An attachment this deep cannot be effectively countered just by proposing a few new policies, or fielding a Democratic candidate with more appealing demographic characteristics.   It will be tricky even to put people in touch with the feelings of being “nobodies” that underlie their current Trump veneration, since we all tend to be ashamed to talk about these emotions, or even straightforwardly acknowledge them within our own minds.

To relieve this burden of shame, we all need to be aware that more than just a few remote clusters of fentanyl-addicted hillbillies feel like overlooked nonentities.  

Today, almost everyone feels this way, at least to some degree.  How could we feel otherwise, when the scope of our primary frame of reference has become global, and disturbingly few of the people in the places where we live know us in any sense at all—much less recognize and value the contributions we make?