Ron Fournier for The National Journal: "Rise of the 'Crazy Buts'” (an interesting article)

[Attorney in Texas]

Here is an excerpt:

I spent most of the sum­mer with Crazy Buts.
From De­troit, where my fam­ily lives, to north­ern Michigan, where my fam­ily va­ca­tions, I heard Re­pub­lic­ans, in­de­pend­ents, and even Demo­crats be­gin sen­tences this way: “Don­ald Trump is crazy, but…”
“Crazy, but he’s a win­ner, and I’m tired of Amer­ica los­ing.”
“Crazy, but he can’t be worse than what we got.”
“Crazy, but he’s pun­ish­ing the es­tab­lish­ment.”
“Crazy, but he’s driv­ing the me­dia nuts.”
“Crazy, but he says what I can’t say.”
Most don’t mean “crazy” in a clin­ic­al sense. “Crazy as in crass,” a land­scaper from rur­al Michigan told me in mid-Ju­ly. “I’m not sure he has the tem­pera­ment to be pres­id­ent, but I like how he’s mess­ing with your minds in Wash­ing­ton. Crazy like a crash-test dummy.”