I think that would make a great name for supporters of Donald Trump, but then again, I’m just a bit off kilter.

To be honest, back in June when The Donald announced that he was running for President, I thought it was just some publicity stunt and that he’d fade from view once the campaign started in earnest after Labor Day.

Then again, I thought that Mitt Romney would win in 2012. Which should tell you about my skills as a political prognosticator.

Here it is, the middle of January with the Iowa caucuses a few weeks away and he’s leading in most of the polls. That’s both the polls in Iowa and New Hampshire, as well as nationally.

Win or lose, Donald Trump is going to be the story of the 2016 Presidential election. If the Democrat candidate wins in November, a lot of people are going to say that it was his fault. If the Republican candidate wins in November, whether it’s Trump, Cruz, or anyone else, he is likely to get some of the credit.

Trump and Ted Cruz are pushing the Republican Party to the right nationally. They have different messages, but both are bringing up similar topics. Both scare the Republicans almost as much as they scare the Democrats.

Why is that you ask?

Because a significant portion of the American electorate is fed up with both parties. The Democrats are quite open about their plans to turn the United States into a European style socialist state. The incumbent President has spent seven years pursuing that goal. Both major Democrat candidates are promising to continue and expand upon those efforts.

Despite the fact that the Republicans have controlled both Houses of Congress for much of his term, there hasn’t been much in the way of resistance. John Boehner was chased from office as Speaker of the House because the so called Tea Party faction of the House was fed up with his acquiescence to the minority party and the President. His successor hasn’t been any better and he might be out of office come January. Mitch McConnel hasn’t been any better as Senate Majority Leader.

Trump seems to understand the frustration of the middle class in America. Which, by the way, has shrunk from 61% to 51% since January of 2009. People are also more than a little afraid of Islamic Terrorism, both here and abroad. Most people think that the United States is less safe than it was during the previous administration.

The economy hasn’t recovered as we have been led to believe. Unemployment numbers look better because they don’t count people who have exhausted there unemployment benefits and have given up looking for work. I know a number of them and there are more on the way.

I could go on with a litany of complaints, but won’t. Suffice it to say that Trump speaks to a lot of this discontent in a way that professional politicians seem either unable or disinclined to do. His message is resonating and it seems to be resonating with people who aren’t political junkies. The big question is not if people are listening to Trump, but will people actually get up on election day and vote for him?

There’s no way to predict that, despite what the poll takers might want you to believe.

Ted Cruz has much the same dynamic, but he is a more polished candidate. That’s because he’s a professional litigator and has political experience. He seems to be an even more polarizing figure than Trump, but he doesn’t seem to care that much.

Notice that the rest of the Republican field speaks in far more guarded ways, as if they don’t want to offend anyone lest they lose donors.

Trump doesn’t care because he is funding his own campaign and the media is giving him about a billion dollars worth of free publicity even if they think it’s hurting him. If it is, the polls don’t reflect that. Again, the polls might be wrong, but we’ll know that in a few weeks when the first caucus and primary happen.

If nothing else, Trump is changing the way election campaigns run in this country. It will be interesting to see how that works out in the end.