It's not the economy, stupid. They hate Democrats because they need a boogeyman.

[DetlefK]

http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/05/opinion/why-rural-america-voted-for-trump.html

They are part of a growing movement in rural America that immerses many young people in a culture — not just conservative news outlets but also home and church environments — that emphasizes contemporary conservative values. It views liberals as loathsome, misinformed and weak, even dangerous.

...

“The difference between Republicans and Democrats is that Republicans believe people are fundamentally bad, while Democrats see people as fundamentally good,” said Mr. Watts, who was in the area to campaign for Senator Rand Paul. “We are born bad,” he said and added that children did not need to be taught to behave badly — they are born knowing how to do that.

...

Mr. Watts talked about the 2015 movie theater shooting in Lafayette, La., in which two people were killed. Mr. Watts said that Republicans knew that the gunman was a bad man, doing a bad thing. Democrats, he added, “would look for other causes — that the man was basically good, but that it was the guns, society or some other place where the blame lies and then they will want to control the guns, or something else — not the man.” Republicans, he said, don’t need to look anywhere else for the blame.

...

In this view, blue counties are where most of our tax dollars are spent, and that’s where all of our laws are written and passed. To rural Americans, sometimes it seems our taxes mostly go to making city residents live better. ... To make matters worse, jobs are continuing to move to metropolitan areas.

...

When Ted Cruz campaigned in a neighboring town in 2015, I watched as a couple of dozen grade-school pupils sat at his feet, as if they were at a children’s service at church. His campaign speech was nearly a sermon, and the children listened wide-eyed when he told them the world is a scary place, and it’s godly men like him who are going to save them from the evils of President Obama, Hillary Clinton and their fellow Democrats.

While many blame poor decisions by Mrs. Clinton for her loss, in an environment like this, the Democratic candidate probably didn’t matter. And the Democratic Party may not for generations to come. The Republican brand is strong in rural America — perhaps even strong enough to withstand a disastrous Trump presidency.

Rural conservatives feel that their world is under siege, and that Democrats are an enemy to be feared and loathed. Given the philosophical premises Mr. Watts presented as the difference between Democrats and Republicans, reconciliation seems a long way off.


--------------

Facts don't matter.
Arguments don't matter.
Evidence doesn't matter.

There is nothing a Democrat could promise these voters to get them to vote democratic. Because everybody knows Democrats are evil. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeevil.

And even if Trump let's them down or ruins their communities even more, they'll find ways to blame anybody but Trump.

So, stop worrying and accept that they hate you for no good reason.

[Trust Buster]

1. These rural folks seem like they still haven't come to terms with the Industrial Age.

Given that, why would we think that they can wrap their collective heads around the Information Age ?

[DetlefK]

3. Also, why would anybody choose to build a factory there?

Located in the middle of nowhere?
Electricity is cheap, but can the outdated grid support the factory AND the community?
How long would it take to transport the ressources and goods across these bad roads?
How good is the Internet-connection?
What about railway and airports?
How many employees are willing to take up a new life in the middle of nowhere with no other industry around as a possible backup-job?

[Trust Buster]

4. You are correct. We've known this since the beginning of the Industrial Age. The Digital Age

has thrown rural America a lifeline but that requires entrepreneurship and not a corporation and a gold watch.

[uponit7771]

2. YES!! In one flipped Obama county the UE rate went from 20% to 4%, Race denigration WORKS !!!

[alarimer]

5. They've been carefully taught to blame the wrong people.

It's been this way since forever, but Fox and Limbaugh, et al. have made it much worse.