Now THIS is a good question! My! Where do I eve begin? Tribal identity, favourite sports team mentality, a need to belong, a need to feel righteous ( The candidate I voted for was less dirty and corrupt than the one you voted for - without realizing, or wanting to accept that every single one of them is) a need to feel in control, to maintain the illusion of control over their own country, and the list goes on and on.

I think at a very deep level, people are afraid of being stripped of that illusion. I also believe some if not mos of them know deep down that spending every election cycle trying to figure out which one is an "acceptable" level of corrupt, dirty and dangerous is not going to take the country anywhere good, but between jobs, kids, bills and the odd relationship failure, they just go through the motions and allow the insanity to keep going on turbo wheels.

I do believe the polarity the last election has brought about ( by design not by accident ) has intensified the identity politics phenomenon to never before seen heights. You see people talk about the two party system and their candidates as if they're their beer buddies.

They would not defend those people more if they were a part of their own family. I believe this also has elements of childhood trauma of some kind, whether we're talking extremes or just growing up without communication. Where they felt like they didn't belong, like they weren't being listened to. Unresolved issues such as these leave adults very vulnerable to political manipulation of all kinds.

As far as I"m concerned, the USA is destroying itself , but it's going to be comfortable as it heads for self destruction.

Yes. Same country that left Europe revolted by the kings' abuse of power.