The 35% Answer: What to do when a Third of Your Country Lives in a Weird Fantasy
Democracy only works if we can agree on what happened. Not what it means, just what actually happened. We can debate whether a war was justified. We can't debate whether it occurred.
That basic requirement is now broken.
Consider this: 30% of Americans believe Joe Biden stole the presidency despite no evidence of widespread fraud after countless Republican-led investigations. One-third of adults believe COVID vaccines have caused thousands of sudden deaths in otherwise healthy people. 63% of Republicans think the January 6th defendants deserved pardons.
These are people believing things that didn't happen.
When someone claims Trump reduced the deficit, they're not just wrong about economic policy. They're wrong about reality. He added $7.8 trillion to it. When they claim crime is at record highs, they're denying FBI statistics showing violent crime near its lowest levels since the early 1970s. When they believe a billionaire who gold-plates his toilets actually cares about working families, they're living in a fantasy where a man who stiffed his own contractors for decades is somehow their champion.
This isn't a difference of perspective. It's a rejection of reality itself.
For democracy to function, people need to share basic facts even when they disagree about everything else. We need to agree that unemployment is either 4% or it isn't. That a hurricane either hit Florida or it didn't. That elections are valid when people you don't like win, not just when your team wins.
That agreement no longer exists.
Through a combination of social media algorithms, deliberate propaganda, and partisan news ecosystems, roughly a third of the country has moved to a different dimension. In their dimension, some argue that dragons are real but dinosaurs are fake. Climate change is a hoax but weather control machines exist. The moon landing was staged but JFK Jr. is coming back. And at the center of it all, a man who cheated on all three wives and called American war heroes "losers" is actually a noble patriot who loves his country and is just misunderstood by everyone who's mean to him.
They believe a man who wouldn't rent to Black families genuinely cares about them. A man who mocked a disabled reporter is their champion. A casino owner who bankrupted casinos is their business genius. They donate their last dollars to defend a billionaire who wouldn't let them set foot in Mar-a-Lago. It's like believing in Santa Claus, except Santa Claus at least gives presents to children instead of taking their parents' Social Security.
The comfortable liberal assumption is that this is an information problem. If we just fact-check harder, teach media literacy, or find the right messenger, people will come around to reality.
This is delusional.
These Americans aren't confused. They've chosen a story that feels true over facts that don't. Everyone has access to the same internet. The FBI crime statistics, deficit numbers, vote counts, death rates, Trump's actual business history, his documented lies, it's all right there. But millions have decided that all of this is fake while anonymous posts about microchips in your flu shot and Trump's secret genius reveal hidden truths.
You can't educate people out of beliefs they didn't reason themselves into.
This is harsh to acknowledge. These are our neighbors, our family members, our coworkers. But pretending they'll suddenly embrace reality if we just find the right words is preventing us from protecting democracy from those who no longer live in the real world.
You cannot govern people who live in different realities.
When a third of the country believes we're being invaded by immigrants while actual border crossings dropped 81% in December 2024 compared to the previous year, how do you collaborate on immigration policy? When they believe hurricanes are God punishing gay people, how do you craft disaster preparedness plans? When they think wildfires are caused by Jewish space lasers and climate change is fake, how do you discuss evidence based environmental policy?
You don't. You just have to govern while each side responds to completely different versions of what's happening.
This isn't like normal democratic disagreements. It's not "how should we address crime?" It's "are mass shootings real or are they all transgender crisis actors?"
If we can't share reality, we need to stop pretending we can share governance.
Blue states can't effectively collaborate with red states who refuse to acknowledge basic science. Instead, we need to be building renewable energy infrastructure, funding public health, and investing in education. Meanwhile, red states are banning books about Rosa Parks, rejecting federal healthcare funds, and teaching creationism as science. They're passing laws based on conspiracy theories about litter boxes in school bathrooms.
This is the future: Two Americas, each governing according to their own version of reality.
Stop trying to convince them. No amount of facts, logic, or evidence will change minds that have already decided facts, logic, and evidence are themselves conspiracies.
Instead, do the following:
if you live in a red state, pass voting rights expansion, make it so every voice can be heard. Also, fight to have ballot initiatives that improve quality of life for your fellow residents.
If you live in a blue state then work to cut off red state welfare, improve your quality of life, and make bilateral agreements with other blue states. Create friction at every level of engagement with the federal government to counter their wild corruption, greed, and hate.
Build systems that function without them. The Federal Reserve doesn't take a vote on whether inflation exists. It measures it and responds. Every critical institution needs this same independence from democratic input when that input is based on fiction.
