A recent poll indicates that 45% of all American voters approve of the job Donald Trump is doing. They couldn’t all have suddenly awakened from a coma, not all of them, so alien mind control has to be the answer. The space guys are beaming in on us.  Some of us, anyway.   Or it could be the Russians. Perhaps all those loonies in the park with tinfoil on their heads were getting it right.

Who are these people?  How can there be such a vast difference of opinion, or is this about something other than politics?   Something that runs much deeper?   Something that has remained unresolved for more than a hundred years?

Eighty percent of white evangelicals voted for Donald Trump.  His base, if there is any truth to the pictures on tv and in the papers,  is nearly all white.

Trump, to anyone who has been paying the least little bit of attention beyond FOX and right-wing radio, is horribly incompetent, vastly overrated by the right, and a danger to the nation and the world.   He needs to be removed from office as quickly as possible. And yet, 45% of the American electorate approves of the job he’s doing as he fails to deliver on campaign promises while alienating our friends and allies as he befriends our long-time enemies, cozying-up to dictators, oligarchs and autocrats.

That same poll indicates that 43% of the American electorate thinks Trump should be impeached.  Now.  And yet, there is inexplicably, that 45% job approval rating.   For a man who, by all appearances, opposes Democracy and favors Fascism.

What’s really going on here?  Are we big enough to admit that it could be something other than politics?   Something that runs much deeper and has been around much longer than the past couple of election cycles?   Something that is so abhorrent and dangerous that most pundits fear letting the words “white nationalism” leave their lips?