>Though to be honest with Trump at the helm they're already ~50% there.
Those people have never felt real pain. They may say they have but they haven't. If this article is real and the whole shitbox falls apart, I don't think even loyalty to Trump will stop these people from finally reckoning with reality.
As someone who grew up in a very religious country (not the US), Trumps followers will endure any suffering if it means being in service to him (or if it means their enemies will suffer more, or is portrayed to be suffering more).
I don't really know. I think a lot of them migrated off of Bush. I don't have the clip right now but I had old interview videos showing how high and mighty Bush supporters were and how they supported the Iraq war all in going into his second term. They went so far as to act like Trump supporters against anyone who didn't support the "commander in chief" (ie. those people should be put in jail or kicked out).
The GFC really set those people straight. Enough of them got desperate enough that they switched sides and voted for Obama.
As evidence of this point, “Trump Derangement Syndrome” was originally “Bush Derangement Syndrome”. I have to roll my eyes anytime someone mentions TDS seriously. Although Trump has a cult of personality that Bush did not have; you didn’t have people adorning their lawn with Bush gear in the same way as Trump.
It was a different era. Bush and the old Republican guard were never imaginative nor were they product people. Trump started with his signature red hat but look at what it blossomed into.
No one should have been surprised. Trump has a long history of being a product person (Trump Steaks, Trump University, Trump Vodka, Trump Fragrance, Trump Mattresses, Trump: The Game etc.)
You also have to consider that the pre Web 2.0 world of the internet during the Bush years also had less opportunity of flooding the market with branded crap. You had to call a phone number or mail out a money order to order merch.
This is written by somebody who’s never been to Louisiana and Mississippi. The saying in Russian that they never had it any good in the first place comes to mind. Where’s thriftwy when you need them?
The south is pretty modern all things considered. You wanna see real pain? Go ask Chinese people who had to sacrifice these past few decades to make China the powerhouse it is today. Its the reason why they can tolerate anything the US throws at them. Their pain threshold is much higher than whatever the west has.
These southerners could have lost their culture, the local industry has long since left, and fentanyl is the name of the game. Yet thats still nothing compared to what Chinese (or even Russian people post USSR) had to go through.
I'm a southerner, and I road trip a lot. Driving through parts of the southeast you will pass through a sea of dilapidated trailers with yards full of junk, run down chain restaurants and industrial lots. It's not India or the Philippines, but it's still pretty third world in a lot of ways.
Of course its third world in some ways, but take those Chinese people I spoke about, swap them into the same spot as the people currently living there and I GUARANTEE you that they will turn those places around and probably make a whole super competitive region that could go toe to toe with any of the urban areas of the country.
It goes back to my point. These people in those areas think they are in for bad times but they have not seen REAL pain yet and yet they are playing games right now because they think they have nothing to lose.
Imagine if your theory comes true and the government has to cut services to the bone. No more medicare/medicaid/maintaining their infrastructure(however shit it is now it gets worse)/state subsidies for states like Nebraska.
There are probably horrors that im not even thinking of.
Honestly I've never wanted to be more wrong in my life. There were so many moments when I was doing research and analysis for this article that I said to myself: "We're so fucked"
