It's not at all easy to figure out why someone chooses to believe something. I mean some of it we can write off to they are being fed a lot of nonsense by the media and through the internet. I think in terms of Trump and DeSantis (who has decided his strategy is to be more MAGA than Trump) it is about showing off your "lifestyle and beliefs" by identifying yourself with these bizarre candidates. Don and Ron make this very big statements that fall into the "with us or against us" model to force people into a one side or the other choice. It's made out as very black or white, very this or that. They get their followers to choose and then promote total hate and disgust against the people that would not choose their side. It is a very horrible way to do things and forces people into a thought box where they must despise the other side. 

It is interesting to me that the Republican strategy is to go after small and very weak groups. Immigrants have no power and no say and are at the mercy of the country they want to enter. Strange to attack them as a major problem, particularly because they know we have a labor issue in this country and we need those immigrants here to help the economy. Strange to attack transgender, gay, and lesbian people when they are just a small portion of our society. So small in fact that when they complain about transgender athletes there are likely less than 100 of them in the entire country. We have a massive debate about what 100 people are doing. It is literally crazy and has no impact on our country. 

However, the beliefs about these issues are bigger than the issues themselves. The internet and the ability to express the opinion is far larger than 100 people that want to participate in a sport. 

On Trump and his appeal to Christians, I believe that works out like this:

There are a range of Christians that go from the ones that really see him as a Christlike figure to those that just see him as some sort of vessel doing god's work. Obviously, the ones that see him as Christlike are...well...nuts. The ones that see him as a flawed person that god is using to accomplish his goals, I think, have some bizarre ideas about god but they are not as batshit crazy as the ones that think Trump is the biggest Christian figure since Jesus. 

The thing is all of those ideas are buried in a belief system that makes them prone to fall for a guy like Trump or a guy like Ron DeSantis, who I am kind of beginning to believe may be an even worse human being than Donald.

Check out this new campaign ad from Ron that sure looks like the DeSantis campaign has lost their minds:

Ad starts at 2;59 in...