Because Donald Trump and his Republican allies cut funding to disease prevention and control.

Why is measles back in America?

Because Donald Trump and his Republican allies, including RFK Jr, cut vaccine and measles prevention funding and programs.

Why is the New World Screwworm infecting cattle in Texas, when it had previously been eliminated from the area?

Because Donald Trump and his Republican allies, including Elon Musk, cut USAID funding, which in part worked to monitor and prevent screwworm outbreaks.

Why was there a flu outbreak in our armed forces?

Because Donald Trump and his Republican allies, including Pete Hegseth, cut vaccination requirements for our armed forces, putting all of them at risk alongside our military readiness.

What contributed to the Covid outbreak?

Donald Trump and his Republican allies cut funding to a pandemic prevention program in his first term because Barack Obama had created it.

This decades-long propaganda campaign has simultaneously degraded our education system, encouraged people to be more low trust and tribalist, and—importantly—has been better at telling voters how it will “help” them than liberals or leftists.

It’s true that simple lies are easier to process than complicated policy decisions. And emotional behavior is something shared by all voters, not just Republicans.

What I want to challenge every liberal, socialist, communist, or generally-left-of-center voter to consider: the world and government you want requires a high trust environment to function, while the world and government conservatives want thrives on low-trust environments. Is America currently a high social trust or low social trust environment? Does the way you think and talk about other people—even when they are wrong—encourage a high trust or low trust environment?

And, in the end, how do we repair social trust so that the world we want can come to fruition?

I won’t pretend to have all the answers here, and I’m not saying every voter needs to be babied until they die. But working to understand why people believe what they believe and taking them in good faith while seeking understanding can often go a long way.