Vox, of all places, just belatedly published an article talking honestly about the nature of Trump’s support and how the rest of the world has been compulsively apologising for it. The short version: no, it is not about left-behind working-class white people. It is about white people who openly want to reinforce their unearned privilege. That’s what the evidence shows, and it’s what Trump supporters are clearly saying.
The “tuk err jerbs” theory lets metropolitan liberals feel like they’re down with rural salt-of-the-earth types, while pretending that Trump supporters (as working-class folk) are ripe for conversion to the Left. But Trump supporters have jobs; what they specifically want is to hang on to their advantages, and never have the unfairness of those advantages pointed out.
In the 1950s, white supremacism was at the core of millions of people’s political beliefs; it shouldn’t be this hard to believe that something very similar is still a major force today. It’s almost like, now that Republican efforts to dress it up as something else have collapsed, liberal commentators are rushing to take over the task. Which is silly.
