Geoff Blades, an adviser to chief executives and a former investment banker at Goldman Sachs, is the author of "The Trump Presidential Playbook, a Wizard’s Path to the White House." He is on Twitter (@geoffblades).

Andrew Sullivan says that “democracies end when they are too democratic,” claiming that voters want a Vladimir Putin-style autocrat. But the truth is that we are in the midst of a truly democratic moment in this country.

Voters perceive that the establishment is not working for them. Trump supporters feel heard. They feel understood.

Voters have been given stark choices. In the simplest terms, it is Donald Trump versus the establishment on the Republican side, and Bernie Sanders versus the establishment on the Democratic side. The result, as we have seen, is that primary voters have opted in droves against the establishment.

Why? Because they perceive that the establishment is not working for them. They don’t feel heard. They don’t feel understood. They don't feel like they are winning. And all of those feelings are true. We are not winning any more. Economic growth numbers are weak. Wages are stagnant. The American dream seems lost to most Americans.

Trump, Sanders and President Obama before them, have captured voters’ hearts and minds by providing optimism and hope. Sullivan misunderstands Trump’s strength when he writes, “As I watched frenzied Trump rallies on C-SPAN in the spring, and saw him lay waste to far more qualified political peers in the debates by simply calling them names, the nausea turned to dread.”

By belittling Trump supporters, Sullivan misses the obvious fact. Voters perceive that these supposedly more qualified candidates, like so many other politicians, have failed to deliver for them.

I have worked at Goldman Sachs and on factory floors, and I can assure you, we are all the 100 percent. We are all looking for the same thing: jobs, gross domestic product and wage growth, and an ever-increasing standard of living. While Trump and Sanders’ platforms both aim at getting more money in voters’ pockets, Trump is the only candidate who stands for the 100 percent.

Trump is not inspiring tyranny. He is inspiring voters to vote and, in particular, vote in historic numbers for a Republican candidate. Trump supporters feel heard. They feel understood. Perhaps the real reason they like him is that they are desperately hoping for someone in Washington who represents them and their interests.

Isn’t that what democracy is all about?



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