Well, apparently Trump won 42% of college graduates and 52% of non college graduates, so the gap isn't that huge actually. And since college graduates turn out more than non college graduates your average Trump voter might actually be more educated than your average American. Let that sink in lol.
It seems like wealthy and educated counties have always been more Democratic than actual wealthy and educated people. Romney won 54% of voters earning more than $100k and 48% of college graduates, yet Obama probably won more than half of the wealthiest counties and the vast majority of the most educated counties. Maybe inequality plays a role in these places?
What's even more baffling is the swing in the wealthiest towns. Sure, wealthy counties trended against Trump but Trump usually lost only 5-10% there. There are a lot of places with a median household income of over $200k where Trump lost more than 20% compared to Romney. Darien (loads of Wall Street bankers) went from 65% Romney to 41% Trump. Atherton (wealthiest town in the US) went from 52% Romney to 26% Trump. This while Trump didn't lose out that much with voters earning more than $250k compared to Romney (55% vs 48%). The wealthiest towns obviously are disproportionally located near big cities, so I guess the people working there are much likely to be either professionals in liberal-leaning sectors or people working in very globalized sectors. Your lawyer making $250k probably was a loyal Democrat anyway. The banker making more than $250k probably was a Romney-Clinton voter. But I imagine a wealthy small business owner or a wealthy physician in a mid-sized city was much less appalled by Trump's anti-globalism because they wouldn't really be hurt by it.
One factor is upper middle class people in wealthy (read: often expensive) counties probably don't FEEL upper middle class at all. But it's easier to just say wealthy county voted Democrat, poor county voted Republican, rich people are becoming Democrats and poor people are becoming Republicans because 1) it's simple, and we like simple stories and 2) it strokes red avatars' egos that being a part of their party, like, says something about who you are or blah blah blah, LOL.
Yeah, the "a household income of $300,000 doesn't go very far in Bethesda" line.
