To the Editor:
I am doing e-mail with a couple of friends in Mexico and a friend in Canada. Like people in many other countries, they follow trends in America. They, like many people in our country, seem completely bewildered by the fact that Trump is either in the lead or anywhere near it in the upcoming election.
Among other things, they point out that Trump is a narcissistic, chronic liar who tried to overthrow a valid election, lying even after the lies have been proven to be false, a foul-mouthed bully who insults other Americas on a daily basis. That he is a convicted felon, with multiple women charging him with some sort of sexual misbehavior.
They claim that he is holding the world back in its efforts to fight climate change, and my Mexican friends almost fell off their chairs when they heard that he advocated drinking bleach to fight Covid. They add that they have read that half of his businesses have failed, that he has relied on bankruptcy courts to stay solvent and are astonished that he is now hawking random items to the public. Also pointing out that most of the democratic leaders around the world consider him to be rude, and privately view him with contempt.
I must admit to being in an embarrassing position because I can’t counter any of those points. Nor can I point to many of Trump’s virtues, simply because other than limiting illegal immigration, he seems to have accomplished so few things during his presidency, from my political perspective. So, from my position, I simply say that most people now, and as far as I can remember, do not vote for programs, policies or people.
They vote for the party of their parents. So, it isn’t Trump, in particular, that half of America will be voting for; it is simply voting for the party that their neighbors and family vote for.
Our more educated Americans tend to vote Democrat; those with advanced degrees, along with those in the scientific community, notably lean to the Left. Using the example of my own state, N.J., I pointed out that the county with the highest level of college grads shifted from voting Rep prior to 2008 to Democrat since then. In fact four of the top five counties for college grads, Somerset, Morris, Monmouth and Bergen, vote Democrat.
Additionally, the U.S. demographic is aging and older people are more conservative and less educated than our younger population. Lower levels of education correlates strongly with low incomes and low wealth. More social scientists are recognizing that the Republican/Democrat divide is actually a divide between those with higher education who are doing well and those who are “being left behind” which form the Republican base.
So, much of Trump’s support is simply people voting for the Republican party.