I agree. We had our midterm elections here in Minnesota a few weeks ago and the ballot was a total disaster—there were basically zero good options on either side of the aisle. Voters just seem to keep doubling-down and voting for who those in their individual bubbles tell them to. One of our Democrats running for Governor, Amy Klobuchar, is promising to fight corruption even though she's been a Senator during one of the largest eras of corruption the state has ever seen (over $9B of taxpayer dollars vaporized) and did nothing about it. Yet a majority of voters still firmly believe she's the answer. I don't know how we escape this doom-loop.
Minnesota politics are some of the worst. The Twin Cities dictate everything for the rest of the state, and the pompous Democrat-leaning self-appointed elite look down on anyone who disagrees with them as basically one step removed from the KKK. Meanwhile, the Republicans are easily manipulated by xenophobic authoritarians promising to crack down on their own scapegoat classes, too.
I grew up there, and I have family and friends there. I know people who still believe the Fox News war hawk narrative. Netanyahu and Trump's insistence that Iran was weeks away from a nuclear weapon is treated as gospel by some.
I think the only states that have worse fraud are California and NY (mostly NYC). It's insane how bad it's gotten here since the pandemic—but it was in decline way before that. I don't understand how people fall for the same lies every single election. I guess it's more comfortable for them to believe someone will save them.