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Rodrigo Duterte has few ideas and a lot of gaffes.

That matters little to his most devoted supporters. Beneath the rough, they hold, there is a diamond.

Whatever else he says, beyond all the quotable quotes he has already dished out, will unlikely shake his base. To the contrary, the more outlandish he speaks, the more he thrills his supporters.

This is why he has been unapologetic about all he has said – and how he said them. He has nothing to lose by being himself and all the media space to gain. Notice how reporters mob him and try to wring the next scandalous thing from his mouth.

In a word: Digong makes good press.

None of Duterte’s supporters are under any illusion their man will be Philosopher King. He will, they are sure, be the Commander-in-Chief who will grab the nation’s problems by the neck.

The tough talking mayor is up against three UP alumni and an Atenean polished at the Wharton School of Business. That does not intimidate him. None of the others can match his X-factor.

He has thrown the gauntlet at the Establishment. Try and stop me, he dares, and if you succeed I will gladly walk away.

He takes to the task of seeking the presidency with the attitude of a suicide bomber. Stop me and we all blow up, he seems to be saying.

Do not ask Rodrigo Duterte to behave. If he does, he will lose it.

If he stops cussing, his rivals will force him into a debate on the finer points of our energy security policy. Who cares about that? That is not what these elections are about. Leave that to the policy wonks to figure out.

Politicians win elections. The wonks figure out solutions. That is how democracy works.

If we force Duterte to behave, keep his knees together and dish out obscure nonsense passing off as policy options, he will lose touch with his voters. Those voters are flocking to him because of the way he speaks, the Dirty Harry attitude he takes.

Force him to behave and he will sound like another Mar Roxas.

Notice that “naandiyan” Roxas radio ad where he perorates about the role of government. He offers a flawed theory of government. But did anybody take notice?

Or that TV ad where he claims to be the “father” of BPO workers. That is a fraudulent claim. But does anybody challenge that ad?

No one. Neither ad electrifies. The man has to buy expensive media space to be noticed. Even as he does, he is ignored.

Duterte only has to cuss to make the headlines. He has gotten the bishops all excited. Only Erap succeeded in doing that before – and he won by a landslide. Forget about what happened after that.

All studies on political propaganda arrive at only one conclusion: the simpler the message, the more effective the result.

Duterte’s message is as simple as can be: he will go after the bad guys. They will all disappear from the face of the earth. Punish the tormentors; redeem the people.

He must not depart from that message, his silver bullet in this campaign. No one else can deliver that message as effectively as he does.

He should not be lured away from that message. Incarcerate all the eggheads in the freezer. Let them out only after he assumes office. Only then will they be useful for governance.

Duterte, after all, has become the lighting rod for all the discontent that flourishes. He is attracting those who want to deliver a protest vote against the political aristocracy that rules us.

This political aristocracy, whose extenuation is personified by Roxas, preached transparency and daily lied to the people. Its self-righteousness asphyxiates and yet its minions pulled every scam in the book. It tries to mystify us with mantras like “inclusive growth” and yet increased the ranks of the poor.

This aristocracy boasts about “reforms” and yet accomplished none. It keep our people shackled under an oppressive income tax system and yet boast about “credit ratings upgrade.” It tries to dazzle us with talk of economic progress while failing to build the vital infra necessary for progress.

This is a political aristocracy that failed us miserably and yet finds the conceit to sit on imagined laurels.

Duterte is the antithesis to this callous and inept aristocracy. He is the one to say that criminals have robbed our people’s sense of personal safety, that drugs have seeped into every community even as no police statistic admits this, and that politicians have conspired to commandeer the public fund and call this “disbursement acceleration.”

Our institutions have been degraded. The separation of powers has been undermined by wholesale bribery. There is extortion at all levels, the “tanim-bala” scam being only the icon of this pestilence.

The tax system is extortion. The local governments are in the business of skimming the cream. The traffic enforcers shake us down at every opportunity. Smugglers run amuck. The gambling lords hold sway.

Yet none of those who screw us every day cuss in public.

Our people are angry – so angry that only Duterte’s colorful language could capture it. Beneath the veneer of propriety and correct language, our institutions rot and the masses know it. They are, after all, the final victims of this culture of extortion.

Duterte is the icon of this outrage. He is uncouth but also forthright. He is banal but truthful.

Let the well-manicured aristocrats shudder before his wrath. It is the people’s wrath.