On a similar note, Trump continues to fascinate me. He appears to be running out of steam a little, but still is clinging to the lead Leaving aside the personal complaints against Trump, what fascinates me is the demographics he has managed to capture. He is getting the white, more moderate(ish), secular, lesser(ish) educated part of the population. He has captured something from a segment of the population that is large, but that is not at all represented by either political party and is generally ignored by elites (including political, media, business, religious, etc). There is news that the death rate of middle class white males is increasing, contra every other demographic and every other advanced country. This is representative, in my mind, of a certain despair in that group. They are getting squeezed out of the labor market (either lack skills for jobs available or the low skilled jobs don't pay enough to support a family) and it is manifested further in low marriage rates, high divorce rates, poor health metrics, declining church attendance (representing cutting off social organizations), increasing debt, minimal savings, and many of the other bad indicators that aren't being noticed by college educated people in our country. Can either party offer anything to this demographic? Do they even care? In my mind this is the biggest political and social question facing our country, and there is nothing really being offered. Makes "extremist" candidates that much more attractive.