Here's the biggest reason establishment Republicans are freaking out right now over Trump—it's not just that he leads
every national poll, it's that he cuts into
every GOP demographic group.
He leads Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, a hero to fiscal conservatives, among Tea Party supporters, 26 percent to 13 percent, according to averages of the last nine national polls. He leads former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, a former preacher, among evangelicals, 21 percent to 12 percent. And he is ahead of Mr. Bush, the former Florida governor and a favorite of mainstream donors, among moderate Republicans, 22 percent to 16 percent.
Of course, his support among these voters defies reason—he's not a fiscal conservative (as Jeb! has
breathlessly tried to point out), he's not a Bible-thumping Christian (as his
multiple marriages suggest), and he's certainly no moderate (pick your favorite statement, any statement). As the
New York Times writes:
Trumpism, the data and interviews suggest, is an attitude, not an ideology.
That means that a party that has grown increasingly dependent on starving its voters of real facts in order to stoke emotions like fear and anger, has no way of stopping Trump. He's purely an emotion-based candidate and pointing out that his policies have
a hundred billion-dollar price tag or
no basis in fact or
no actual way of being implemented is useless.
The GOP built that.