Trump supporters and Divorced Dude Energy . . .

[torbee]

Gotta say, I'd never thought about it, but this author might be onto something!

Gorilla Mindset​

I can’t put my finger on when or why, but for a long time I’ve thought there was a weird aspect in the way some middle-aged men went cuckoo for Trump. There is a particular type of mental break—I think of it as Divorced Dude Energy—that you see out there.

Let me say at the outset: None of this is a value judgment. A little less than half of all marriages end in divorce. Not every—or even most—men who get divorced have Divorced Dude Energy. I’m trying to be descriptive, not pejorative.

And I’ll be honest—I don’t know exactly how to describe Divorced Dude Energy. It’s more of a know-it-when-you-see-it phenomenon. Elon Musk, for example, might be the most Divorced Energy Dude on the planet.¹ It’s the kind of thing where a seemingly normal guy’s marriage breaks up and suddenly he’s a different person. Angry. Resentful. Superior. Kind of agro.

Again: Lots of men get divorced and not all—or even most—are like this! But there is a personality type here that we can agree exists, yes?

Anyway, purely as an anecdotal matter it has seemed to me that a lot of the energy in MAGA looks like Divorced Dude Energy.

And yesterday pollster Daniel Cox blew my mind with his report on how well Trump does with divorced men:

Since at least the 1990s, married Americans—both men and women—have voted more consistently for Republican candidates than single Americans have. In 2024, we found that 48 percent of married voters were supporting Trump compared to 34 percent who had never been married, a 14-point gap.
There is another gap that caught my attention recently.
Fifty-six percent of men who are divorced said they are voting for Trump, compared to 42 percent of divorced women. The voting divide between men and women is larger among the formerly married than any other group. Married men and women report supporting Trump at remarkably similar rates (50 percent vs. 45 percent). Single men are somewhat more likely to vote for Trump than single women . . .
The divorce divide in American politics is something new.

Here’s the chart Cox put together and holy schnikes:

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This gap is even crazier when you look at party identification by marital/divorced status:

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I don’t know about you, but I find this fascinating and you should absolutely read the whole thing and subscribe to Cox’s substack.

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Cox posits that there’s something about men and divorce going on here. He notes that in marriages and cohabitations, men and women tend toward having the same political views and voting preferences.

There’s a lot that’s murky. Here’s the theory Cox tentatively offers:

Part of what I think is happening is that as Americans spend more time uncoupled, they are more likely to develop a tribal approach to politics, a tendency to see the political interests of men and women as fundamentally at odds. The rising sense of anxiety felt by men and women about their place and future in America makes it more difficult to appreciate the problems of others. What’s more, these feelings of insecurity and grievance are being channeled through our politics.

Whatever the case, this is the kind of data point that once you see it, you can’t unsee it.

 

[BelemNole]

Our dentist is currently going thru a divorce. During covid they were super conscientious about safety and making sure everything was done as well as could be. Last time I was in he went on a rant without prompt about covid and vaccines/masks. It was the day after Trump got convicted. Every other time we just talked about fishing.
Came home and told my wife he was losing it and we needed to find a new dentist. She kinda shrugged. Then after her next apt she came back and said yep, time to change.