Originally Posted by severe

thats a complicated question. First you have to realize different people from different backgrounds of different wealth, all have different needs.
People below middle wage income will likely support a candidate who supports social programs, while those above will likely support candidates who oppose said programs.

Also you must understand he is not so drastically different from other candidates. His campaign is based on ideology. He talks about eliminating income tax, eliminating all these govt agencies etc. However the american system does not give the executive branch any power to do this. He has not been able to push any of these changes through in 14 some years as a Congressman where he was part of the legislative branch. So why is his campaign based on this, the intelligent question here is what and how is he really going to accomplish as a president? His basic power would then lie with a: the military (ie removing US from iraq / afghan, fortifying our borders / entry points) and b: likely the most important i can think of control over the executive orders, many of which are insanely debilitating for american IMO. this opens the field up to other candidates who are looking at accomplishing the same.

many people do not make educated decisions on their own, thus being led away from the lesser known candidates.