He sure made some people's lives better.

Yes, but only a small demographic that actually votes.

If only 1% of the population actually votes, elected representatives will tend to represent that 1%. If you cede the centre ground you get extremists.

Say what you like about Trump, he managed to get his target demographic fired up and out to vote. $boring_reasonable_politician doesn't have the same ability by their nature to get people fired up, but we still need to vote for them.

Their loyalty lies mostly with campaign financers. If campaign financers want a different outcome than voters, they get it.

But then you're back to not voting and getting a Trump again.

Not voting is not a solution.

We're agreed on that.

When you say "$boring_reasonable_politician" I think Joe Biden. <yawn>

If what Trump did last election was getting them fired up, then this election they are going nuclear. Check out the massive waves of people at his rallies versus the trickles at the Dem's gatherings.