Peters has fashioned a lifelong career on the fear of foreigners taking over. The more he is attacked, the more he appears the martyr and the more the establishment looks to be trying to hide that it has let us down and sold us out. His rhetoric is neither coherent nor consistent but he weaves a compelling spell.
It's Trump's populist incoherent and contradictory babble that so enrages and exasperates the political experts. But the more they attack, mock and disparage Trump, the more his political power grows. That's how it works for Peters.
The only tactic that depletes Peters is to ignore him or, even better, to have him win power. On gaining office, the lion becomes the lamb and he quickly tires of the responsibility.
All other politicians grow on assuming office. Peters deflates.
There are differences. Jones ran as a spoiler and influencer. He would have been horrified to have won high office. Trump expects to win.
Peters' life is politics. It's all he knows and all he does. That's not Trump. He's just a year younger than Peters but is only starting out. Peters is in his fourth decade.
But we have seen the property tycoon upset the political order. We have watched aghast as political claptrap has wooed the crowd.
The Trump phenomenon is not unfamiliar. I am enjoying his rise - not that I like Trump but I love the gnashing of teeth he causes. He is not the political experts' choice for President.
They think him unfit. But they forget it's democracy. It's the people who choose political leaders and, quite often, the people want to give the establishment a good kicking.
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