But it doesn't make sense, right? I mean, the fact that this American election seems to be flying apart at the seams...could be solved by an ounce of what one might say is common sense?
Answer: No. Here's a quote from a goodbye to Rob Ford that explains the voters supporting Trump:
"They [get] up too early, [work] too hard, earned too little, paid too much for rent, food, transportation and taxes, then collapsed into bed too late and slept too little."
When I worked on the Obama '08, I connected with a lot of people who I now assume are Trump supporters. These are people like the white, male electrician who walked into a campaign office when I worked in Pittsburgh and happened to be there with just one other volunteer: a black guy. This was right around when race became the focal point of the Pennsylvania primary, because the press re-discovered that Obama's pastor in Chicago was saying extreme, hateful, occasionally hateful things (this is the guy that was saying "God Damn America").
The electrician and the volunteer began chatting, and the electrician said that he wasn't going to vote for Obama because "I don't want my daughter to learn about racism since racism is over."
The two of them talked for a couple hours, and I can't say for sure if the electrician learned anything over the course of the conversation. I participated enough to learn of the stunning unintentional, unknowing ignorance of broad societal issues of the electrician. He hadn't bumped into a moment in his life that forced him to learn about the impact that thousands of years of oppression has on a race, how it puts them in a (North American) societal disadvantage from day 1 of their lives. I'm not going to expand on an argument about white privilege here, outside of stating that it exists and I work hard to remain aware of mine.
There are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of voters who wake up, go to work, come home to eat and maybe play with their kids before going to bed without watching the news, reading a paper, the internet, etc. They don't care about Obama being in Cuba, or the reasons that bombs went off in Brussels. They are worried about getting to work, keeping their jobs, having enough money at home. So when Trump steps forward and speaks solely to their needs, speaks about jobs being lost to Mexicans, how we used to "win", how people used to solve problems on their own, that he'll put money back in their pocket through replacing Obamacare with 'something amazing', etc...the lesson is this: There are a lot of people who just want their lives to be a little bit easier, and they are tired of politicians who don't seem able to do it. A guy coming forward who says (paraphrasing) "I'm not like these wimps, you can trust me to do it"....that's attractive to them.
Ongoing Prediction: Trump v. Clinton, with the election decided by an FBI indicment (or lack thereof). Followed closely by Anarchy v. Trump v. Clinton v. Romney/Ryan.
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