Women love Hillary, but what’s up with men?

 

Women are preferring Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump by huge, unprecedented margins, while men prefer Trump, although by margins far less, according to data collected by fivethirtyeight.com.

POLL	WOMEN	MEN
CBS News	Clinton +18	Trump +11
CNN	Clinton +14	Trump +4
Fairleigh Dickinson	Clinton +24	Trump +7
Fox News	Clinton +10	Trump +7
Google Consumer Surveys	Clinton +13	Trump +3
Ipsos/Reuters	Clinton +9	Clinton +5
Morning Consult	Clinton +6	Clinton +4
PRRI/The Atlantic	Clinton +33	Trump +11
Quinnipiac University	Clinton +20	Trump +12
Rasmussen Reports	Clinton +11	Clinton +2
USC Dornsife/LA Times	Clinton +9	Trump +14
YouGov	Clinton +15	Trump +2
Average	Clinton +15	Trump +5

Source: fivethirtyeight.com

Why women are turning against Trump is pretty obvious, and it’s not only because Hillary stands to become the first woman ever to be elected (or even nominated) to be President of the United States, the ultimate smashing of the glass ceiling. It’s also because Trump is a moral, sexist pig, and just about every woman has had experience with that dreadful sort of man.

I’m not a woman, and it took me a while to understand what too many of them go through with respect to groping, leering, lecherous assholes. Decades ago, when I was a young, oblivious man, I was a short-order cook at a Howard Johnson’s restaurant in Brattleboro, Vermont. Several of my female friends were waitresses. As we lived in the same town twenty miles away, we used to carpool. One night, after work, I cleaned up the kitchen and went out to the restaurant area where the women were getting ready to leave. One of my friends, Wendy, seemed upset. I asked her what was wrong, and she told me that a customer, a young man, had given her a really hard time. “When I asked him ‘What’ll it be?’, he said, ‘You, baby.’”

Well, I didn’t quite get why that was so upsetting, and I said so. That’s when all three of my lady friends gave me a lecture I never forgot about unwelcome sexual approaches towards them by men. We had a thirty-minute car ride back home, and on it, they poured out all of their buried angst, anger, frustration and grief.

I never forgot that. I think we men probably can’t fathom what it’s like—most of us, anyhow. We can try to be empathic, but it’s hard. But when women listen to Trump doing his vile thing on that infamous tape, they get it, bigtime. Trump is every pig who ever insulted them, groped them, said nasty things about them. He is every man who objectified them, saw them as nothing but pieces of meat, nice legs and great tits and awesome asses and grabable pussies. Women know, through long experience, about that kind of man, that if he’s that way with women, then he’s probably an asshole in other aspects of his life. And that is why so many of them have turned against Trump.

But questions remain. Why are there still millions of women who love Trump and will vote for him? Here, I’m no longer sure. Maybe they feel like his personal behavior, reprehensible though it may be, has nothing to do with what a President Trump would accomplish, were he to be elected. Maybe some percentage of them suffers from internalized misogyny, a form of self-hatred that can be difficult to discern within oneself. And, of course, there’s a particularly bitchy form of hatred for Hillary that comes from women. I can’t begin to fathom that one, but I know it’s out there.

But how about those men who will vote for Trump over Hillary? Here we have a trove of psychological complexity. Some of them will vote for Trump simply because he’s male, and they—being of the same moral character as Trump, talking about women the same way—identify with him. Certainly, many of these Trump men strongly support him because they loathe Hillary Clinton, which is a form of mental lllness in itself. Some of them respond to Trump’s vaguely-defined “authoritarianism” by which he portrays himself as strong and decisive. These are characteristics men like to think they, themselves, possess, and they like that kind of perceived strength in their leaders. Never mind that Trump’s “solutions”—to immigration, to ISIS and terrorism, to America’s complicated role in the world, to just about any issue you can name—are vague to the point of non-existent. Never mind that he would probably be a disaster with our allies. Men who would vote for Trump don’t analyze issues, they respond emotionally—and many of them are really still thirteen years old, psychologically, and want to do naughty things their parents forbade. Voting for Trump is the ultimate naughty thing they can do.

At any rate, we don’t know how this election is going to turn out. The polls are irrational: Fivethirtyeight.com gives Hillary an 83.5% chance of winning now, but just two months ago, she and Trump were neck to neck, and even a month ago, just before the first debate, he was closing in on her. So who knows? Something might happen: Hillary’s health, some email revelation, an asteroid strike on Chappaqua. I don’t think so, but you never know.

Still, I suspect Hillary will win (you probably do, too), and when she does, it will be the women of America who will have elected her. As for those men—look, I like men, I am a man, I identify with men, I like to drink in bars, I like going to ball games, I like gyms and lockerrooms, I curse and swear like a sailor. I “get” the guy thing…to a point. Where I break ranks with my gender is when they’re so stupid, so willfully ignorant and irrational, that they think with their peckers instead of with their brains. And that’s how Trump males roll.