Trevor Noah has made the point that Donald Trump is an African despot running for president. If you think of him as an Oompa Loompa version of Robert Mugabe or Goodluck Jonathan you can see a few facets. The Washington Post (and others) have argued that Donald Trump is an American Silvio Berlusconi. That gets to the heart of it somewhat as well.

But I think you can't really grasp Trump until you understand the disenfranchisement of the electorate he represents. I don't know if this happens in Europe, but I once wandered down to the American Legion to vote and a guy literally asked me who to vote for. Apparently I looked like a trustworthy source of information, so he went down the ballot with me and asked me what it all meant and who deserved his vote.

The American political process emphasizes disenfranchisement. The way our ballot measures are written, the way the political process is gerrymandered across appointed committees, elected officials, special districts, one-time ballot measures, recurring ballot measures, partisan judges running for bipartisan positions where their political affiliation is specifically banned from the ballot... and then the press boils things down to "corporations are citizens" and "Justice Souter can take your house."

Propaganda need not be true, it need only be resonant. "Throw the bums out" is a common sentiment in the United States, and has been lo these many decades. Yet no matter how strongly we all feel it, we're effectively powerless against it. Effectively true:

You also have to understand that the Republicans have been swerving ever deeper into demagoguery. Sarah Palin railed against our meek, milquetoast form of national health by invoking "death panels." Obama is a secret muslim according to most Republican pundits. Even 20 years ago Rush Limbaugh told a breathless audience that Hillary Clinton had Vince Foster murdered to keep Bill's secret cocaine airstrips a secret. In my life we've elected an actor president (to two terms!), a variety show host to the Senate and a pro wrestler as governor. Name recognition counts far more than experience and Trump has been up in our collective grille since the mid '80s.

I mean, Marine LePen. Golden Dawn. The economy is going great for certain select members of the aristocracy and for everyone else, it just gets worse. Donald Trump taps into that the same way George Wallace did, the same way Huey Long did.

What is really hard to understand is why anyone paying attention would vote for Trump.

That's because you misjudge what they're paying attention to. If the political process is a mystery, if the political class is the enemy and if the political system has abandoned you, a loud, outspoken demagogue that promises solutions regardless of the cost becomes attractive... and it's far easier to stay convinced than put forth the effort you never have before in order to educate yourself.

Particularly if you're attempting to educate yourself into supporting Hillary Clinton, a woman that has been shrillified by every media outlet you've ever watched since 1991.

The National Review ran an entire issue on why Trump must be stopped. Unfortunately, the Republican base hasn't read the National Review for a couple generations now. You're lucky if they can make it through USA Weekend cover-to-cover. When you're working two shifts at the chicken processor just to pay for your dentures you aren't gonna spend a lot of time at the top of Maszlow's pyramid.