Why Donald Trump is winning the Republican nomination now?
It's a combination of two factors: 1) Everybody underestimated him 2) His enormous appeal to the Republican BASE (not the Tea Party crazies)1. UnderestimationWhen he first came into the race people just thought of him as a circus show. They thought he was just a buffoon out to get more ratings for his TV show (which was the initial plan actually: How Trump did it). They didn't take him seriously as a candidate. The GOP establishment and others thought they'd see this act before with candidates like Michelle Bachmann and this sudden Trump fever at the start of the election would run it's course. They were wrong, and they are going to pay for it because Donald Trump has so much momentum right now that I doubt Rubio, Cruz, or Kasich are going to catch up. According to the Rolling Stone, every Republican who has won the New Hamphire and South Carolina primaries has gone on the win the nomination. If the GOP had the wisdom to rally behind a single candidate early, they may have been able to beat Trump. They let months go by where Trump was the only candidate getting major media attention, and with most Republicans (well most Americans really) being low-information voters, what they hell did they think would happen?2. Appeal Donald Trump is winning because he has his finger squarely on the pulse of what the MODERATE Republican base wants. See a lot of people, particularly my more naive liberal friends, think Trump is appealing to the super-conservative religious nuts in the Republican party. They are dead wrong. For America's religious extremists, Ted Cruz is the candidate of choice. Trump's base are actually the moderate, working class Republicans. They're the type of guys (and gals) who would typically vote for Jeb Bush. They think Trump is their politically incorrect messiah, here to free them from the endless torrent of cookie-cutter politicians they've had to deal with since Reagan. His tasteless remarks, his boorish attitude, his ridiculous "build a wall and make Mexico pay for it" promises, everything liberals like me hate about him, THEY LOVE IT. It's a real Bandwagon effect, once you get on the Trump train, there is no getting off.