&gt; This sort of analysis is helpful and needed.<p>It&#x27;s just more noise. It&#x27;s one reporter&#x27;s take on current events. There&#x27;s no attention given to history, or even a reasoned take on the economics involved. It&#x27;s pure narrative, a bunch of facts strung together with nothing tying them together but opinion.<p>What we&#x27;re seeing is another evolution in the media-driven political cycle. Political candidacy has changed immensely in the last few years. Social media turned out to be way more politically useful than anybody ever thought it would. So candidates that use it effectively are going to be able to manipulate the news cycle more.<p>It doesn&#x27;t give them an overwhelming advantage over the traditional power base, but they have been caught flat-footed.<p>That Americans are currently receptive to populist platforms shouldn&#x27;t be surprising. We&#x27;re still in the primary phase, and primaries are conducted in rural areas where the most provincial Americans live. The messaging needs to be kept simple.<p>Once the primaries are over, the nominees are going to move to the center for the real race. Happens in every single presidential election. We&#x27;re just paying more and more attention to it these day. Nobody used to care about primaries.