I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

The idea that poor whites they only get attitude from the left ("condescension" and "exasperation") is not quote right (and makes Tom Frank's point). The left wants to use the government to help in different ways, not just "handouts".

Perhaps it does. But skills retraining, the govt's other form of assistance, is pie-in-the-sky stuff. Most of the people written about in this excellent article have no hope of switching careers.

Trump promises them jobs and dignity. It's lies from him, of course, but the idea is on the right track. Our govt could assist them in the manner they seek with a massive New Deal style infrastructure rebuilding program. And I think we'll see it do exactly that in the coming decade. We either do something like that, or we give up on the lower middle class entirely.

That's not judging less and understanding more. The cultural resentment here is just so strong. And there's this funny blending of culture and class -- the author keeps talking about the "white working class", but he's really talking about regional attitudes, not class. His "elites" are different from the rich. Hard for me to square this with a professed belief in changing social norms.

I don't think he's trying to change anything. He's telling us why a large segment of society isn't listening to elites.

As to the regional comment, yes and no. The angry working class person in Levittown isn't culturally 1:1 with the guy in WV. But the complaints are the same, and so is the attraction to Trump. They don't want to be simultaneously dictated to, ignored, and offered a handout.

The best of this excellent piece is where the author discusses personal responsibility. And it focuses on what I think is, strangely, the most positive element of a very bleak story. In voting for Trump, these lost souls are choosing to take their chances rather than bet on expansion of the safety net to sustain them. My knee jerk reaction is the same as Thomas Frank's ("these rubes are voting for a plutocrat who's going to screw them"). But that's elitist, and it's narrow-minded. What these simple people are doing is throwing a hand grenade at a system in which they no longer have a place. Perhaps that's anti-social, and it's probably foolish. But I have to admire the sentiment... "I'd rather possibly blow it all up than fade away, forgotten." Can't fault a man for that.