Briefly, Trump is trying to appeal to the cultural conservatives, and he's not going for the libertarians, Koch-wing, or neocons. Nor is he trying to figure out actual policy (so he's not trying for the hundred or so policy wonks either).
My interpretation (which is not original but in the general American miasma), is that Trump is aiming for the Archie Bunker vote. He says exactly what Archie Bunker wants to hear.
Now, Archie Bunker isn't known as a deep thinker or insightful critic, so it's not hard to pass a bunch of bunk through Archie Bunker's ears. Talk radio hosts have been doing that for decades. However, it took a 21st century version of PT Barnum to do it as a presidential candidate.
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Original Archie Bunker, not to softened and reformed and more accepting Archie Bunker after living with a Polish son-in-law and next to the Jeffersons. But the feelings and biases are always there and while we laughed at him in the 70s, his ilk never completely disappeared and a new generation of people basically came to the same conclusions as Archie did (on race relations, misogyny and entitlement), along with am awareness that overt racism went against their interests to survive in a multi-cultural country.
I'd point to the episode where Archie is invited to join the "Queen's Council of Crusaders", and he accept the invitation with enthusiasm, until he realizes it's actually "Kween's Kouncil of Krusaders", hoods and all. He quickly backs away politely saying it's not for him (while basically acknowledging he understands and accepts their point of view). He recognizes that it's better to hold the hate and disgust in your heart and use other means to remain superior, than to show all your cards. Trump's reaction to the KKK is similar. If he admonishes too strongly he alienates the feelings held by many of his supporters.
This is the same reason that Phyllis Schlafly endorsed Trump although Ted Cruz has views much closer to her doctrines of decades, as Rachel Maddow featured the other day. To many people, the greatest threat to their world view are the "others" in their midst, and Trump basically promises to put them or keep them in their place.
@dangerous, I don't understand your last paragraph. Why did Schlafly endorse Trump? Was Cruz too cryptic in his white supremacy message? Or do you mean something else?
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