Donald Trump, like Herman Cain before him, is a postmodern presidential candidate. A performance artist at work.
JEB! and other Bushes may be postmodern in that they don't believe in any objective principals other than their own sense of political entitlement, and with the help of political Svengalis like Lee Atwater and Karl Rove, they have in the past ruthlessly used racism, xenophobia, and identity politics to deceive and manipulate ill informed and gullible "grievance" voters, but Donald Trump is giving them an absurdist Dorian Gray lesson in what's objectively wrong with them, their politics, and the postmodern political party they created.
His inspiration is pure show biz, particularly a venerable type of vaudeville and burlesque act from the past. His stump speech is a farcical Catskills stand up roast routine where he transforms an angry Henny Youngman or Buddy Hackett into a dystopian version of Will Rogers, with a calculated bit of Lonesome Rhodes and Howard Beale thrown in for leavening. Only if you understand him this way can you explain such improv gems as the recent John McCain diatribe. The only thing missing there was the drum and cymbal trill at the end.
Some gullible pundits think Trump is helping JEB! by deflating his "serious" opposition. Some think he is actually working for Hillary. Trump is working for himself of course, but the smart money would bet his real goal is to derail JEB! 2016. Eventually after turning a few debates into Dean Martin roast parodies, he will drop out and endorse someone he considers the "right" serious man for the job in 2016. It won't be JEB! Soon thereafter, if his choice isn't winning, he will drop a big media bomb that he will run as an independent if the "wrong" candidate winds up buying the Republican nomination. It doesn't require a lot of imagination to figure out who that might be.
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