people in small towns where the jobs have fled, said: “They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”
It’s sad that Obama is being busted up for this comment… because the comment is true. The basic behavior of most, but not all, individuals when things become uncertain, is to cling to the things they feel that they can be certain about. In rural USA, (as a born and raised Appalachian) that boils down to guns, religion and tends to include a mistrust of anyone from outside the ‘community’. This isn’t surprising and its been well documented by psychologists over the years. However, apparently we damn anyone who shows that Americans behave like human beings. Have we fallen so far that we can’t bear to look into the mirror at all?
