That doesn’t begin to explain the Trump phenomenon though. He has a powerful devotion driving a huge % of the country to buy all this election fraud nonsense without anything resembling evidence, and it doesn’t even make sense. Rudy and Co. make up actual crazy conspiracies like Chavez-funded scams, but the whole thing is that crazy on its face when you think about it a little bit. Our elections are way too decentralized and localized for some grand conspiracy - it’s science fiction.

Trump is great at identifying fears and insecurities, and exploiting them by using rhetoric to fire people up, which usually means scapegoating. But he’s not about solutions. He wants our fears and insecurities, and our divisions, to stay in place and worsen.

Because he doesn’t stay in power by fixing things. You can claim “his” economy was rocking pre-pandemic, and you’d be right. He rode a wave underway when he got here - every economic trend line is clear on that. He tweaked around - tax and regulatory cuts that were likely positive, and trade wars that were likely negative. But when he had a real-world crisis to try to manage, he screwed the pooch royally.

But all the pandemic did was shine a light on the admin. It’s simply not about solving our problems - it’s about exploiting them. His style makes that inevitable with everything. The pandemic under his admin is a source of division. Trump doesn’t know any other way.