Trump has presented himself three times as the candidate of anger and grievance. In 2020, enough voters were tired of the nonsense. But after four years of a fairly innocuous Joe Biden administration, its appeal has somewhat broadened. There are many reasons voters tell pollsters they back Trump: the economy, immigration, crime. But what if a good number of Trump supporters are simply chaos voters? They may not feel terribly mistreated but rather resent what they perceive as better treatment given to people they do not believe deserve it. These voters would not be put off by Trump’s aggression and threats because his brash rhetoric is part of the appeal.

Obviously I’m not describing all the people who voted for the Trump-Vance ticket. But Trump’s four years in office were incredibly divisive and unpleasant. Unlike 2016, those who returned him to office this week know what they are going to find. A large proportion of these voters do not appear to have been persuaded by appeals to American democratic traditions and the maintenance of democracy itself. Among voters who put “the state of democracy” as their top issue in this election, 80% voted for Vice President Kamala Harris. according to NBC exit poll. But Harris and Trump voters were also equally likely to say democracy was threatened: Nearly three-quarters of voters said the same, and their votes were split almost evenly between Trump and Harris. In other words, these Trump voters seem to believe that their candidate not only poses no real threat to democracy, but may be the right man to protect it.

It is also important to remember that autocrats are not always installed against the will of the people. Many initially win popular elections and then use their power to undo democratic norms (see, for example, Vladimir Putin in Russia, Recep Erdoğan in Turkey, Viktor Orbán in Hungary, and Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, among others). And many autocrats enjoy widespread support, at least for a time. Both Italy Benito Mussolini and the Spaniard Francisco Franco were initially popular figures, and franc remains admired by many right-wing Spaniards.

Formal democratic systems that prioritize justice, power sharing and compromise (protecting the rights of minorities and the vulnerable) are relatively new in the course of human history and are often quite unpopular. Democracy, and the compromise and power-sharing it requires, is difficult, something Harris supporters no doubt feel today.

So while I think Harris was right, like Presidents Joe Biden and Bill Clinton before her, to emphasize the threat Trump posed to democracy, her promise to break the system for her favored groups is part of her popularity. . The lack of electoral integrity, Trump and his supporters argued, was the real threaten democracy, and insisted that the American electoral system was fatally flawed. Let us now observe the silence of these same conservatives.

The term “bull in a china shop“comes up a lot when voters talk about Trump, and his team even campaigned about that reputation in 2020. His supporters mean he as a compliment: They want to see him break what many of us consider precious.

As predicted, the gender gap in this election was significant: 53% of women and 42% of men voted for Harris, according to NBC Exit Polls. The combination of gender and education created an even greater contrast: 57% of college-educated white women and 65% of college-educated voters of color voted for Harris, while less than 30% of non-college-educated white men they did it. Yes, millions of women voted for Trump. But most did not. They already lived in Trump’s proverbial china shop, and they didn’t find it pleasant.

But if you’re the kind of person who likes to break things (or, returning to Girdusky’s metaphor, who likes to watch things burn), then the suffering of those you consider unworthy is more attractive than frightening; maybe it’s even exciting. In fact, the final events of Trump’s campaign seemed increasingly petty. While Harris surrounded himself with substitutes like Beyoncé and Taylor Swift And with a tone of optimism, Trump drew on male celebrities and subcultures that emphasize a specific type of macho masculinity: Hulk Hogan, Dana WhiteJoe Rogan and Elon Musk.

The rhetoric of Trump and his supporters also appears to have appealed to those who have historically demanded a quick and sometimes revolutionary change: the young and the male. younger men broke for Trump by a clear margin. Although almost 60% of Latinos over 65 voted for Harris, the vote of younger people was almost evenly divided. Among black voters, more than 90% of those over 65 voted for Harris, but her support dropped by about ten points among black voters under 65. And across racial groups, the gender gap between male and female Trump voters was notable: seven points among white voters, 14 points among black voters and 17 points among Latino voters.

As Election Day approached, it remained to be seen whether the men Trump served would actually show up to the polls. After all, women are more likely to vote than menand people who are dissatisfied and disillusioned often choose not to participate in politics entirely. Looks like we got our answer: these men (and a lot of women, too) showed up and burned the place down.