DJT, Tribune of Poor White People

[zoogs]

Rod Dreher of The American Conservative interviews the author of Hillbilly Elegy for this piece: Trump: Tribune of Poor White People.

 

(The Optimates vs Populares nod is very fitting. Trump is most assuredly Patrician.)

 

But I remain incredibly optimistic about the future. Maybe that's the hillbilly resilience in me. Or maybe I'm just an idiot. But if writing this book, and talking with friends and strangers about its message, has taught me anything, it's that most people are trying incredibly hard to make it, even in this more complicated and scary world. The short view of our country is that we're doomed. The long view, inherited from my grandparents' 1930s upbringing in coal country, is that all of us can still control some part of our fate. Even if we are doomed, there's reason to pretend otherwise.

Closing paragraph / take-home. The interview and book are about why Trump's message so resonated with people both long-suffering and ignored.

 

Long interview -- worth a read. There are many different voices coming out in the aftermath of the campaign and without getting too much into the recriminations battle (who's right, who's wrong, etc), I do think a lot of them are quite valuable contributions to the discussion.

 

I guess this is can be seen as a companion/soft rebuttal to "The rural America bubble", which focused on the importance of greater understanding in the other direction.