Put me down as someone who didn't see this Trump thing coming. Frankly, I wasn't even sure that he'd run.

Well, he is running and doing quite well, even though we are still in the political equivalent of the first game of spring training. The Giants won 3 of the last 5 World Series.Did they win the first game of spring training? My point is that this way too early!

Like Perot, Trump has created "Trump-istas", or people who love the way their guy talks back to the media and tells us what he thinks, even if he doesn't always explain what he thinks.

In other words, does anyone believe that Mexico, a GDP the size of Texas, is a threat to the U.S. economy? Or that all of our trade negotiators are stupid? 

Nevertheless, Trump has touched a nerve and you can't demonize him without turning off the thousands who like what they are hearing.

On immigration, Trump has hit a nerve. In other words, a lot of Americans are sick and tired of the chaos that comes with anything that is illegal, from providing social services to kids who show up on the border to sanctuary cities in clear violation of federal law.

Also, he has finally put the light on "illegal" rather than immigration. The open borders crowd, and their allies in the media do not distinguish between the two. There are two kinds of immigrants in this world, legal and illegal. We love legal immigrants, like me, and we don't support illegal immigration because it is chaotic.

So my message to the GOP is simple: Listen to the Trump-istas. They are part of something beyond Trump's personality, as Matthew Continetti wrote:

What Republicans are trying to figure out is not so much how to handle Trump as how to handle his supporters. Ignore or confront? Mock or treat seriously? Insult or persuade? The men and women in the uppermost ranks of the party, who have stood by Trump in the past as he gave them his endorsements and cash, are inclined to condescend to a large portion of the Republican base, to treat base voters’ concerns as unserious, nativist, racist, sexist, anachronistic, or nuts, to apologize for the “crazies” who fail to understand why America can build small cities in Iraq and Afghanistan but not a wall along the southern border, who do not have the education or skills or means to cope when factories move south or abroad, who stare incomprehensibly at the television screen when the media fail to see a “motive” for the Chattanooga shooting, who voted for Perot in ’92 and Buchanan in ’96 and Sarah Palin in ’08 and joined the Tea Party to fight death panels in ’09.

Don't call them crazies or demonize their man, Trump. Listen to what they are saying. I also hope that the likely nominees, whether it's Bush, Walker or Rubio, make peace with these voters.

The Trump-istas will vote in 2016. Make sure that they show up for the GOP.

P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.