Comment is spot on, though I'd like to point out: > because for ~50% of the population it's become a team sport / religion situation It's kinda even worse. We

Comment is spot on, though I'd like to point out: > because for ~50% of the population it's become a team sport / religion situation It's kinda even worse. We can only have two parties because of FPTP, and turnout is about 60% of voting-eligible population on average. We know from recent popular vote that that 60% is split roughly 50-50. So 30% of the voting population is Team Blue Hat, and 30% is Team Red Hat. If you can get 15.1% of the population to vote for an unserious clown, they'll win their respective party's nomination. And in most states, one of the parties is a pretty sure lock in the general. 15% is a pretty low bar. Compare: Up to 30% of people think "chemtrails" are at least a "somewhat" real thing, and 5% of people believe vaccines contain microchips. So the bar for getting a guaranteed win is somewhere between those two wacky and easily disproven beliefs. https://www.cnn.com/us/chemtrails-conspiracy-theory-explained-cec#:~:text=10%25%20of%20Americans%20believed%20the%20conspiracy%20%E2%80%9Ccompletely%2C%E2%80%9D%20while%20upwards%20of%2030%25%20of%20Americans%20at%20least%20found%20it%20%E2%80%9Csomewhat%E2%80%9D%20true. https://www.cnn.com/us/chemtrails-conspiracy-theory-explaine... https://www.rutgers.edu/news/nearly-half-americans-still-unsure-about-popular-vaccine-misinformation#:~:text=5%20percent%20of%20respondents%20thought%20vaccines%20contained%20microchips%2C https://www.rutgers.edu/news/nearly-half-americans-still-uns...