Come November, Trump May Be Gone, But What Happens To His Loyalists?

It is becoming more apparent by the day, Donald Trump will not be the 45^th president of the United States. How can I be so sure? The easy answer is to just look at the electoral map. Trump currently trails Clinton in all 11 states identified by pollsters as Electoral College battlegrounds. A few of those states, such as Virginia and Colorado, already seem beyond Trump’s reach.

But beyond the brutal reality of the electoral map, which points more and more to a Clinton landslide, Trump will not be our nation’s next commander in chief because he does not want the job. Since securing his party’s nomination, Trump has shown no desire to build the type of coalition needed to win a general election.

Whether consciously or not, Trump is doing an excellent job at self-sabotage. He is stuck in permanent primary campaign mode. By appealing to a base of angry white, working class males, Trump just continues to preach to the choir.

But what happens to Trump’s loyal band of mostly lower-middle class white voters from the Rust Belt and South once he is gone? Where will all that highly combustible anger and fear we’ve seen on the nightly news, and at Trump rallies, go once the base is left without a viable political outlet?

A true political leader would take his army of dedicated disciples and continue to lead the movement.

Donald Trump is not a political leader.

This year’s Republican presidential candidate is nothing more than a two-bit con man, the P.T. Barnum of 21st century American politics; a gifted impresario able to spot a sucker a mile away.

Trump, at the most generous best, is a mediocre political agnostic. He has no core political philosophy or set of beliefs. The art of discussing, or crafting, policy is neither his forte, nor his passion.

Following what will most certainly be a humiliating loss in November, Trump will abandon his loyal followers and go back to a life of ease, luxury and golf. He’s more Gordon Gekko than Che Guevera.

Perhaps a new leader for this large group of angry, white disaffected voters will emerge? Perhaps a new political party will be formed to organize this posse?

The fear is that, like some “Bernie or Bust” supporters who turned against their leader, calling him a fake and a fraud once he endorsed his former opponent, Trump’s well-armed “Second Amendment” stalwarts may turn into an unregulated militia that won’t take lightly being deceived once again.

Photo | politicususa.com