It seems to me that while people understand the term "oligarchy" or "dictatorship", and understand that the U.S. is already turning into one - they simply do not care about what defending our "democracy" means.

"Democracy" is a very loose term - for some people, it could mean the ability to vote, or the freedoms of speech, or being able to elect or change leaders based on the will of the people.

Democrats emphasized the importance of protecting our "democracy", but not all of us see it the same way.

And so, I do not think most people are thinking enough about what they want out of democracy - because as long as we can all still vote, it doesn't really matter if there's voter supression, rampant disinformation, billionaires just outright "buying" people votes buying media outlets and mass propaganda.

Not a lot of people think too deeply about what it means to "lose" democracy, because, well, most of us are fortunate enough to not have to live through the civil war, or under an oppressive dictatorship.

So then these concepts become vague, loose, and boring. And to most young voters (especially white men) will simply tune out, because they think, it does not matter to them. And they are probably right about that, their lives will continue as usual, never had to think twice about politics and democracy.

Nonetheless, Trump and Musk offered an emotional escape: call it "destroying the government, and start over", and your Stipulations perfectly captured the key goals of the Trump-Musk presidency. Always position against a powerful “corrupt” establishment is a perfect example of this. And hate, the "masculinity" of "decisive action" are at the core of what motivates the voter base, not "freedom of rights".

Today, most of us enjoy many rights that we don't even need to think about, so when you talk about "abortion" rights - only women may get it, and their immediate partners who support them and took the time to *learn* about those reproductive rights. Kamala has a strong message - but it was only tailored for women and the minorities. Men never felt they needed any of what Kamala is offering, they simply think, well, just another 4 more years of unchanging, boring stuff. And the contrast to Trump's campaign of stark, every day drama, breaking laws, and frenzied news, is what drives them. It does not matter if the consequence of it, everyone's lives end up being worse, because to many men, their lives are already at "the worst", and perhaps the government is to be blamed, and rightfully so - because the federal government has not helped enough young men go through periods of joblessness, seeing women and peers "taking" their jobs, while they sit in front of Reddit, X, pornography, and subsequently, "radical right wing stuff" that is all-so-alluring, because it gave them a reason to believe, there is someone to be blame for their pain, and that someone, is the establishment of our democractic institutions - or whatever they might want to call it.

So democracts going into the standpoint of "oh we need to combat racism, autocracy, such and such", when the argument is simply irrelevent. People wanted to see the government destroyed, they cannot be bothered to be believe that by voting, it will change for the better, because perhaps many of them voted for several cycles, saw that nothing changed for them, but only for the people around them, and they end up lonely, and loneliness encourages addictive and risky behavior - one such is being addicted to social media, to feel seen.

And so, we haven't addressed young men's loneliness, we only approached them on "abortion rights to protect your partner" when they don't even have a partner, living by themselves. How is that going to sell for up to 25% of the voting population? It doesn't. Most men who voted blue can think critically, or have partners who support them, and can reason with consequences of voting for long term changes. These men are in short order, and the Democrats failed to see it. Not enough women voted either - yes, more women voted for Kamala, but then why are there still the same women who voted for Trump? Do you think they wanted to vote for a rapist? How is that even possible?

Well, this reserves a lot more discussion because I'm not a women, and I cannot speak for those who voted Red. Perhaps many of them were disappointed of the traditional democratic establishment. But then again, women are supposed to be smarter than men, right? Yes, but not by a whole lot of margin - and the gen-zers who generally don't believe in traditional politics anyway so unless the candidate is a young progressive (which is still, in short order, and Kamala tried to play the "moderate" role) who values women's rights and know what to fight for to "reform" the government for both women AND men, then it is unlikely that people will care about whether the government is being destroyed or not - it simply is irrelevant.

Then again, some men voted Trump because they think "ah He's not going to win". But what they are actually saying is, let's see what happens if Kamala loses. Let's see what happens if the government is being destroyed, we haven't had that before, so it is definitely thrilling to find out, even though it is unlikely for him to win. The fact that Trump seems more "unpopular" than Kamala IS in itself an alluring fact, because he offered something new, something rare - the destruction of the old. And to many men, it is a welcoming thought.