Or are they just buying into the paradigm of show business in our public discourse that Postman critiques?
I tend to think that Trump appeals to voters who are not serious enough to engage in political discourse.
I know, I know, because of Trump's vast wealth, other Republican candidates should rightly fear that he might bolt from the Republican Party and run as an independent candidate for president, which would undoubtedly hurt the Republican Party's presidential candidate regardless of who turns out to be that candidate.
Moreover, if Trump were to run as an independent candidate, he would undoubtedly indulge his typical vituperation against the candidates of the two major parties. In that case, the news media would be required to report his vituperation.
Over at the website of THE NEW REPUBLIC , the young Canadian journalist Jeet Heer, a Trump fan, has published a piece titled "Donald Trump, Epic Hero" (dated Aug. 17, 2015):
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/122559/donald-trump-epic-hero
Heer correctly notes that ancient epics typically feature heroes who engage in boasting about themselves and insulting their opponents -- as Trump does. To be accurate, I should point out that Trump insults more people than just his opponents for the Republican Party's presidential nomination. He's a multi-directional insulter.
But Heer fails to note that in Western culture the ancient epic spirit eventually waned, giving way to the rise of mock-epic poetry and the anti-hero.
In short, Trump's typical vituperation represents a cultural regression to ancient epic models -- and then some.
Now, in his famous treatise on civic rhetoric, Aristotle notes that the civic orator uses three appeals: (1) logos, (2) ethos, and (3) pathos.
For his logos appeal, Trump claims to be a Republican. Whatever this may mean, it is his primary appeal to the Republican Party to make him the Republican presidential candidate.
For his ethos appeal, Trumps boasts of his business successes and his vast wealth.
For his pathos appeal, Trump relies on his multi-directional expressions of anger.
Now, before the economic crisis emerged as an issue in the 2008 presidential campaign, Senator Barack Obama appeared to be on a roll telling prospective voters all the things he proposed to do as president. But then the economic crisis emerged. As a result of the economic crisis, and as a result of Republican obstructionism in Congress, President Obama did not do all the things that he had proposed doing in the presidential campaign earlier.
But in the earlier part of his campaign, his prospective supporters undoubtedly thrilled at his aspirational proposals. They were heady stuff for progressives and liberals to listen to. So candidate Obama thrilled would-be supporters. That was his pathos appeal.
Both Democratic and Republican presidential candidates who can use a pathos appeal effectively will often attract supporters.
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