Also worth adding is that the rise of &quot;outsider&quot; presidential candidates who gain large momentum (as the author mentions Trump and Sanders) has in fact been a staple of U.S. politics and seems to occur in intervals once every 12-20 years.<p>Starting from the contemporary Republican-Democratic dichotomy, you had Henry A. Wallace of the Progressive Party gaining 2.4% (1.1+ million) in 1948, George Wallace of the American Independent Party getting 13.5% in 1968, John B. Anderson as an ex-Republican independent with 6.6% in in 1980 and finally, of course, Ross Perot in 1992 and 1996.<p>(Eugene V. Debs was also an absolute sensation in the early 20th century. His imprisonment for sedition led to riots and he got 6% of the vote as a socialist in 1920 <i>while in prison</i>. Warren G. Harding commuted his sentence in 1921.)<p>Thus, Trump is in fact nothing new or all that interesting as far as U.S. politics goes. He&#x27;s just in time. It had been 19 years since Ross Perot&#x27;s last candidacy. I don&#x27;t expect anything consequential to occur out of either Trump or Sanders.