I find myself paying more attention to the upcoming American presidential election than I was earlier this year.  Is that true for you too?

It still seems strange to imagine Donald Trump as President of the United States. It seems as if I ave somehow fallen into some science fiction parallel universe. And you are there with me.

It isn’t like we didn’t see it coming. I was reading some of my posts from 2015, as the 2016 American election campaign was starting. I observed then that Donald Trump was a bit of a joke to those who took their politics seriously – but that he was a joke who could win given the climate of the times.

As you read here on August 10, 2015,  Trump after all is not a politician; that is why the media don’t take his candidacy seriously. That may be a mistake. He is a billionaire businessman and television personality with a penchant for publicity and self-promotion. That certainly sounds like a politician to me, even if he has never run for elected office. He may not be the media’s choice, but at this point a lot of the public likes him….The voting public has reached the point where a buffoon or a clown looks good when compared to a traditional politician.

As Americans go to the polls in 2020, my assessment of Trump would be even less flattering – but despite low polling numbers I would not be surprised to see him re-elected. He still embodies the American people.

Donald Trump is the political equivalent of Grand Funk Railroad. Remember them?

Grand Funk were a hard rock trio from Flint Michigan in the early 1970s. Music critics panned their efforts. Radio, for the most part, ignored them – but they sold millions of records. Their slogan became “Nobody loves us but the people.”

It may be the people who propel Donald Trump into a second term as the American President. It isn’t like voters are going to be excited by Joe Biden.

With so much negative publicity surrounding Trump his low standing in the polls is not surprising. That publicity though may have an inadvertent effect – it may result in polling error.

Media portrayals of Trump as someone unworthy of support may not change anyone’s mind in an extremely polarized society. What I can see happening though is a reluctance on the part of voters to tell pollsters their true intentions.

Trump supporters are labelled, as Hillary Clinton said, as being “racist, sexist, homophobic, (and) xenophobic.” I doubt any of them would agree with those terms, but there is no doubt many if not most Democrats agreed with Clinton. Maybe much of the news media did too.

Such labeling makes it less likely for a Trump supporter to tell the truth when a pollster calls. Who wants someone else, even a stranger, to think badly of them?

Remember Grand Funk Railroad. The critics just didn’t like them. Yet they broke The Beatles record for a Shea Stadium concert. Radio mostly ignored them. Yet they sold millions of records.

Donald Trump, all the experts say, is heading for defeat in November. I’m not convinced.

Maybe nobody loves him but the people. And the people are the ones who vote.