Let reality be the referee. Major insurers have withdrawn from Florida markets because climate change is real whether Ron DeSantis believes it or not. Businesses are leaving states that ban books and restrict healthcare because educated workers won't move there. Reality has a way of asserting itself through money.
Protect the systems that determine truth. Universities, research institutions, and government statistical agencies need constitutional protection from political interference because they threaten the alternate timeline.
We must accept that democracy has limits. We don't vote on whether gravity exists. Some things are true regardless of what people believe, and policy about those things shouldn't be subject to democratic input from people who deny they exist.
This isn't elitist. It's recognition that democracy cannot function when voters are responding to events that didn't happen, solving problems that don't exist, and fighting threats that aren't real.
Of course, not everyone who voted for Trump believes all of these things. Some only believe the election was stolen. Others only think vaccines are dangerous. Still others simply wanted lower taxes. But enough believe enough false things that we can no longer govern based on shared facts. And those who don't believe the lies but vote alongside those who do are choosing power over truth.
The 35% answer is an acknowledgement that we can't govern in two different realities. It's an acknowledgment that a third of America has chosen fantasy over reality, and the rest of us need to figure out how to build a functional society without them.
The alternative is simple: We keep pretending both realities are equally valid, keep seeking compromise between what happened and what didn't.
That's not democracy. It's a suicide pact.
If this analysis resonated with you, you might be interested in my book Conservatism: America's Empathy Disorder, which explores the psychological and neurological roots of how a political movement can abandon democratic principles in favor of power. The book examines why certain minds find authoritarianism comforting rather than terrifying, and why appeals to shared humanity fail when empathy itself has become partisan.
Works Cited
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CNN. "CNN Poll: Percentage of Republicans who think Biden's 2020 win was illegitimate ticks back up near 70%." CNN Politics, August 3, 2023.
Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. "How Much Did President Trump Add to the Debt?" CRFB, January 10, 2024.
Congressional Budget Office. "How the 2017 Tax Act Has Affected CBO's GDP and Budget Projections Since January 2017." CBO, April 2018.
Federal Bureau of Investigation. "FBI Releases 2024 Reported Crimes in the Nation Statistics." FBI.gov, August 2025.
Johns Hopkins University. "U.S. officially surpasses one million COVID-19 deaths." Hub, May 17, 2022.
KFF. "KFF Health Misinformation Tracking Poll Pilot." Kaiser Family Foundation, May-June 2023.
Monmouth University. "Most Say Fundamental Rights Under Threat." Monmouth University Polling Institute, June 20, 2023.
Rasmussen Reports. "More Than Half Suspect COVID-19 Vaccines Have Caused Deaths." Rasmussen Reports, January 2024.
Reclaim Finance. "Banking on Climate Chaos 2025." Reclaim Finance, June 17, 2025.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection. "CBP Releases December 2024 Monthly Update." CBP.gov, January 2025.
U.S. Department of the Treasury. "The U.S. Post-Pandemic Recovery in Context." Treasury.gov, November 2024.
U.S. Treasury Fiscal Data. "Debt to the Penny." Bureau of the Fiscal Service, accessed January 2021.
YouGov. "The new government, MAGA, Jan. 6, Jimmy Carter, and 2025: December 21-24 and 29-31, 2024 Economist/YouGov Poll." YouGov, December 2024.
Great post. I don’t know how the blue states can stop supporting the red states without some form of partition. The whole idea of the USA was to band together for mutual support and fair trade. With Texas now prepared to send its national guard to Illinois the entire rationale behind uniting the states disappears.
The seeds of our dissolution are sprouting in the pacts democratic states are creating for public health. Will they want unvaccinated idiots from Florida infecting their citizens? Will the blue states want ICE goons keeping the best and brightest foreign students from their great institutions of higher learning? Who will want anything to do with the US Military invading their cities? I spent four years in the military with a stint in Vietnam. I wouldn’t have joined if a an incompetent like Hegseth had been in charge. He is slowly souring public support for what had once been a highly respected American organization.
Trump has eviscerated the best parts of our government with the joyful participation of legislators from the red states. I don’t want anything further to do with states like Florida and Texas. They have no respect for the constitution and I have no respect for them.
This is spot on. My own brother lives in that alternative reality. I recently shared facts with him about red states having the highest crime rates. At first he texted "Lies!" Then I suspect he did a bit of research. He explained Mississippi's high crime rate was due to a large black population that was more violent than whites. This, despite the fact that nearly all mass shootings are conducted by white men. I think history will prove that the most evil players right now are the media liars and disinformationists.