The cause of the Trump surge.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

A little from column A, a little from column B. He's pointing at the elephants in the living room, but in crude, tactless and unproductive ways. He's getting media attention because of the spectacle, but that won't be quite as easy for the media to turn off as they'd doubtless like. As long as Trump provides good copy, somebody will be covering him, and his exposure and willingness to address forbidden topics can give him solid support among the radicalized GOP base.

It's really looking to me like Republican insiders spent the last 10 years thinking that catering to hate and ignorance was something they could turn on or off at will, and are now getting some inevitable payback in the form of Trump.