Picture a lone boxer in the ring punching the air to bursts of applause from the crowd. Every now and then, the referee comes over to wipe the boxer's brow and say, "Good job, kid. Keep 'em coming." Then the crowd goes wild again.
That's what a Donald Trump town hall is like. It's real but also fake.
I watched the Republican presidential nominee's prerecorded town hall Wednesday in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, with Fox News host and longtime Trump supporter Sean Hannity, so that you didn't have to.
Hannity and Trump rambled on for so long in the first hour of the town hall that they didn't have time for audience questions. It was just Trump and Hannity gabbing. (The second hour, supposedly with audience questions, is scheduled for broadcast Thursday night.)
The former president's speeches, town halls and debates are pretty much all the same. But I watch for a bit of insight into a Republican Party that I no longer recognize. Who are Republicans now? Is the GOP just a man, and that man is Donald Trump?
Even as a conservative, I am still trying to figure out why people like Trump so much. Sure, he's not a Democrat, or a far-left one like Vice President Kamala Harris. But people aren't just voting against Harris. Many Republicans genuinely and enthusiastically like Trump.
And I might have finally figured out why.
Many things are complicated in the United States these days. Few people understand the tax code, for example. Writing and enacting policies to address the nation's many daunting problems is left up to legislative experts. State, local and federal governments employ millions of people to manage enormous agencies that touch on nearly every aspect of Americans' lives. It seems that everything is both big and complicated.
But when Trump talks, he doesn't get into........