If Mr. Trump is to receive a majority or even a plurality in the general election, millions of Americans who have concluded that he is not qualified to be president and that Mrs. Clinton is qualified will have to cast their ballots for him anyway.

Under normal circumstances, such an outcome would be inconceivable. But this year has been anything but normal, and a return to normality during the next seven weeks seems unlikely.

Mr. Trump has recently tried to win over black voters by asking them, “What do you have to lose?” Quite a bit, it turns out—his support among African-Americans still hovers just above zero.

But many white Americans have a different view, some of it reflecting cultural and demographic changes they find alarming, much of it rooted in their gloomy economic outlook. “I love Trump,” a Kentucky FedEx driver recently told the New York Times. “He shoots from the hip.” Asked whether that might be dangerous, she replied “I don’t care. After all we’ve been through, I just don’t care.”