Maybe they voted against the incumbent so overwhelmingly because things are hard.
People vote based on their feelings.
When they were feeling pain, the message from the Dems was about how great the economy was, but the reality is that the stock market and GDP don't speak to the quality of life of these people. To them the Dems saying how great things were was dismissive of their real concerns.
Meanwhile, Trump latched onto their fears and concerns. Yeah, his policies are idiotic, and millions will suffer and be in worse shape. But when they said they couldn't pay the mortgage or buy groceries, he listened. The Democrats didn't because they've abandoned the working class that should be their backbone.
But the point, for this population and this meme, is that they have consistently voting in the same people and the results they have received are similarly consistent, and they keep voting that way.
Yes broadly there's been a "vote out the incumbent", but this illustrates why that's misguided, as it illustrates the different results of two states with consistent policies for each party.
Not even just consistently, the person accidentally made the point for them that they've actually gotten more red over that time. So they've somehow kept convincing more people to vote for them despite them never doing a thing to help them.
When an entire country shifts away from a party, it means the party is doing something to drive them away. Trump is the worst candidate in the history of the country, yet he's won 2 elections. Why is that?
It's because the Dems have abandoned the economic policies that formed the heart of their party and lost the working class vote they've relied upon since the Depression.
In that one case, they're a pretty consistent electorate. The general sentiment across America and around the globe since the post-pandemic inflation crisis began has been anti incumbent, which is why we see a lot of changed governments and populist uprisings now.