And we see it every time it’s on TV. Everything that he’s doing, there’s no doubt why he’s doing it: it’s to make America great again.”
After the group watched recordings of Trump's political flip flops and remarks on women, the individuals reportedly said they liked Trump even more.
“You guys understand how significant this is?” Luntz asked reporters, according to TIME. “This is real. I’m having trouble processing it. Like, my legs are shaking.”
“I want to put the Republican leadership behind this mirror and let them see. They need to wake up. They don’t realize how the grassroots have abandoned them,” Luntz continued. “Donald Trump is punishment to a Republican elite that wasn’t listening to their grassroots.”
[...] TIME reported that most people in the room Monday night are angry about national security, including the nation's porous southern border with Mexico, and complained about the U.S. falling behind in the world.
People in the room also panned Congress. But when asked to describe Trump, they used words such as "tough," "successful," "has guts" and "kicks ass and takes names.
