This year, we will see how many people can use critical thinking.
If you read the quote in my post above, those voting for extremes don't think critically. They are no different to those who once chose to kill a witch if their crop failed or their livestock died - the easy, simplistic answer.
Did the next crop prove fruitful? Did the next season's livestock live? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. If it were "no", you ended up approving of a government that included the Witch Finder General or later "witch" changed to "Jew" or whichever group the state could turn you against. That gave us the SS, the Stazi or the Red Guards.
Those who backed these forces and believed these lies gave power to the leaders of these movements. Those who backed them thought in the same simplistic way as those who now vote for Trump or, to some extent, Conservative. There is just enough left of Conservative values to believe a handful vote thoughtfully. The rest believe in the easy, cruel answer, even when it does not improve their lives.