I have written this before, but sometimes the first application of the clue-stick does not take:

Keep in mind that the Average American:

Does not have a college education, including an Associate Degree (60%).
Does not have a passport (64%).
Speaks one language €“ badly (74%).
Has never traveled voluntarily more than 200 miles from his/her birthplace (57%).
Has never visited a foreign country, not even Mexico or Canada (71%).
Cannot name the Speaker of the House, even today (82%)
Cannot name the three branches of government (64%)
Cannot read at a college level (83%)
Cannot read for content (54%). This person cannot follow written-only directions.
60% of American Households do not buy any book in a year.
Does not believe in Evolution (42% creationism, 32% evolution, 26% no opinion).
Only 74% of eligible voters are registered.
Only 61.6% of registered voters voted in 2016.
Meaning that the average American eligible to vote does not vote (only 45.14% net). **The Average American does not vote**.

This has not one damned thing to do with party, democrat, republican, libertarian, communist, green, whatever. It has to do with massive, systemic and deliberate neglect, and industrial-grade stupidity mixed equally with mil.Spec. ignorance.

And, this is why the likes of tRump can become president of this country. Note, please, that tRump lost the popular vote. Really. This sort of societal negligence and ignorance is how Hitler became Chancellor of Germany.

Some appropriate quotes:

Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it and eventually they will believe it.€ŠAdolph Hitler

On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.

The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it.

There is always a well-known solution to every human problem--neat, plausible, and wrong.

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H.L. Mencken

When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in a flag, and carrying a cross.

Sinclair Lewis

€œBefore mass leaders seize the power to fit reality to their lies, their propaganda is marked by its extreme contempt for facts as such, for in their opinion fact depends entirely on the power of man who can fabricate it.€�

Hannah Arendt (Who was a frequent dinner guest when I was growing up)

€œIf we define an American fascist as one who in case of conflict puts money and power ahead of human beings, then there are undoubtedly several million fascists in the United States.€�

Henry A. Wallace

€œWhen Fascism came into power, most people were unprepared, both theoretically and practically. They were unable to believe that man could exhibit such propensities for evil, such lust for power, such disregard for the rights of the weak, or such yearning for submission. Only a few had been aware of the rumbling of the volcano preceding the outbreak.€�

Erich Fromm

€œThe United States is extremely lucky that no honest, charismatic figure has arisen. Every charismatic figure is such an obvious crook that he destroys himself, like McCarthy or Nixon or the evangelist preachers. If somebody comes along who is charismatic and honest this country is in real trouble because of the frustration, disillusionment, the justified anger and the absence of any coherent response.

Noam Chomsky