Democrats and a lot of Republicans are scratching our heads trying to figure out the appeal of the braggadocios billionaire. Democrats say that the appeal is very basic; his message of nationalism, xenophobia, sexism and racism makes aging white people feel like they are losing all their power. Trump voters say it s something different; they say it s the economy, unless it s their economy. While Obama has apparently screwed up the economy, they think their local economies are doing just great.It s not terribly surprising. To hear Trump speak, we are in some sort of post apocalyptic hellscape that only the Orange One can take us out of. You know he s trying to justify the economy. It s the slowest recovery in our history, and it s not a recovery,  he said.Source: The HillTrump calls the economy a  disaster. Trump even repeats the bogus claim that the unemployment rate is over 40 percent. That would be apocalyptic.Now, delegates are supposed to be (supposed to be) a cross section of the American people. If anything, they should be a little smarter than the average bear, at least the average Republican bear, but even they seem to excel at compartmentalizing. They are individually very happy with the economy, but they also believe Trump when the billionaire tells them they are suffering. Actually, we re doing great,  says Donna Gottschall, a human resources consultant in Greenville, S.C.  Employment s up. Housing s up. Everything s green in Greenville! Oh, yeah, unemployment is way down,  says Al Baldasaro, a state legislator and retired Marine from Londonderry, N.H.  Obviously, it s gotten better. Things are wonderful in our town,  says Ranae Lentz, a Republican county chair from Bellefontaine, Ohio.  We can t fill all the job openings. Source: PoliticoWhile it s unlikely that any Trump supporter would credit Obama with anything at all, some do credit Bush.Tina Harris, a longtime realtor in Palm Harbor, Florida, told me the housing market is  booming.  But she argued that this was a troubling data point, because buyers were liquidating their 401(k) accounts and taking money out of the  real economy  to purchase homes.  Have you checked your 401(k) lately?  asked her friend Nancy Riley, another veteran realtor in the St. Petersburg area. I said I hadn t, but I did know the stock market had just hit an all-time high, and I didn t see why jobs in construction and real estate like theirs shouldn t count as the real economy. I m not saying everything is horrible,  Harris said.  But it was George W. Bush who put in the policies that got the economy going. Obama did nothing. Strangely, even Trump himself has accidentally given a thumbs up to Obama s economy. In announcing his running mate, Indiana s governor, Mike Pence, Trump bragged that the unemployment rate has gone from 8.4 percent to 5 percent. Well, under Obama, the nation s unemployment rate has gone from 10 percent to under 5 percent.No one is claiming the economy is perfect. Thanks in part to Republican policies, like refusing to raise the minimum wage, wages have been stagnant, and also thanks to Republican policies, the income gap has only grown. There s still a lot of work to be done, but Trump s policies won t do it. In fact, the chief economist at Moody s predicts that Trump s protectionist platform will lose us 3.5 million jobs.Featured image via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images