I live in & come from places like Levant & I have a couple thoughts--not about the election so much as to whether Trump's approach actually helps give voice to these communities' concerns or further alienates them from the rest of the country.
https://twitter.com/russellberman/status/1323249570298667008
(For context: I grew up in swPA outside of Pittsburgh & currently live in swVA. My husband has pastored in both regions & our friends & relatives tend to be very pro-Trump.)
From purely annectdotal standpoint, I have seen intensification of Trump support from 2016 to 2020. The common explanation is that he gives voice to their concerns. Also, I think he pays attention to them & validates them which is just, if not, more important.
Rallying the base means centering the base & looking in their direction. I think this is similar to what's happened among evangelicals & there's obvious overlap in the two demos.
But as this article mentions, communities like Levant aren't large even if they are numerous. To complicated things, they are overwhelmingly *local* --for both good & bad. They preserve that sense of being known while being isolated from other communities.
It's my sense that the combination of the digital age & Trumpism has allowed them to band together despite numbers & geography. Trump's particular kind of idenitarian politics has let them find tribe & the internet has facilitated is in ways it never could have happened before.
But this comes at a cost: It actually further alienates them from the rest of the country. It deepens the divide that they are already experiencing & is in reality true.
IOW, the siloing effect of tribalism & online life is going to hit places like Levant doubly hard. Already isolated, the negative effects of digital age (encouraged & reinforced by Trumpism) are going to become a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy.
There's an old adage: "When the rich catch a cold, the poor get pneumonia." The point is that those with resources & wealth can overcome negative effects of their environment while poorer can't.
This applies to social capital & communal disenfranchisement, too. For populations already isolated & w/ little social capital, the effects of filter bubbles, tribalism, & narrowing of online life are going to mean increased isolation & sense of alienation.
Ironically, what could have granted access & provided the infrastructure that these communities need to flourish despite geography & size has been used to execerbate the divides.
Yes, you can connect w/ a person 4 states away in another small town that shares your political & social worldviews, but that's not sufficient to truly flourish & overcome the challenges facing these communities. It *feels* like solidarity, but it isn't actual solidarity.
This isn't intended to be political so much as observational. I care deeply about flourishing of these communities & am concerned about the unintended fallout of digital age combined w/ rhetoric that ostensibly centers them but may actually isolate them further.
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