That is why there is no point in reasoning with an angry person. Politicians who try to “address” anger are frustrated by the attempt. Donald Trump does not address anger, he channels it: he gives voice to it, he identifies with it, he praises it, he encourages it.

According to Montaigne, that is the prudent course for a politician who wishes to gain support, for “anger is a passion that takes pleasure in itself and flatters itself.”

The voters who are angry do not want their anger assuaged; they want to feel justified in their anger, and they want to feel it more intensely. That is what Trump understands.

If one attempts to dispassionately identify the causes of popular anger and propose reasonable responses, one is likely to be castigated as “out of touch.” That is because being “in touch” is not a matter of what one knows but how one feels.

Americans have much more access to information than ever before. Support for anything one wants to believe is just a few web clicks away. But this means there is less shared knowledge. There are no widely accepted authorities to appeal to as arbiters of fact.