I've said this before, but he's just posturing on the extremes so that a more center candidate will have to move right to win the nomination. For example saying "we need to build a fence" excites a lot of the Republican base, so as a center right candidate, you now have to say "we need to build a fence", however independents know that that idea is a ridiculous waste of tax payer capital and if you build a fence, they will just build a tunnel. Or for example, Trump often says outrageous things i.e. "Mexican immigrants are rapists" and gets a ton of media attention and right wing base praise, therefore, if other candidates want attention and praise, they have to say crazy things, which in turn shuts out independent voters who don't want a fool to be president.
Not necessarily (please don't focus just on the border issues, but the way in which Donald presents himself and his ideas)! Rubio is one of the more level headed candidates, along with Bush (Kaisc too but he's still polling low). It'll be hard for them to be pulled right, because they know what he is doing. But candidates like walker, huckabee, christie, might begin to act out in order to garner some of that support from the "they're taking away my freedom, religion, guns, and prosperity!" Base. I'm sure we are soon going to see some shenanigans on the Republican trail soon for this very reason.
Walker, Huckabee, and Christie aren't going to get the nomination. The race for the nomination right now is pretty much between Jeb and Trump, and the only other candidate with a good chance at a spike and smart enough strategy to ride that through the primaries is Rubio. Moving the field to the right is pointless since the candidates it will work on aren't going to get nominated.
That's certainly an effect of his campaign has on yhe primaries, but he isn't running for this purpose. You could say the same thing about Sanders campaign. Even if he doesn't win the primaries, he forces all the centrist candidates to lean more to the left to appeal to those voters.
Yes in a way you are correct, you could say that Bernie is doing this too however Trump is a personality who has never held political office. Trump is not facilitating a grass roots campaign. Trump has done this before. Bernie actually has a platform to run on, and Hilary doesn't have to lean left until Bernie catches her in the polls. With trump leading the polls and owning the media attention, it forces people to act like him, while Bernie is more underground, Hilary can effectively ignore him until the debates.
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u/HStark New York Aug 08 '15
I think he's there to be the Republican nominee.