It’s hard not to laugh at the entirely self-created dilemma the Republicans now find themselves in with Donald Trump. The more he insults wide swaths of voters, the more he climbs in the polls. As his fellow presidential candidates line up to openly condemn him, he further solidifies his “frontrunner” status.

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The inescapable fact is that the Republican Party created the Trump Frankenstein, and they only have themselves to blame now that he is rampaging through the GOP village.

It’s not a mystery why xenophobic Republicans are gravitating toward Trump. Beyond his disgusting comment about Mexicans being rapists, Trump isn’t taking a radical position inside the Republican mainstream at all. His policy prescription remains absurd but one that many others have advocated: build a giant fence along the US southern border. Remember John McCain’s last campaign ad, in McCain’s own words? “Drug and human smuggling, home invasions, murder...Complete the dang fence.” How is it any different from Trump beyond removing the passive voice?

Those feigning shock over Trump’s racist comments either have not been paying attention for years or have willfully ignored Trump’s long and storied history. The amount of ridiculous statements that have come out of his mouth is almost too high to count. It was only a few years ago that he led the racist Obama birther movement, while managing to keep all of his television contracts and endorsement deals. Back then, Mitt Romney was attending fundraisers with him instead of condemning him. Rick Perry, now calling on Trump to drop out of the race, was begging him for money.

In reality, Trump’s stated policy positions are virtually meaningless. All of the shock from reporters and predictions that Trump would tank after insulting John McCain’s war-hero status were met with a shrug from his supporters. Why did anyone think that would matter? He had already denigrated entire voting blocks, been called out for being nakedly hypocritical and even tweeted a campaign logo featuring Nazi uniforms. Every day, some reporter or another unearths a quote from Trump five, or 10, or 20 years ago endorsing liberal positions, complimenting Democratic politicians or stepping on conservative third rails.

For Trump supporters, it doesn’t matter what he says, just how he says it. And if Republicans think calling out Trump’s flip-flops will actually matter, they will soon look as foolish as the journalists guaranteeing his demise after the McCain comments. It only guarantees he will attack them more (sometimes with the actual truth). And it’s never smart to get into an insult contest with Donald Trump.

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But for all the hand-wringing, Donald Trump will never win the presidency. The fact that 25% of Republican voters in early primary states currently favor Trump does not say anything about how the election will turn out. After all, a quarter of Republicans also were in favor of seceding from the Union in 2012. An even higher percentage used to think Barack Obama was a secret Muslim. Trump-mania is merely more evidence of how dumb it is that we pay attention to polls this early in the race, a year before parties will settle on a nominee and almost a year and a half before the country votes on president.

Beyond his small core of fervent support, Trump is widely disliked by the American public, and even Republican voters on the whole. The current GOP presidential primary is full of so many candidates that the margin of error in some polls makes a half dozen of them or more virtually indistinguishable. Once people start dropping out, Trump has no where to go but down. Take this poll from 2007, a few months further along than the contest is now: it shows Rudy Giuliani with an even wider lead than Trump over his next two rivals. In 2012, every Republican from Michele Bachmann to Herman Cain to Mike Huckabee spent a week or two atop the polls.

The only difference now is that the leader of the rotating circus act is a billionaire with 30 years of experience shrewdly getting enormous amounts of press by saying the most offensive things in the most arrogant way possible. In some ways, he’s the Republican dream.