As a Republican media consultant, I’m routinely invited to represent the right-leaning view on left-leaning news outlets, including CNN, MSNBC and NPR. Usually I’m invited to appear alongside two liberal panelists, a liberal show host, and a viewing audience rooting for my competitors. I’m not expected to take a dive, but everything is arranged to make it hard for me to win the argument.

Truth be told, I enjoy the challenge. The real reward, however, is the time spent beforehand in the greenroom. Hours waiting to go on air have given me a unique opportunity to meet a bunch of liberal journalists, activists, progressive politicians and Hollywood celebrities. They have all been friendly.

What have I learned from observing the other side of the political universe up close? Liberals are united in the belief that the election of Donald Trump constituted a cataclysmic anomaly in the political cosmos. They believe in their hearts that this cataclysm was instigated by an outside agent using cyber chicanery. Equally clear is their newfound collective purpose in life—to rectify this horrific reality any way they can.

I’ve listened in on numerous conversations about how voter manipulation is the only plausible explanation for Mr. Trump’s victory. One segment producer explained to me that despite the more than $1 billion in total marketing dollars spent on the presidential race—and almost two years of daily news coverage of the campaigns—it was the approximately $200,000 that might or might not have been spent by the Russians on social media that tipped the race in Mr. Trump’s favor. If so, those were the most effective ads in political history, despite the spelling mistakes.

The conversations I’ve heard regarding the president’s mental state have been even more bizarre. I’ve heard it all—he is on medication that causes erratic behavior, he has a mental illness, he has been brainwashed or blackmailed by the Russians.