Gonna catch a lot of slack here but fuck it.
Most of my family is from rural America and voted for Trump in 2016. Some continued to vote for him in 2020 and an even smaller number of these people believe the big lie. Following the loss in 2020, most of them just stopped caring about politics altogether, knowing it would just frustrate them. Most of these people don't really even know what is going on with their party at this point, mostly because their source of information is propaganda at best and in many cases brainwashing if you truly think about it… Oh and they assume the same of us (left wing media is brainwashing us into becoming immoral socialists/communists). Think about that? We have all been so horribly manipulated with fear that we are both out of touch with reality and assigning extreme labels all around.
***************** The Reality ****************************
Most on the left continue to fail to see what gave Trump the edge in 2016. Nominating Hillary Clinton is why we got Trump. Most of rural America had spent 30 years or so listening to names like Rush Limbaugh attack not just liberalism but the Clintons specifically. Most of them have been convinced that the quality of life decrease they experienced in the 90s was because of immigrants, people of color, social programs, and liberal tech companies. This is of course untrue but many of these people will also bring up NAFTA, which was a bill spearheaded by Bill Clinton in 1992.
****************** Consider This ***********************
NAFTA’s main provisions called for the gradual reduction of tariffs, customs duties, and other trade barriers between the three members, with some tariffs being removed immediately and others over periods of as long as 15 years. The agreement ensured eventual duty-free access for a vast range of manufactured goods and commodities traded between the signatories. “National goods” status was provided to products imported from other NAFTA countries, banning any state, local, or provincial government from imposing taxes or tariffs on such goods.
NAFTA also contained provisions aimed at securing intellectual-property rights. Participating countries would adhere to rules protecting intellectual property and would adopt strict measures against industrial theft.
****************** Now knowing the above Consider This ***************************
Rural America was hit first and hit hard, with the mass movement of manufacturing plants that sustain them from America to cheaper sources of labor. My own mother worked for Lee jeans and shortly after NAFTA was signed the factory she managed was moved to Dominican Republic. My mom was offered the job, should she choose to uproot her entire family. Not really an option. When the factory shut down multiple communities were robbed of any way to sustain them. This happened all over the country.
What did they do? They either drove an hour from their homes to other factories that hadn't shut down or they joined the service/retail industry where they worked more hours to get paid less, without benefits, also leaving their children unsupervised and free to get in trouble/drugs.
To complicate things, as America left the age of industry they moved into the age of information, which unlike a factory job often has an entry fee of a higher education. People who had worked in factories all their lives (and their children) started being told they needed to go to college to have a future, but with no real source of substantial income many couldn't afford it. Trades like electrician, construction worker, etc that used to be respected were suddenly regarded as something only people not intelligent enough to go to college should be stuck with. We started marginalizing these people, similar to the way we have service and retail workers. This went on for years which is why a construction worker today only makes $27/hour when one in 1975 made $28…oh and things are 400% more expensive. This is when the term liberal elitist became heavily used as urban areas began to send their kids to college, using direct student loans which would later become privatized loans…oh and Bill Clinton played a huge part in all of this…
Additionally the influx of factory workers (and their children) from rural America into the service and retail industry provided capitalists with a population of “unskilled” workers who as we all know are now basically being exploited like everyone else.
Do you see why these people dislike Hillary Clinton? The name alone will literally send most of rural America into a fury because in their reality NAFTA destroyed their way of life…and the right wing politicians and media has realized this and continued to spread the fear that more destruction is on the way if they don't “make America great again” (ie. before the Clintons and globalism)
Oh yeah, Donald Trump ran on a platform that promoted American industry and later helped to replace NAFTA with a new agreement that favored American industry. This guy became president in 2016 but the conditions that allowed him to be elected started in the 1980s and were amplified by the Clintons.