Brash Trump resonates with voters

American politics has never failed to provide us with quality entertainment, especially when election season rolls around.

Our favourite comedians usually entertain us with parodies and exaggerated takes on the wild extravaganza that is the presidential race.

What we are not as used to is the pure entertainment coming from the candidates themselves. Sure, we get a ludicrous remark here and there from political figures, but those are often followed by a series of apologies and justifications.

This year we are treated to entertainment in its purest form as Mr. Apprentice himself, Donald Trump, runs to be the representative of the Republican Party in the upcoming 2016 election.

When he says things like he’s going to build a “great wall” at the American border to keep out Mexicans because “they’re rapists,” you can’t help but turn your head. Note, that he did add, “some, I assume are good people.” Nice save, Trump.

But is that all Trump is: a head turner? An entertainer? Or is there a quantifiable impact that he will have on this upcoming election? The resounding answer to that is yes.

Love him or hate him, Trump is garnering lots of attention. Yes, his ideas are almost as ridiculous as his hair, but a recent poll shows him at 23 per cent of the republican vote. Yes, it’s early and people probably haven’t really sat down to think about what the implications of a Trump government are. But the fact of the matter is a quarter of the party has Trump on their mind, and that’s not nothing.

Even if five per cent choose to act on that impulse, Trump is taking away from his Republican counterparts, and that five per cent could shift the landscape of the final tally dramatically. Even the Democrats can’t rest easy.

Trump has mentioned that he would run as a third party candidate if the Republicans don’t support him. This means he would take away votes from both the parties in the actual election.

So we’ve established that above being an entertainer, Trump is also a useful stat in the upcoming election. But is he anything more? What do those 23 per cent see in him, and is it something that could lead him all the way to the White House?

I think they see honesty, even when it’s in the form of flat out stupidity, Americans are still seeing a trait they haven’t seen in a political figure possibly ever; pure, brutal honesty.

Not only is that trait refreshing to the American people, it’s also exciting. It’s the same reason we constantly have our eyes on people like Kanye West and Kim Kardashian. You never know what they are going to do next, for better or for worse.

People will tune in to see Trump. Whether you see him as a visionary or a trainwreck, you’ll still watch. It’s the same reason people poke their heads out when you see an accident on the side of the road: shock and entertainment value.

Besides his flair for the dramatic, I believe there is another depressingly true reason why Trump seems to be atop the polls. As Trump puts it, his counterparts are “a bunch of losers.”

He is attempting to show the American people that that those running for the Republican nod are a sad excuse for viable candidates themselves. Not-so-surprisingly, it’s looking like he’s succeeding.

He’s a rich, loudmouth, radical candidate who’s not trying to make any friends out there. But at least he’s giving America something to think about. His transparency is exposing how opaque politicians of today truly are. His bluntness makes us realize how often our leaders tip toe around questions. His lack of empathy makes us realize how much public opinion affects what would have been or should have been said.

Donald Trump is a whole new brand of politician; whether that’s a good thing or not is yet to be seen.