I can think of a couple of reasons: Joe Biden isn’t a woman and isn’t a Clinton.
As I mentioned in another thread, the question isn’t how many are embarrassed by Trump but rather how many can’t be swayed by anti-Biden propaganda.
My worry is that ~63M who voted for Trump knew what they were voting for and, to a large extent, got what they wanted. People don’t re-examine their values and morals unless they have suffered consequences that require them to do so. The college educated Trump supporters have not suffered. What’s more, they have no reason to think Biden will be better than HRC as a practical matter. His policies are virtually identical to those that she proposed in her 2016 bid. It may be that they couldn’t stomach the idea of a woman president, especially that woman president. But Trump wasn’t just an acceptable alternative to HRC. He promised and delivered exactly the kind of chaos in which many college educated entrepreneurial republicans find opportunities to thrive.
Some people thought (or at least claimed to think) that Trump was going to “grow into the job” and be more presidential if he won. They probably thought he wouldn’t be this bad at the job and for the nation. Whether that will turn them into Biden voters remains to be seen, but I am hopeful that enough of them just can’t stomach this insanity any longer.
Don’t forget all the GOP congresspeople who were supposedly going to be a mitigating influence on him and definitely not roll over and show their necks the day after the election.
I lack the faith in the good sense of college educated voters that you have. The hope is that some people who weren’t embarrassed by his behavior before, regarding the novel clown show as something fun, have grown tired of it over the last four years.
And stats bear that out: there’s a significant chunk of voters who chose Trump before but are leaning Biden now. I’m having trouble tracking down a cite for this, but I’m pretty sure I’ve read a news story pointing to these 2016Trump/2020Biden voters, and how they’re poised to swing the election.
Did they, though? Did they get a wall, and Mexico paid for it? Is Clinton locked up? Is the economy chugging along? Is our health care better than ever? Has America regained the respect it once held on the world stage? Is Roe v. Wade overturned?
I mean, sure: they got lower taxes and a far-right Supreme Court. Those who vote solely on judicial grounds, or on tax rates, got what they want. I’m not sure they make up anywhere close to a majority of Trump voters.
The majority of Trump supporters sought and got revenge for the preceding 8 years of the Obama administration. Trump is a Rorschach test for every negative impulse his supporters projected on to him and which Trump was happy to embrace and exploit. In that sense, they did get what they wanted, and they would like 4 more years of the same, perhaps more.
This. There was a memorable news story from shortly before the 2016 election, interviewing several white women who were very “soft” Trump supporters. They said every time they saw the Hillary ad showing Trump saying his (then) greatest hits of indefensible outrageousness, they were resolved for about an hour to vote for Hillary, but then the effect would wear off. They literally said their ultimate decision would probably depend on how recently they had seen that ad on Election Day!
Also this. He actually did promise he would settle down and be “presidential” after he went into office. Many of these voters thought the election was a kind of performative contest, and then when he sat behind the Resolute Desk, he’d become more the stoic, commanding presence he had presented on TV as the CEO on The Apprentice. That didn’t happen: he has needlessly sabotaged himself ever since. (We’re fortunate that he’s not a savvier, but no less despicable, version of himself.)
You can just look at the national polls. Exactly four years ago, in September 2016, Hillary had a lead of a point or two in some polls, and was actually behind in others. That’s not remotely the case for Biden now.* What’s actually weird is that we didn’t see it as more ominous for her at the time. I’m as guilty as anyone: I think we just couldn’t wrap our minds around the idea that this obvious buffoon could actually win, so we didn’t process how dicey those numbers were. (This time, most Democrats are doing the opposite, not willing to trust even a sizable Biden polling lead.)
*In fact, the contrast between 2016 and 2020 polls would be even greater, except that a significant number of Latinx voters have watched the past four years and inexplicably decided “Huh, I was skeptical of this guy in 2016 and voted for Hillary, but now that I’ve seen him in action, he’s won me over.” WTF
Hence his slogan:
Malice, tempered by incompetence.
Ha, indeed.
There is another reason Woodward had to corroborate what Trump said on tape:
He didn’t want Trump to do to him what Karl Rove did to James Hatfield.
Its’t that the Tea-Party variant on" Fishhooks” McCarthy’s prayer "O Lord, give me health and strength. We’ll steal the rest”?
Sorry but doesn’t that imply the opposite? They don’t feel embarrassment or prioritize morals and values unless they are being constantly shamed into it.
I’m not sure “opposite” is the accurate word, but yes: it means you have to constantly shame them into it. That means campaign activity and spending does matter for those people, and so do new stories that hit the news. The rest of us can shake our heads and wonder how anyone could be in such a mental state that this has not all been made abundantly clear one way or the other, but it’s a reality.