But how does Trump pull off the trick of convincing people that crime is so rampant that everyone who goes out to buy bread gets murdered, that nobody can possibly afford bacon, and that immigrants are dining on the farmer’s dog instead of ordering The Farmer’s Dog? For Beyerstein, the conspiratorial mindset is the key. Trump himself is a rampant conspiracy theorist. From birtherism to Obama bugging his microwave to whatever Hunter Biden’s laptop was supposed to have done to the “They” ostensibly responsible for a bullet nicking his ear, Trump is the Paranoid Style In American Politics in a lumpy blue suit. Elites are always out to get him, and, if you support him, they’re out to get you too. And his followers, who shared his belief that the world’s powerful forces have had it in for them long before Trump descended the escalator, found it easy to buy in. Together, Trump and his public have formed a relationship based on the exchange of increasingly weird and unhinged paranoid fantasy. It’s the root of what charisma Trump has. It’s how he can say to his fans what all charismatic leaders must say to cement their bond with their subjects: “I am you.”

What scares me the most about this is how long this bond between Trump and his stans has lasted. Right now, we have professional Democratic messaging types nattering about how important it is to reach the less-informed voters, to meet them where they are with statements tailored to pull them back to our side. I suppose if I were in their profession–hackery–I’d have more confidence in the power of well aimed talking points. But instead, I find myself thinking of my grandmother. I’ve told her story before on this blog somewhere. Long story short, over three years, I watched her die. She was killing herself, and there was nothing anyone in our family could do to talk her out of it, because she refused to acknowledge that she was killing herself. My grandmother was a Christian Scientist, you see. Had been all her life. She’d based her most terrible decisions on her belief in the power of faith healing and in eschewing medical treatment. One of my aunts, now a fervent Trump supporter, is deaf in one ear because my grandmother tried to faith heal her ear infection. I never met my grandfather because he died for unclear reasons before I was born. My great uncle endured a series of strokes sans treatment with my grandmother and Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures at his bedside. We tried every argument to get her to give up on Christian Science and get some help because she was obviously sick and in pain, but she denied anything was wrong. Even Christian Science Practitioners would eventually give up and tell her to seek “other means” (CS French for “go to a doctor.”) She’d fire them, find others, and lie to them. Eventually, I couldn’t take her gaslighting me about what was going on and stopped talking to her. (I was 15 and didn’t know how else to deal.) When she died, I was both angry and relieved. I asked my Dad why she kept denying she was sick, why she didn’t give up on a religion that obviously wasn’t working. What my Dad said sticks with me, “She had too much time in.”

That’s what I’m afraid of with Trump voters. They’ve had too much time in. I don’t think they’re low information because they just haven’t heard the correct information. I think they’re low information because they don’t want correct information. They refuse to believe correct information. It’s not like anyone’s been hiding the facts about who Trump is, how his policies failed, which bigots he’s dined with, and what crimes he’s committed. They’ve had the same decade to read about them that the rest of us have had. Still, most of them just voted for Trump for the third time. They’ve lived under his rule, and they remember it the way they prefer to remember it. They’ve based too many decisions in their lives on supporting this man to go back, and why would they want to go back? He’s the only thing standing between them and the wicked, evil naughty people who’ve cheated in every election (but twice forgot to win), who hide the real cures from you, and who won’t bring the price of eggs down. Can we message them back to sanity? Maybe it’s the post-election depression and anxiety talking–hey, I never said I was healthy–but let’s just say I have my doubts.