Apparently, Donald Trump’s Republican fans don’t mind what he says or how he says it. They love him anyway.

Mr. Outrageous is writing an entirely new handbook on political insensitivity, often in graphic language. In doing so he is throwing out all the rules on intemperate remarks by slandering cultures, religions and people. The anti-Catholic rhetoric of “Rum, Romanism and Rebellion” that long ago ended a candidate’s career and set the standard for temperance on the stump seems as passe as political decency.

The other day, for instance, while being questioned by a reporter about his disputed claim of seeing thousands of New Jersey Muslims cheering as the World Trade Center collapsed during the 2001 terrorist attack (something no one else saw) Trump appeared to be making fun of the questioner’s disability. That prompted a demand for an apology from the New York Times, the reporter’s employer.

Trump denied the allegation instead. Besides, newsmen of all sorts are hardly popular among a huge number of Americans on both sides of the political aisle. The media has become a favorite target in the current free-for-all political warfare. Trump’s polls testify to the Teflon nature of his campaign. He remains well ahead of the pack.

The list of death defying pronouncements from this guy are astounding, and the harder the media tries to hold him accountable, the more popular he gets. Members of the mainstream press especially seem baffled by the entire Trump model.

Their gotcha questions actually seem to promote his popularity.

Until now, voters have used the primaries to protest their unhappiness with current conditions by often supporting controversial candidates. But in the general election they return to more traditional candidates. When all is said and done, that still may be the case here. But if the electorate’s fury over the so-called “establishment” is as deep as some political observers believe, the unthinkable just might happen.

The consensus among the political experts at the moment is that if this occurs, Trump or Dr. Ben Carson, a brilliant surgeon who seems committed to non-scientific solutions for the world’s ills, or Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, whose positions aren’t far from Carson’s, could end up as the GOP nominee. Their betting is that Hillary Clinton will end up as president, with moderate Republicans splitting from the fold.

There is sufficient evidence to support this argument. One could hardly imagine the Bush wing of the party voting for Donald Trump. If a decent number of voters decide to trust as their president someone who has little or no experience in an increasingly global society and harbors retro ideas, the result could be a third political party, at the very least. The odds are long — but not improbable — in what could be a radical change in American political thought.

Could it be that experience in statecraft is no longer relevant in choosing a president? After all, the current occupant of the Oval Office, and his predecessor, had major deficiencies when it came to training in practical politics at a high level. Perhaps that should be a warning.

As the first tests in New Hampshire and Iowa finally approach, the salvation for bitterly divided Republicans may be to choose a replica of the immediate past in Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida.

Rubio has had only a short time in the U. S. Senate and already has made it clear he doesn’t want to continue the job, giving his constituents an uneasy feeling about his attention span. He has had no foreign policy experience and has been chronically absent from his job.

On the other hand, Rubio does not seem to approach every major issue with a flamethrower. A solid conservative, he is nevertheless seemingly willing to join some bipartisan efforts to solve problems such as the coalition of Republicans and Democrats who drafted a compromise on immigration.

Rubio furthermore has so far not lent himself to the kind of rhetoric relied on by Trump, whose answer to everything seems to be to insult not only his fellow candidates, but also whole segments of the population to the delight of too many Republican voters.

By Dan Thomasson

Dan Thomasson is an op-ed columnist for Tribune News Service and a former vice president of Scripps Howard Newspapers. — Ed.

(Tribune Content Agency)