The list of the reasons for Donald Trump’s unpopularity could be long, but he remains a popular sensation at the same time. His critics are mystified, left wondering why they can’t seem to talk sense into his fans.

This impasse lies not with Trump supporters and their supposed Neanderthal brains, but with his detractors, many of whom have this condescending attitude that Donald Trump supporters are a bunch of uneducated backwater racist hicks. Most people don’t fall into that category, and even when they do they’re not going to realize it, so when the anti-Trump crowd plays the uneducated Nazi card, Trump supporters (that includes the likes of Mark Cuban and perhaps Neil deGrasse Tyson) just shrug it off as bitter jealousy, especially when it’s the Trump protesters who are acting out in violence.

If the anti-Trump side would like to win over enough converts to actually negate his presidency, they first need to understand who they are dealing with — namely, Americans just like them who come from a wide range of socioeconomic, religious, and ethnic backgrounds.

In addition, they need to comprehend the three mains reasons Americans are supporting Trump in such high numbers:

ONE: Fans of The Donald have noticed that fierce attacks are coming from both the left and right. This fuels the persecution complex that much further than we’ve witnessed in years past when the political barbs were largely coming from the other side of the political spectrum. Republican candidates will often decry a liberal bias in the media, and certainly the left leaning media is against Trump, but so are many of the most prominent right-wing voices within the American media. If humans were rational beings someone would raise the question of whether this means that Trump’s ideas are so bad that even his own side can’t stomach them, but we are an emotional species so the media attacks only further galvanize Trump’s supporters.

TWO: When voters look at the other candidates, Trump is the last one standing. Cruz is too far right, Sanders is too far left, Clinton is too corrupt, and whoever is left is too far behind to have a chance. Until his detractors can make the case that Clinton isn’t a lying crook, that Sanders isn’t a Socialist, or that Cruz isn’t too far right, they lose.

THREE: His supporters like him because he’s the only one that’s willing to tackle the tough issues head on. Instead of addressing these issues directly, Trump’s critics, especially among the media, are trying to engage in a character assassination war — a losing proposition against a guy who is a master at drawing attention to the three fingers pointing back at you. Until the other candidates or the anti-Trump voters can step away from Godwin’s Law long enough to address border and economic security or coherently explain why these issues are minor concerns compared to the likes of climate, they lose and Trump wins.