Donald Trump is a genius. I hate his guts, but he's a genius.
Now, I understand if you're hesitant to agree with this assessment, and frankly Donald has done and said plenty of stupid things. When magazines are publishing articles such as this, you're not exactly unflappable. Yet, you can question his policies (which I would), how he acts (I would) and how he basically turned the nomination process into a argument at a bar over someone looking at him funny, but in this particular election, he might just know exactly what he is doing.
Trump has been hinting he would run for president for a while now, usually with responses such as this back in 2011: Jokes aside though, he has long been interested in running if he thought the country was, in his view, in bad enough shape, as evidenced by this interview with Oprah when he was 42 years old:
Of course, it's easy to note that he at first said when asked if he would run "probably not." Yet clearly if you have listened to anything he has said in his campaign up to this point, he does view it as being as bad as it could be, and maybe he just wants to do something about it.
Now, while that might be a viable theory to some, Donald Trump swooping in as an angel to save America not for his own good but for the good of the country, I prefer an alternative theory. If he really was interested in running for president- and he has hinted at it for the better part of a decade at least- why didn't he run earlier? It's not like Obama's presidency 4 years ago was a total 360 degrees from what it is now, so why?
And this is why I believe Donald Trump knows what he's doing, because the answer to that question is, in my opinion, given in a speech Trump gave in 2014 while supporting Iowa congressman Steve King (no, not that one, although that'd be pretty cool no lie). He said in response to whether he would run for the 2016 election that he "wanted to see who the other potential candidates were before making any decision". So, of course it helps that both parties had a group of candidates that are the worst, least educated, least fit group of people for a job, more so than the Stepbrothers, for well, anything apparently: And it also helps that this year has been one that has had terrible things happen ranging from this election, to the violent protests and killings related to the Black Lives and Blue Lives Matter movements, to many great celebrities and historical figures dying, to, well, here's a list.
In other words, Trump wasn't lying when he went on Oprah, he said he would run if the country were in a terrible state in his view--which to some it certainly is--and then later on said he would run pending the other potential candidates, and with Hillary Clinton and himself being the most unpopular presidential candidates ever, it is the perfect opportunity for him to run and actually have a chance to win, which if you've been looking at the polls, he actually does (although it's Fox News so take it as you will).
So there you have it, whether you like him or hate him or wish he would drown in some orange colored chemical explosion, Donald Trump picked the right time to run, when the country was in what many perceive as chaos, and with a historically unpopular group of opponents. Now here's what I hope comes of it: I hope that no matter who wins, and for the record while I view it as picking the worse of two evils, I support Hillary. Either way though, I hope this disaster of an election makes both parties take a look at themselves and decide to undergo a necessary renovation.
Whether it be the Republican party needing to slightly alter it's philosophies and beliefs, and ending its ridiculous practices of rejectionism, or the Democratic party being as corrupt as the systems that they claim to be fighting against, change is necessary. I'll admit that this is the first election I have followed semi-intensely in my life, not-coincidentally because this is the first one I am actually able to vote in, and it sucks that my first taste of the government system is so incredibly bitter, hateful, and based on scandal more than facts. For my sake and the sake of millions, I hope that this country can make the necessary changes on both sides, and produce the necessary candidates for the next election and for many years to come. If we're going to remain what I and many believe to be the greatest country in the world, we'd best get to it.