“[T]here is virtually nothing, no matter how crazy, that you can’t get about 18 percent of Americans to support if they’re in a bad enough mood. In the spring of 2011, 17 percent of likely Republican primary voters said that thought it would be a good idea to nominate Donald Trump for president.”

Gail Collins, from As Texas Goes . . . published in 2012.

Collins was discussing the fact that about 18 percent of Texans expressed support for secession in 2009.  The craziest example she could come up with to demonstrate how a segment of the American population will support just about anything was the idea of Donald Trump as a presidential candidate.  Sorry Gail, you totally and completely underestimated the craziness of the American public.