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I wrote this in another thread, seems appropriate here too.
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That's generally not how it works for most people who idolize or lionize a candidate or party or ideology.
If you've decided to put some political figure up on some pedestal, if you've psychologically annointed them the one who will win and there's a part of you that you're not really conscious of that believes they will smite your tribal foes, the out-groups, if you've been given over to such idolatry, such belief, such Dopaminergic response...
...then this is now part of your belief system. Your brain forms firing patterns that support that particular belief or set of beliefs, and things that reinforce that feel good while things that challenge that feel dissonant and dysphoric. It doesn't matter so much if those challenges come from opinions or facts, you feel under attack, you feel your security is threatened in some way, and a 'fight or flight' response starts to intrude into the workings of your mind.
Most minds, when challenged in such a way, actually seek to strengthen the mental processes that feel good, that release Dopamine -- the held beliefs -- rather than attempt to explore the thought that those beliefs might be flawed or might need shifting. The mind essentially freezes in place, trying to protect beliefs / mental patterns / Dopaminergic responses.
Strong enough evidence can cause a shift -- but it's all relative to the mental chemistry of the individual, the strength of the beliefs, the strength of the counter-evidence.
I think that the evidence that exists thus far falls well short of what would be needed to shift most strong Trump supporters or most strong Clinton supporters. I think the answer is to NOT put candidates or parties or ideologies on these pedestals, to NOT let them turn into a matter of belief. I think that's the only way to try and maintain any sort of objectivity (and sanity). I think the phenomenon of this conversion of party and candidate into belief has been hugely exacerbated by the internet, social media, and smartphones, and that's why we are on average significantly more partisan and divided and biased now. I think this partially explains the rise of the Alt Right and the Regressive Left (and The Horseshoe Theory). I think the freezing of individual minds at the micro level due to how neurons work is mirrored across our country on a macro level due to how individuals work. I think the human brain is a wonder of the universe but is deeply flawed and built on a foundation of extraordinarily counter-productive structures and interconnectivities. I think Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), if it's one day able to be instantiated in programming code, may be vastly more capable of objectivity than anything we've ever experienced. I think ultimately AGI will take over governing decisions and resource allocations.
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