Donald TrumpDonald Trump is the frontrunner to be the Republican nominee. Sometimes you still have to repeat it to yourself: Donald Trump is the frontrunner to be the Republican nominee.It’s become a cliché to liken much of American politics to something out of Idiocracy , Mike Judge’s 2006 broad satire imagining the U.S. 500 years in the future where the forces of anti-intellectualism and commercialism converge in a monumental confederacy of dunces. With Donald Trump in the picture, you can also compare the situation to Biff in Back the Future 2, Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America, a few chapters of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, King Ralph and looking at your own faeces in the toilet bowl.It’s huge, compelling, horrifying, bizarre, funny, weird, nauseating.The billionaire property mogul has insulted pretty much everyone that can be insulted in this campaign. He’s played into voters’ most base instincts and fears; he’s been racist and misogynist; jokingly threatened to shoot someone; all the while offering essentially no discernable, achievable policies.He continues to lead in the polls no matter what he does.Being a veteran of reality TV gameshows, he does very well in the TV debates – especially as they increasingly resemble particularly bad reality TV – but everyone assumed that when the serious business of voting arrived, people would act sensibly. And so it seemed after he lost the Iowa caucus to Ted Cruz, despite leading in the advance polls. Except Donald then pummeled the opposition in New Hampshire.This thing, which would have seemed like a pretty half-assed plot in a film a decade ago, might actually happen.Ted CruzThe senator from Texas has become the candidate of choice for the hard-right base of the Republican party: Ted Cruz is anti-abortion, anti-immigration reform, anti-environmental reform, anti-gay marriage, anti-Obamacare. He’s found a hateful position on most issues.The foremost insight to have arrived in this political season comes from American journalist David Plotz who said that Ted Cruz is the candidate he would most like to slap round the face Any article or analysis of Ted Cruz includes at least one person saying what an asshole he is. Here is a comprehensive list of people who think Cruz is a jerk The only person who would truly be happy if Cruz won is the actor Ken Marino who would be guaranteed to play him in the TV movie of the 2016 election.Marco RubioYoung, good looking and the son of Cuban immigrants, Rubio is the candidate Democrats have feared. He has become the choice of establishment, mainstream Republicans, and is seen as a more moderate candidate with the possibility of crossover appeal. That said, he’s a product of the Tea Party insurrection in the Republican party, and though he sugarcoats it a little, he’s vehemently to the right on most issues A senator from Florida, Rubio had been trucking along in the campaign nicely: slowly building some support and momentum, he came third in the Iowa caucus. Then came a disastrous TV debate performance two weeks ago, in which he was taunted for using the same memorised 25 second speech, which he then proceeded to regurgitate three times , earning him the nickname Marcobot. This led to a terrible fifth place finish in New Hampshire.