Trump, the Highly Educated, and the 2024 Election

TL;DR: The common thread between all Trump voters is their hatred of all things "woke." They may have myriad other beliefs and opinions, but this one hatred is the beginning and the end. Any mistakes by Trump or the GOP are overlooked for the love of, or rather the hate of, wokeness.

I am a doctor. I work with other doctors all day, every day. I have worked with doctors in different locations in the United States with vastly different political landscapes.

I have seen many posts both inside and outside of this sub trying to explain the results of the 2024 election and the phenomenon of Trump's staying power. The latter topic has been discussed ad nauseum for a decade by people much smarter than me, but I wanted to add my viewpoint. In my interactions with doctors, I am frequently shocked by the brashness and boldness with which they declare their love of Trump and their hatred of all things woke.

Medicine is a complex field with many different personalities. Surgeons are known for being selfish and crass, so potentially no surprise there if some of them align with Trump. Hospitalists (and many subspecialists within this grouping) are sometimes memed as the opposite of surgeons: overly concerned with patient's social determinants of health and other topics that could be considered left-leaning or "woke". However, the interactions I have had span across specialties.

The reason I think this is worth sharing is because Trump doesn't just win the uneducated vote. I have seen and heard this thrown out as a reason for his popularity and the 2024 election outcome. I have thought about it often myself: how if the American populace just had more education, or at least improved rationality with the ability to examine and critique arguments, Trump would never have won any election. After the election results, I came to the sad conclusion that the American populace is just dumber than I ever thought. They can listen to Trump and not hear any of the things that many of us hear: that he is incapable of putting together a sensical thought and is not someone I would want running my local McDonald's, let alone my country.

But yesterday I had another interaction with a physician, reminding me that education is not the issue. It brought back to mind all the other interactions I have had over the years with physicians. Of course, physicians are far from the most intelligent thinktank in America. I am not suggesting that all doctors are beacons of rational thought, articulate, philosophers, etc. But when compared to the general American populace, they are typically much more intelligent. At the very least, they have gone through years of schooling and training that required examining evidence, weighing evidence, and making a decision based on that evidence. Many Americans rarely go through that exercise formally in their lives.

Despite this inclination toward and daily practice of rational decision making, I hear physicians say the most outrageous things in support of Trump and the GOP. I have heard minority doctors say incredibly racist things in support of a Trump talking-point. I have heard others spew Q-anon-adjacent conspiracies nonstop for hours on end, with other physicians chiming in, echoing their support.

Throughout these interactions, the one common thread is their hatred of all things "woke". That is why Trump is politically invincible: no matter what he does or says that would be career-ending for someone else, he is still the best hope these people have in pushing back against wokeness. That's why Trump supporters can seemingly vote against their own self-interests, financial or otherwise (many of them will lose their medical insurance if the GOP have their way) and be unbothered. At the end of the day, their only interest is pushing back on woke ideology. They want a meritocracy. They are either wealthy and want to be rewarded for their achievements, or think the reason they aren't yet wealthy is because of the government giving all their money to Ukraine, immigrants, etc. Until the left successfully and demonstrably distances themselves from "woke" ideals, (which is difficult to do as "woke" is tough to define, but you know it when you see it), they will continue to struggle in general elections.