Issue by issue, with outrageous bluster here and disdainful put-down there, Donald Trump threatens, singlehandedly, to drag the Republican primary campaign into relevance, and what has passed for political debate since the 2012 election into reality.  Trump slams officeholders, party officials, and media figures as “losers,” “pathetic,” “ridiculous,” and “terrible.”  When he lights on an issue like trade negotiations, veterans’ care, or border security and the baleful effects of illegal immigration, this street fighter twists the knife brutally, eliciting horrific screams from all quarters, rather than delivering the clinical thrust of the survey-tested attack we have come to expect.  Trump clomps through the minuet of a TV interview.  He just does not understand the choreography of politics or international diplomacy.  He punches his opponents in the nose while they wait for an opportunity to trip him surreptitiously.  While they wait, Trump’s outsized ego shrugs off lame efforts at conventional media-shunning and Twitter-shaming.  He’s out there talking, talking, talking.

Trump’s detractors in the media and the bipartisan political class declare he has no chance whatsoever of being the Republican candidate, and yet they feel compelled to destroy him personally and drive him from the race.  But if the first is true, why do they bother?  Why not just ignore him, and besides, isn’t he nothing but an embarrassment to Republicans?  No, while they do not fear Trump becoming the candidate, these savvy elites very much fear that Trump’s unique capacity to attract universal attention to what he says and does – screaming tabloid headline attention – will allow him an inordinate role in setting the primary and maybe even general election agenda.  Trump has already rudely plumped down on the table issue formulations that were hitherto deemed unacceptable, and as long as he persists in the race, he will continue to do so.  Political statistics guru Nate Silver seems to recognize, though disdain, Trump’s capacity to force skittish candidates to stray from the comfortable limits of their consultant-designed reservations.  He describes Trump as “the world’s greatest troll” whose objective is “to provoke a reaction by any means necessary. Trolls thrive in communities that are open and democratic (they wouldn’t be invited into a discussion otherwise) and which operate in presumed good faith (there need to be some standards of decorum to offend). Presidential nomination contests are highly susceptible to trolling, therefore. Access is fairly open: There’s no longer much of a filter between the campaigns, the media, and the public. And it’s comically easy to provoke a reaction.”

Trump is a rich and clever egoist who thinks his success relieves him of the necessity of listening to anyone’s advice.  He will talk about what he wants to talk about, ridicule whom he wants to ridicule, all guided by his remarkable marketing instincts.  By doing so, Trump opens up opportunities for the more creative conventional candidates to exploit, while leaving the rest to tut-tut over the latest gaucherie and reiterate their 43-point plan.  Trump’s pronouncements threaten to divert the campaign discourse from the predictable, antiseptic, and process-dominated issue formulations couched in the ruling class argot that consultants enforce, towards what actually matters to Republican voters, with terrible policies and awful politicians discussed in the vernacular.  Look for the candidate who takes the risk and jumps into that “biggest, most fabulous most luxurious” pool The Donald is opening.  If he or she is any good at it, Republicans may find that they have something other than a “pathetic loser” this time around.