There is an amazing book about this. The author interviewed hundreds of people down in Alabama to get an idea of how they felt about these things. Strangers in

There is an amazing book about this. The author interviewed hundreds of people down in Alabama to get an idea of how they felt about these things. Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right by sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strangers_in_Their_Own_Land https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strangers_in_Their_Own_Land The gist of it is that people think short term. They can care about the environment/greater good but if you promise them jobs/prosperity in the short term they'll usually vote for that, despite their livelihood/environment being destroyed by the industry that promised them the jobs. Then when things don't work out they blame minorities, women, etc for "cutting in line" with the help of people like Obama and democrats. It's really not that complicated which, imo, is kind of sad.