Of all the astonishing and historic aspects of the 2016 presidential election, perhaps the most vexing is the fact that something like half of America's voters seem content to elect a pathologically lying career criminal as president.

How can this be? Has the electorate grown stupid? Or morally dead?

In some cases, yes, but many more are just abysmally ignorant, as revealed by an Annenberg Public Policy Center poll showing almost two-thirds of Americans cannot name the three branches of the federal government. Millions are just not paying attention.

Contributing to this massive reality-deficit are the "mainstream media" who, so absurdly biased toward Hillary Clinton that they've abandoned their former lame pretense of objectivity, have been successful protecting their favored candidate from public exposure despite her three-decades-long record of crime, corruption and sleaze.

Even more inexplicable than the millions of low-information, left-of-center voters ignorantly favoring Clinton despite her lifetime of corruption are the "NeverTrump" Republicans, some of whom actually claim America would be better off under a Hillary Clinton presidency than under Donald Trump.

TRENDING: 'Greater shakings': Jonathan Cahn foresaw 2020 trouble, warns of even more

Nevertheless, repeated polls show fully two out of three American voters, including many Democrats, believe Hillary Clinton to be dishonest and untrustworthy. It is likewise undisputed that her husband, former President Bill Clinton, is a serial sexual abuser. Yet these appalling aspects of the Clintons' record seem to be, as Democrat pundits say, "old news" – and already "baked in" to the way many people regard the Clintons.

There is, however, something else that tends to blind many voters from seeing the Clinton crime family for what it really is.

'Bigger than Watergate'

Dishonesty, deceitfulness, demagoguery – traits typical of so many politicians – are things the public understands. Lying they understand; politicians lie. Liberal versus conservative, pro-abortion versus anti-abortion, socialism versus capitalism, amnesty versus deportation, sexual anarchy versus biblical values – they understand that candidates hold vastly different views on these crucial issues and they support or oppose them on that basis.

However, actual criminality – the kind that lands people behind bars – is something else, and the reality of Hillary and Bill as career criminals hasn't truly penetrated the public mind.

We're simply not used to outright criminality in our top leaders, at least not in our presidents. Governors, yes. Four out of Illinois' last seven governors – Rod Blagojevich, George Ryan, Dan Walker and Otto Kerner – went to prison for corruption. But on the national level, big-time criminality – such as blatant violation of U.S. espionage laws – doesn't quite register with millions of us. It's just too dark; we prefer to imagine some other explanation, or else that it's not really that serious, or that "everyone does it."

They don't – not this.

The stunning, decades-long record of Bill and Hillary Clinton's criminality and corruption is a matter of public record: While occupying the White House during the '90s, they illegally turned the IRS into their own private "gestapo" to use against their political "enemies." Bill sexually abused multiple women, and Hillary not only covered up her husband's crimes, she actually defamed and targeted his victims, further victimizing them! Then there were all the "gate" scandals: "Filegate" (obtaining FBI files on their GOP "enemies"), "Chinagate" (sale of high-tech secrets to China in return for campaign contributions), "Travelgate" (firing loyal staffers and falsely accusing them of crimes so the Clintons could hire their Arkansas cronies) and "Pardongate" (selling presidential pardons for mega-cash). Of course there was "Whitewater," and Hillary's cattle futures trading that magically netted her a 10,000 percent profit. On and on it went until, when their time as "co-presidents" was finally over, the Clintons famously looted the White House on their way out the door (and were later forced to return $28,000 worth of furniture, art and other stolen property).

Believe it or not, it gets worse. From the time she became Obama's secretary of state until the present time, Hillary has outdone herself, with cascades of new crimes ranging from her unlawful use of a private email server, which has unquestionably endangered America's national security, to her and Bill's creation and exploitation of the Clinton Foundation "charity" as part of a gigantic self-enrichment and pay-for-play scam.

