This is actually one of the best news media commentaries I’ve encountered attempting to explain a phenomenon that almost no one seems willing to discuss honestly. At least Mr. Edsall brings us closer to confronting it.

I stopped watching many cable news programs and reading much of the political commentary in the print media on this topic because they repeatedly seemed to be missing what I believe is an important element of the story.

After food and gas prices don’t go down. After senseless, seemingly endless wars are initiated. After we witness unbelievable displays of grotesque self-enrichment and corruption—after, after, after—what explains the enduring and, as this article suggests, remarkably high levels of Trump’s political support? Is part of the explanation hiding inside of people living amongst us in plain sight?

As I read this well-researched and analytically grounded article, I kept trying to make sense of what, from my perspective, appears to be a profound contradiction:

“You are ashamed to publicly tell someone that you support a person whom many regard as a racist and a bigot—and yet, you still support that person.”

And so, I am left with what I can only describe as my kindest spiritual hypothesis: