For what it’s worth, I remain flabbergasted why there still is 38% approval. Then again, I‘m European, hence clueless by definition about USian politics.

It’s a story I’ve told before, but I never tire of it.

Herbert Hoover was inaugurated President in March, 1929. In October, barely 8 months later, the market crashed. It continued crashing for months afterwards, a few false rallies stemming the tide for a day or two here and there. Factories actually began closing a month or two earlier, but accelerated apace with the drying up of capital in the markets.

Banks started failing in significant numbers a year later, and without FDIC insurance millions of Americans lost everything when over 9,000 banks failed in short order. Breadlines spread, food kitchens opened, suicide rates rose by 50% in the aftermath (though the myth of brokers jumping off buildings was not true).

Town squares were littered with homeless; tent cities appeared in the middle of cities and towns across the country; people walked around with their pants pockets turned inside out and called them “Hoover flags” to indicate how broke they were and who was to blame. Official unemployment, if there was such a thing, was 25%, but it was likely far higher as those statistics were not well tended, and in any event the workforce did not include two income families. Minority communities were devastated, and ethnic enclaves turned inwards, as there was no “outward employment” to be found.

And this continued every single day for three full years and then some , and when it was time for a re-election campaign, Hoover secured the Republican nomination, and got 40% of the vote. Imagine getting 40% of the vote after such as disastrous period. Yes, 40% of voters said “More of this, please.”

And you wonder how Trump managed 38%? It’s because there are truly 40% of people who are stupid. Not just dumb, but actively, incredibly, unable to think for themselves stupid. I suspect humanity has been that way since the beginning of time, which makes me agree with George Carlin that we are basically a failed species.

Depressing, no?