Trump was successful because too many men laughed at him, but actually feared the alpha male inside them
The emotional break that could cause him to lose the White House was facilitated by videos of former Lincoln Project Republicans, all football, steaks and testosterone
Donald Trump could not be beaten for years because too many men were afraid of the Trump in them. Even the non-Trumpians, the progressives, the educated, the young. They laughed at him, but were awed by memories of recessive violence. They despised him, and were secretly subjugated by that cheeky caricature of a rich bully from the seventies (golden age of toxic masculinity). It is for this - also - that Trump was elected.
In 2016 he was a kind of Golem of worried white males, or paranoid ones, or aware of the progressive loss of power. And his grim charisma has continued to make the aforementioned young, educated progressive males insecure. They believed it, incredibly, too, up to the Cleveland debate and the Covid dramas and the tweets from agitated patient on steroids.
Significant episode: After the debate, in his Five Thirty Eight podcast, Nate Silver asks his data journalists who had won. The second most prominent young male on the podcast says "Trump," pampered by colleagues. The only woman, Clare Malone, says "look that Biden won", the others are convinced only with instant polls.
The male's emotional break with the bully president was aided by the Lincoln Project's former alpha republicanons, political strategists who produce the most effective and testosterone-driven anti-Trump commercials. Bush veterans, John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, with football and steak résumés, conservative judges and Sarah Palin, are now all together in a secret location with young videomakers. They and others like them have reassured left and center right not grim (and if he wins, Biden will propose Decent Patriarchy, something like Bush's second compassionate conservatism).
