You might have missed it because there is so much awful news all the time, but the president threw himself a big ol’ fashioned rally in my childhood state of Minnesota last week. He held this rally right in the middle of an immigrant baby jail scandal that is, and will continue to be, a humanitarian disaster. And it’d be a political disaster too, if the Trump Presidency weren’t already an eternal bag of dogshit aflame on everyone’s doorstep. I have been told, by certain unreliable sources, that this is the week that finally broke Trump’s spell, given that there is now living audio and photos of children and their parents suffering horribly under this president’s direct orders. I guess the idea is that even Trump’s most ardent supporters surely couldn’t tolerate such atrocities.

But of course, when Trump touched down in Duluth last week, he didn’t have to worry about anyone, save for a lone protestor, confronting him for his inhumanity. Instead, he still got the love and validation he so desperately craves from the Heartland whenever reasonable people back in Washington tell him that he’s a monster. Here’s the snippet that really broke my brain:

Of course they cheered for a figment of Trump’s imagination and not his disastrous real-world policies. Of course they did. Trump himself predicted as much when he went ahead and okayed the separation of immigrant families at the border:

Just a day before Mr. Trump signed it, one person close to the president said that he told advisers that separating families at the border was the best deterrent to illegal immigration and that he said that “my people love it.”

And they do. In fact, and oh wow you’re not gonna believe this, but Trump voters tend to grow even fonder of Trump the more he fucks up at his job. A near-infinite number of gallons of ink have been spilled trying to explain the fever grip Trump has over this inordinately powerful bloc of the electorate. He lies to them. Fox News lies to them on his behalf. The Internet lies to them. The establishment media (hi!) disdains them and sows their distrust as a result. They’re going through difficult times and need bogeymen to lash out at. Their schools are garbage. They’re hooked on opioids. They harbor deep racial and sexual resentments that have only been superficially addressed through the years. Since 2016, I have been fed explanation after explanation as to why these people act and vote the way that they do.

But what if, and hear me out on this… what if it’s because the people are the problem?