Polls show whenever Trump makes offensive or idiotic comments, their popularity rises. Photo / AP
It says a lot about human nature that "amateur" and "professional" can be terms of approval or derision.
An amateur is someone who engages in an activity for sheer enjoyment or out of idealism rather than ambition, or someone who lacks the skills and knowledge to make a decent fist of whatever they're trying to do.
A professional is only in it for the money and knows all the shortcuts and tricks of the trade, or someone who does their job with great competence.
It's too early to declare the dawning of the age of the amateur politician, but it's intriguing that the three candidates leading the crowded field seeking the Republican US presidential nomination have never held elective office.
And last year Kim Dotcom and Colin Craig had their 15 minutes or so of having their political aspirations taken semi-seriously.
Don Brash could be regarded as one of the more successful amateur politicians of recent times, becoming leader of the Opposition within a year of entering Parliament as a list MP.
But compared to real estate mogul Donald Trump, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson and former businesswoman Carly Fiorina, Brash's 14 years as Governor of the Reserve Bank were a good grounding in both policy and the workings of government.
Openness to the idea of being governed by non-politicians isn't that surprising given there's no qualification process for political leadership. Most politicians used to be something else, whether foreign exchange trader or trade union official.
And unlike the parliamentary system which requires the Prime Minister to be an MP, the presidential system is open to practically all comers. Trump, Carson and Fiorina are running for President because they can.
It partly arises out of a yearning for purity, for leaders who haven't horse-traded their way to the top, who seek power in order to do good rather than for the sake of it.
This harks back to the revered 4th century BC Roman patrician Cincinnatus who was twice appointed dictator in times of crisis and each time stepped down and returned to his farm once the crisis had abated.
It's partly a consequence of our generally negative perception of politics and politicians. "Political" is often a pejorative term evoking murky deals and stabs in the back.
The classic American film Mr Smith Goes to Washington (1939) starring Jimmy Stewart as a civic-minded naif who finds himself in the US Senate is one of many portrayals of political institutions as simultaneously exclusionary clubs and snake pits.
And while the adversarial nature of democratic politics often shows politicians in a bad light, blanket and often hyper-critical media coverage ensures that familiarity breeds contempt.
In the US, the expansion of the primary system and blurring of news and entertainment elevate personality and presentation at the expense of policy.
Some of the TV coverage reduces the presidential race to little more than a reality show, which may explain reality show veteran Trump's success.
Trump is the frontrunner despite not articulating any substantive policy beyond the fatuous notion of building a wall along America's southern border and getting the Mexicans to pay for it, and resorting to evasive bluster when asked to spell out his position on basic issues.
Fiorina went from polling down around the margin of error to number three with a bullet with a pre-prepared one-liner in the second candidates' debate.
Polls show whenever Trump and Carson make offensive or idiotic comments, their popularity rises.
Rather than being damaging gaffes, the outbursts accentuate their point of difference - they're not professional politicians - and disregard for political correctness.
While understandable, the rise of the amateur politician is dangerous.
It makes a virtue of ignorance: we wouldn't feel good about an amateur brain surgeon or pilot, so why would we want someone with no experience or demonstrated capacity for the role running the country?
And a driver of this trend is hatred of compromise, the essence of democracy.
Compromise is one way to manage social and political divisions; aversion to compromise is a yearning for a monopoly on power.
Come to think of it, there have always been amateur political leaders, generally wearing military uniforms.