The WaPo did yeoman's work and cataloged Trump's lies from last night. Again, it's difficult to say why Trump lies so much. Is it ignorance? Probably. An indifference to the truth or a hostility towards it? Likely both. The fact is that Trump has made easily refuted lies part of his rhetoric and the 42% simply do not care.
There's a little bit of this in all of us - not caring that we are being lied to when the lie pleases us - but this is something fundamentally different. A few years ago, I can to conclude that policy positions are largely irrelevant to many voters. I think it first occurred to me during the 2000 election, when Gore's ideas were largely popular (in a vacuum) but it scarcely seemed to matter when voters made their choices. Policy white papers don't matter - tribe matters, identity matters.
I don't know how a representative democracy can survive these trends. The Enlightenment was always overblown in its esteem of reason, but reason was considered the seat of government. Now it's tough to say that anyone who currently supports Trump - aside from a few millionaires and billionaires - are making their electoral decisions based on who would most successfully run the government for the benefit of the greatest number of Americans.
They are voting their hatred of "liberals" and existing in a biosphere of panicky flopsweat about anarchists, antifa and child traffickers. A few hundred over caffeinated anarchists in Portland and a few thousand cases of trafficking have created a parallel universe drenched in fear and extinguishing reason.
Update: I certainly think Joe Biden will wipe the floor with Trump during their debates, but it will require a moderator who establishes facts and again, his lies won't matter to his 42%.
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