ERICKSON: Fear, loathing, and Donald Trump

From church to picking the kids up at school to my radio program to gatherings of family and friends, people are now constantly asking me what the deal is with Donald Trump. Why are his polling numbers so high? Having been subjected to the withering firestorm of Trump supporters, let me see if I can explain this with six stories.

First, look at Ben Carson. The Carson campaign has imploded. His polling is cratering, and it comes from two fronts. The first is from evangelical voters who have grown skeptical of Carson on several fronts. There were widely circulated hits on Carson over his position on life. Additionally, Carson is a Christian, but an annihilationist. That means Carson does not believe in hell after judgment. It is mainstream for a Seventh-day Adventist, but not for most evangelicals who are now starting to wonder if Carson really reflects them.

Ben Carson's polling is cratering for a second reason. His grappling with foreign policy and national security has been shallow. He seems unsure of himself and his positions. That has affected him even more deeply than evangelical concerns.

Now consider these recent news stories.

First, a prisoner released by the Obama Administration in 2012 is now a major Al Qaeda leader in the Middle East. Second, two Afghan air force students have gone missing in south Georgia less than a week after the terror attack in California. Third, former advisers to President Barack Obama have now gone public that they think he needs to do more on the ground in the Middle East to stop ISIS, but the president refuses to change his positions. Fourth, Senate Democrats now want to write into the law that no person can be stopped from entering the United States based on their religion. Fifth, we now know the California terrorists had been radicalized for more than two years and they never made it on a terror watch list.

The Carson polling collapse, in part over foreign affairs, and these additional five stories should tell you everything about Donald Trump's continued staying power. Americans are scared. They think Washington is out of answers, and they want someone who they think is willing to do anything and everything to keep us safe. Constitutional concerns for these people are secondary when the president himself is willing to curtail Second Amendment rights without due process.

Many of these people think if the Democrats are willing to curtail the Second Amendment by using the no-fly list instead of due process hearings, why should they be concerned with constitutional issues? It does not make them right, but should at least make it a bit more understandable.

Donald Trump is a candidate who probably could not exist in peaceful times. But there are several million Americans right now who worry about the country and do not see either Republicans or Democrats having the answer. The most surprising data about Trump is that he actually does better in polling with "radical moderate" Republicans and blue collar Democrats than he does with conservatives. Despite the media characterizations, those are the people gravitating to Trump.

Washington Republicans have seemed unwilling to pay attention to middle class concerns. Democrats have seemed the same. Here comes a man yelling about making America great again with a forceful vigor none of this opponents have. His passion translates as willingness. His supporters take attacks on Trump as attacks on them. Americans are worried. To beat Trump, they need alternatives to his passion, not attacks on Trump.

Erick Erickson is a Fox News contributor and radio talk show host in Atlanta.

This story was originally published December 10, 2015 at 10:11 PM with the headline "ERICKSON: Fear, loathing, and Donald Trump ."