Thanks to her shockingly illegal use of an unsecure private email server, Hillary Clinton sent and received the most highly classified government communications, making them easily hackable by enemy powers and others. Former federal prosecutors have publicly claimed she is guilty of violating U.S. espionage laws, plus more than a dozen other federal code violations, including bribery, conspiracy, false statements, obstruction of justice, perjury, disclosure of confidential information, unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or material, concealment of government records, attempt to evade or defeat a tax, attempts to interfere with administration of Internal Revenue Laws, and more. After making a damning case that Clinton was guilty of multiple crimes, FBI Director James Comey controversially recommended against indicting Hillary, prompting lifelong Comey colleagues, prosecutors and other legal experts to speculate aloud as to what pressures could possibly have caused the FBI director to cave on a clearly indictable case.

Be that as it may, the email scandal is in danger of being eclipsed by more recent revelations of the sensational pay-to-play scheme involving the Clinton Foundation, which almost the entire media now recognizes is essentially a giant money-laundering operation. So obvious is it, in fact, that establishment, pro-Clinton media organizations from the Washington Post and USA Today to the New Yorker and the Boston Globe are all calling for the Clinton Foundation to be entirely shut down. Even openly leftist media outfits like the Daily Beast and the Huffington Post have joined the shut-it-down chorus.

Veteran mob prosecutor and former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani calls the Clinton Foundation scandal "bigger than Watergate."

Again, let's understand that normal people – meaning the vast majority of American voters, whether Democrat or Republican – do not have criminal minds. However realistic or deluded their political worldview might be, most Americans simply do not harbor secret desires to control millions of people, are not chameleons capable of instantly changing their views at will, are not constantly "grasping" for ever more wealth and power at the expense of others, and don't dream of permanently and irreversibly transforming America's traditional center-right Judeo-Christian electorate into an anti-capitalist, government-dependent super-bloc of voters by importing ever more Democrats into America at breakneck speed.

Because normal people don't harbor such dark dreams and ambitions, many make the fatal mistake of looking at those who do through rose-colored glasses.

Bill Clinton is just as crooked as Hillary, but even more transparently so, being a lifelong sexual predator. Think about it: To Bill Clinton, women are not actual people with souls, and he has no regard for their well-being, just uses them to gratify himself, regardless of the trail of tears left behind. This is the mindset of the predator – the sociopath – the conscienceless person who has "learned" how to simulate a caring demeanor and personality. But it's all a put-on. In reality, other people are merely "resources" – like vehicles or furniture – things to use. This is the classic portrait of the sociopath, who pretends to care about you, but underneath is just an exploiter, a user – a criminal.

This mindset was on full display on Sept. 14, 2012, three days after the Benghazi massacre, when, with the bodies of the slain American heroes in their caskets at Andrews Air Force Base, Hillary Clinton looked the grieving parents right in the eye and lied to them. It doesn't get much colder than that.

Patricia Smith, mother of diplomat Sean Smith, said at the GOP convention, "When I saw Hillary Clinton at Sean's coffin ceremony, just days later, she looked me squarely in the eye and told me a video was responsible." The media shamefully did everything possible to ignore or demean this Gold Star mother's speech. But another Benghazi parent, Charles Woods, father of slain former Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods, says Hillary told him the exact same lie – that a nasty Internet video was responsible for his son's death.

In fact, Woods revealed during an interview with Fox News' Bill Hemmer that he always carries a little calendar book and makes sure to "write down the important things that happen each day." Here's what Woods wrote immediately after his encounter with Clinton: "I gave Hillary a hug and shook her hand, and she said we are going to have the filmmaker arrested who was responsible for the death of my son."

The animus to lie and deceive at a sacred moment like this is way beyond the usual political truth-bending. This is sociopathy; this is a criminal mind at work.

