This whole Trump is an idiot theme is ridiculous. Trump is brilliant in a worrisome sort of way. He's way smarter than the media covering him, and he's smarter than the stuffed shirts who make up the GOP. Somebody else with his smarts and finger on the pulse of conservatism would be extremely dangerous.
If you polled conservatives in general in this country and frankly even USCHO cons, how many of them think a Muslim registry is a good idea? I'd say at least half. Who'd have a problem with shutting down mosques based on a suspicion of radical activity? Again, I'd say less than half would be bothered by that.
Trump, far, far, FAR better than anybody else in the field, gets this. He knows the older, white, working class voter who makes up the bulk of right wingers doesn't share Paul Ryan's hard on for ugly broad Ayn Rand and her idiotic proposals. They don't give a fuk about trade deals with Asia or making sure that Mitt Romney continues to pay no taxes. In fact, they'd have no problem with Romney getting taxed back into the Stone Age as long as the benefits of that came back to them.
But, fear of change, fear of immigrants, fear of vaccinations, etc etc. That sells. Call it nativist populism. I would have thought a Cruz or Walker would have been better at this, but they're peons compared to this guy. He's driving EVERY conversation in the GOP primary. Why isn't the ACA being mentioned during the debates for example? Because Trump hasn't focused on it. So, let the lamestream media salivate over Kasich or Rubio. In the meantime, Trump's numbers just keep going up due to his unprecedented ability to capture the mood of his party based on changing world events. Its like watching a top notch QB adjust to a changing defense and still put points on the board every possession.