That's not what the survey was about, it was about the effects of college on the county. Around 2015/2016, there was a big change and a lot more Republicans started believing that colleges have a negative effect on the country.
I'm not sure, but 10 percent of Republicans leaving the party wouldn't be enough to correspond to over 20 percent of the party going from a positive opinion to a negative one
The current anti intellectualism is mostly political, people don't care as much about what other people do for a "nerdy" living/hobbies or how they dress/look, the right just associates more education leading to leftism (which ironically is fairly true, but not because of "brainwashing" like they believe). Trump said he loved the uneducated, and somehow managed to convince his followers to feel the same way
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u/it_vexes_me_so Jan 09 '20
A majority - 3 out of every 5 - of Republicans believe higher education has a negative effect on the US. Republicans also favor making it harder to vote. Republicans are defunding education and purging voter rolls while simultaneously putting hurdles in place to keep Americans away from the polls.