According to a 2013 poll, 61% of Romney voters thought climate change was a hoax. 38% of Romney voters believed a secret globalist elite (or New World Order) was conspiring to rule the world. 22% of Romney voters thought Obama was the Antichrist.

Source: Public Policy Polling as cited in this book. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/557144/alt-america-by-david-neiwert/

America has always had a rightist, conspiracy-obsessed, and reality-challenged fringe. What's changed, arguably, is that this fringe has taken over one of the two major parties and is directly catered to (and cultivated) by the main media organs of that party.

Weakened parties + the fragmentation of the media = a situation where the loudest and most outlandish voices were able to easily take over the conversation within the GOP. It's hard to see how they get that horse back in the barn.

Let it sink in for a second that, assuming the polling data was accurate, if you happened to strike up a conversation with a Romney voter, there'd be a 1 in 5 chance they genuinely thought Obama was the Antichrist. Now that's a base that was primed to MAGA in 2016.

As usual, this guy is probably lying or exaggerating, but it seems like a fitting cap to this thread.