What COLOR is Donald Trump?

What COLOR is nationalism?

PURPLE-GRAY

Why do so many REDS and ORANGES and YELLOWS prefer Trump to the other Republican candidates?

Trump is popular among conservatives simply by being a successful businessman. Nothing succeeds like success and conservatives tend to value results over intentions or procedural justice. The fact that Trump doesn't have to go around begging a bunch of donors for support, also means he's nobody's puppet. Conservatives like to vote for self-made men.

There's also a large anti-PURPLE sentiment among the ORANGE and YELLOW grassroots of the Republican party. They feel that a PURPLE-GRAY billionaire is more likely to represent their interests than a PURPLE-RED candidate like Rubio. PURPLE-RED elected officials have a tendency to sell out ORANGE and YELLOW interests well before push comes to shove. The PURPLE-RED establishment has been pushing PURPLE-RED candidates down the grassroots' throats every election cycle since Reagan and now the base is revolting.

There are also a lot of marginally interested voters who are coming out in droves to vote for Trump. He's GRAY enough to appeal to the average people who don't obsess about politics. He speaks in simple language and has a clear message that appeals to low-information voters. Trump has turned the election into political Survivor for the reality-TV-loving masses. Those voters are why Trump has a yuuge lead over the ORANGE-RED Cruz.

Shifting Colors

Real life is a lot messier than any chart or axis I'm likely to come up with. The scattered, clumpy, shifting patterns in the image below are a little bit closer to how politics actually works.

NOTE: If none of the circles are moving, your browser isn't set up to handle animated SVG images. Sorry.

Each circle in the image can be seen as a particular faction or ideology coming into and out of power or popularity. Multiple colors converging represents how coalitions form and break up. Individual dots moving away from the center are becoming more extreme, while those drifting towards the center are becoming less so.

Politics is messy, but politics is built up from the individual choices of many people. When you step back from these recurring factional battles, the broader political patterns represented on the Asplund Chart emerge.