Vehicle, baby

I'm a friendly stranger in a black sedan
Won't you hop inside my car.
I got pictures, got candy
I'm a lovable man
And I can take you to the nearest star

The Donald remains the belle of the ball, at least among certain noisy portions of the GOP electorate. He's resonating because a lot of people have voted for Republican candidates in recent years, only to see them go along with the Democrats once they get to Washington. The anger is palpable and, in large measure, it's justified. Take it away, Glenn Reynolds:

The rise — and, for that matter, the fall, if fall it is — of Trump is an indictment of the GOP establishment and, for that matter, of the American political establishment in general. And that failure bodes poorly for the future, regardless of what happens to Trump.

Trump’s rise is, like that of his Democratic counterpart Bernie Sanders, a sign that a large number of voters don’t feel represented by more mainstream politicians. On many issues, ranging from immigration reform, which many critics view as tantamount to open borders, to bailouts for bankers, the Republican and Democratic establishments agree, while a large number (quite possibly a majority) of Americans across the political spectrum feel otherwise. But when no “respectable” figure will push these views, then less-respectable figures such as Trump or Sanders (a lifelong socialist who once wrote that women dream of gang rape, and that cervical cancer results from too few orgasms) will arise to fill the need.

I'm your vehicle baby
I'll take you anywhere you wanna go.

If you doubt the anger in the air, just check out some of the comments on righty blogs. There are, as I write this, nearly 900 comments on this anti-Trump post on Hot Air. Here is a representative sample:

Is he or isn’t he [a conservative]? At this point, I don’t care.
He not just pulled back the curtain covering the GOPe, he has ripped it down. (And, no, I am not making a Messianic figure out of him.)
I do not trust Trump. Most of us do not. We are not blind.
But for now, schadenfreude.

The term "GOPe" means, roughly, GOP establishment. That would be John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, John McCain, like that. But it also means George Will, the editors of the Weekly Standard, and lately the assorted pundits of Fox News. They all have their sinecures and it's a pleasant enough life for them. The sense I get is the base is tired of being patted on the head like a Cocker Spaniel while the self-styled adults in the big room get down to bidness. The anger is real and, in the main, justified.

Well if you want to be a movie star
I'll get a ticket to Hollywood.
But if you want to stay just the way you are
You know I think you really should.

Never mind if it's all contradictory. Never mind that populism always seems to fall short, as William Jennings Bryan demonstrated repeatedly. We're always looking for the Great Man to solve our problems. But we don't want to change; we don't see a need to change. But that's another post.