So, what would America be like with a criminal mind steering the ship of state for the next four years? Recently, I made an in-depth comparison between Hillary Clinton and the notorious "Nurse Ratched" in Ken Kesey's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." At the end, I offered this chilling prediction of what America will become under President Hillary Clinton:

If Hillary wins in November, the sheer revulsion of the great American middle class over having to endure Bill and Hillary Clinton back in the White House – this time with the viscerally unlikable Hillary in charge – at such a uniquely crucial time in our history will result in many bad things: First of all, just having to listen to Hillary will fry the circuitry of many Americans' minds. We don't fully comprehend the high stress level involved in being ruled over by someone who is literally lying to us all the time, whose whole life is a pretense, an act, a calculated manipulation – someone who never strikes any familiar chords within our souls of genuine decency, humanity and heartfelt shared values. This alone will create a baseline of constant pain, conflict and anger. The middle class will likely sink into a state of depression, both economically and emotionally. Suicide will increase, and not just because suicide rises with unemployment and Hillary is incapable of improving the economy or creating (non-government) jobs, but because public rage will multiply as people realize they have re-elected the delusional Barack Obama in the form of a corrupt, deceitful, power-mad old woman. The urge to chemically relieve pain will dramatically increase, and the current epidemic level of drug addiction – whether the drug source is a doctor or a dealer – will continue to skyrocket. Millions will drop out of politics in disgust, essentially abdicating rule of the country to the progressive left. Checkmate. Disgust and open rebellion will overtake the U.S. military, leading to a mass exit. Same with the FBI, particularly among the over 100 agents who worked diligently on the investigation of Hillary's private email server and her outrageous disregard for America's national security. In an age when evil is increasingly portrayed as good, and good as evil; when disordered and immoral behavior is imposed on the rest of society as normal and moral, and dissenting Christians are persecuted and even jailed; Hillary Clinton's presidency will mark the ultimate reversal of values. Whereas once America was blessed with a moral and legendarily honest "father of our country" named George Washington, in Hillary Clinton we'll have an immoral and legendarily dishonest "mother of our country." Most important is the message that will be transmitted to America's youth, whose values and worldview are still being formed, by having two people with a long criminal history, and who regard themselves as absolutely above the law, occupy the White House. What will reverberate deep in the minds and souls of the young will be much the same as the toxic message ghetto youth absorb when they observe criminals, drug dealers and pimps in their midst becoming "successful" – getting all the women, hot cars, money, power and fame they want. It's the message of the sociopath predator: There is no law but the jungle. Lying and stealing are no problem to me, because everyone – including the president – does it. Sexually taking whatever I want from others is fine, too – Bill Clinton proved that. Laws are for other people, and morality is whatever I want it to be. I'm gonna get what's mine, take care of me and my friends. If a crime family like Hillary and Bill can get into the White House and be honored by the whole world, I can ignore the law too and take whatever I can get. For those more sensitive and deeply moral souls, many will drop out of society and live in their own world. The more troubled of these will lose themselves in drugs, addictions and suicide. America, beneath its civilized, high-tech sheen, will increasingly resemble a mental ward. But this is the predictable outcome of elevating as a leader someone who pretends to want to take care of others, yet who secretly has contempt for them, indeed whose power is rooted in their very dependency, dysfunction and submission to her. This is the cuckoo's nest run by Nurse Ratched, and America under the rule of Hillary Clinton. If Hillary – who by all rights should be in prison for her many crimes – does become president, powerful forces of rage, revulsion and revenge will be unleashed in American society, and a level of pathology and madness we have never before witnessed will arise.

And everyone will ask, "Whoa, where in the hell did this come from?"

Now you know. Don't say you weren't warned.

The preceding is featured in the September 2016 issue of WHISTLEBLOWER magazine, titled "WILL WE ELECT A CRIMINAL?"

SPECIAL OFFER: Find out why Sean Hannity says "David Kupelian is one of the most thought-provoking and iconoclastic writers I know," Dinesh D'Souza says Kupelian's latest book "The Snapping of the American Mind" is "eye-opening, scary and galvanizing," and why Dr. Ted Baehr, chairman of the Christian Film & Television Commission, says "David Kupelian is one of the very few must-read writers in the 21st century." Get "The Snapping of the American Mind: Healing a Nation Broken by a Lawless Government and Godless Culture" – autographed – at the WND Superstore!

Also, get Kupelian's culture-war best-seller, "The Marketing of Evil" and its acclaimed sequel, "How Evil Works," both in paperback – all available, autographed, from WND! Or get all three at one super-low price! Audiobooks of all three titles also available!

Follow David Kupelian on Facebook.

Media wishing to interview David Kupelian, please contact [email protected].