To my knowledge, Donald Trump doesn’t fish or hunt. I’m not sure he’s ever attended a NASCAR race. He never served in the military. He seems to prefer classic rock to country music. He grew up and lives in New York City, not a rural area. Finally, his indifference to religion is the stuff of legends.
All of these are staples of rural culture, and yet Trump is extremely popular in red America. Why?
I think there are two reasons:
1. It’s all about the swagger: Trump’s macho, nationalistic posturing has a big audience here, particularly when it is juxtaposed with female Democrats from urban areas.
2. The enemy of my enemy is my friend: Trump is a crass barbarian who both envies and despises the cultural establishment. As such, he has friends in a community that believes (perhaps correctly) that it is constantly patronized by the elite.
There is a message here for the Democrats as they contemplate who should lead them in 2020: if you pick someone who looks and sounds like Obama or Hillary, you can expect people in red states to close ranks and support Trump regardless of how abysmal his record may be, because they will think he looks more like one of them. That may not be fair, but that’s the way it is.