This is really something that I've actually seen change during Obama's presidency. Perhaps its a realization that previously ignored groups had when Obama got elected that because a black man had been elected to the highest office in the United States, anything was possible and they took as much advantage of that as they could in order to bring previously unspoken issues to the surface. I mean, consider gay rights. Eight to ten years ago, it was still a common thing to call someone a fag and mean it in a derogatory way without much consequence and now its pretty much the gay n-word. Not that it's not a bad thing, but that right there's a change in the national conversation that's happened within the lifetimes of some people who've had to deal with homophobia most of their lives, and now we're proud to have gay athletes at the Winter Olympics just six years after Obama got elected.

I think the issue that arises with left-leaning people and self-proclaimed liberals who dismiss trump supporters and conservatives in general is how they think the rest of the country seems to have changed for the better, but this group of people haven't. And so when they find themselves in front of such a person, their first reaction is disgust (like "How can you support Trump?") rather than inquiry into why and how this person feels, believes, and acts this way. There's no patience anymore for answers when the first response to somebody wearing a make america great again hat is to pretty much disown them without even trying to find the reasons why they're wearing the hat at all. It's like watching Obi Wan Ken-obi talk to a Sith by repeating "Only a Sith believes in absolutes." over and over again while the Sith just watches. All that happens is Obi Wan gets to feel better about his own beliefs without realizing the irony and dangers of imposing them dogmatically, and the Sith just stands back seething until Obi Wan finally stops talking. The response the Sith has is resentful, to say the least, and that's why our politics has broken down into polarization so fast over the last eight years.