A lot has been made by the so called experts about Trump's numbers. They say that, despite having received the most votes in US primary history, still more people voted for someone else than voted for him. While that may be true, the pundits have drawn erroneous conclusions. They somehow equate that to a vote against Trump rather than simply an indication of another preference. They make the assumption that, for all those other voters, Trump couldn't possibly be their 2nd or 3rd choice. Their own biases made them interpret this to mean that if he wasn't their first choice, he was automatically their last choice. This is very poor analysis indeed. Further, these same experts told us after each Trump primary or caucus win that based on his rate of picking up delegates, he would never reach the 1237 needed to secure the nomination. Again, poor analysis. As the number of choices decreased, the rate at which "The Donald" picked up delegates increased. To make matters worse, the pundits' faulty logic is being used to try to convince Republican voters that Trump will never be able to beat Hillary Clinton in the general election. Funny how the vigorous challenge mounted against Hillary by Bernie Sanders is never seen as an indication of her unpopularity or that she may have trouble in November.
The Trump and Sanders insurgent candidacies reflect or perhaps have even caused a "Sea Change" in American politics. The establishment types in both the Republican and Democrat parties either fail to recognize this shift or are choosing to ignore it. Keeping all this in mind, it seems highly unlikely that Republican voters who didn't get their first choice in their party's nominee would not only cast their ballot for the other party's candidate but also vote for someone who is ideologically 180 degrees out of phase with them. Likewise, I don't see disappointed Bernie supporters voting for his antithesis, Hillary Clinton. In this election, I predict the anti-establishment fervor will "Trump" all. Pun intended.
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