To my ears, Ezra Klein has the best reasoning for Donald Trump's appeal. Unfortunately it's also a sad byproduct of the Citizens United decision and how money plays in politics now.
John Dickerson observed that most of Trump's voters think the system is rigged against them.
Klein recalled a line from the counter-rally on Thursday that, in his view, encapsulates the reason for such a strange base of support.
"[Trump] says, 'I am really greedy person. I've been greedy all my life and now I want to be greedy on behalf of America,'" Klein observed.
He continued, "There's something perfect about that encapsulation of his appeal, because if you think what's going on is that the economy has become unfair, you're struggling, and you think what's been happening is that rich guys like Trump are going to screw you over and have been for some time, now here comes one of those rich guys with all that power and all that capacity to rig that in their favor, and he's promising to rig that in your favor?"
As Klein observed, it really is a stunning indictment of what people think about our politics right now -- that they need someone to rig it in their favor.
If you're like me, right about now you're wondering why those Trump voters aren't Bernie Sanders supporters if the economy and the job picture isn't going their way. I think there are two pretty simple answers to that. Sanders isn't a racist, and he isn't a hater.
I do think Ezra is right about this "He's MY billionaire" thinking. It's something I observed on a podcast back in August, when he was just rising. Donald Trump is making it okay to be a billionaire, because he's promising to be a billionaire for the little guy.
Let that sink in for a minute.
