“I do hope that readers of this book will be able to take from it an appreciation of how class and family affect the poor without filtering their views through a racial prism.” – Hillbilly Elegy
Comedian Jeff Foxworthy once joked, “You might be a redneck if the blue book value of your truck goes up and down depending on how much gas it has in it“ or “If your idea of a 7-course meal is a bucket of KFC and a sixpack, you might be a redneck.” These same rednecks, otherwise known as hillbillies and white trash, were recently derided by Democrats as deplorables and racists. To add to the universal mocking, the hill people of rural Appalachia had themselves become increasingly discontent with their perceived powerlessness over their lives. That is until Donald J. Trump came along.
In 2016, Trump won small town and rural voters by a margin of 62 percent to Hillary Clinton’s 34 percent. A constituency separated from the rest of the country by class, geography, and unlucky breeding, had not only been overlooked and left out but repeatedly insulted and ridiculed. Many poor whites saw their lack of education and checkered backgrounds as impossible to overcome. But like Bill Clinton in the early 1990s, an unlikely billionaire would finally feel their pain. Trump, himself an outsider, found his political deliverance by giving a voice to the countrified voiceless.
Appalachia is a swath of land that extends from the southern part of New York down to the northern sections of Alabama and Georgia and is known for its old-fashioned values and dire poverty. High on the social capital of close-knit families and communities, but low on self-sufficiency and gumption, residents were hit hard by economic globalization that shipped their low-skilled manufacturing jobs overseas. Without the talent or the ambition to find greener pastures, stagnation set in. For those who did find work, tardiness, and absenteeism resulting from a poor work ethic, cut short any chance for lasting employment.
Once teeming with low and middle-class manufacturing jobs, a decrease in work opportunities in many Rust Belt areas, left working-class whites with too much time on their hands. And with idle hands, the devil’s workshop; alcohol, drugs, and opioids found ready targets. Self-destructive behavior gave way to domestic abuse and violence. Poor financial choices kept many in a cycle of dependence. Here, rural whites found a new kind of poverty, sated on fast food and a lack of physical fitness, shortening their prospects and their lives. Making Appalachia to whites, what the ghetto is to blacks. Dilapidated factories gave way to decaying communities and broken homes. High divorce rates and increased illegitimacy produced single parenthood and decreased stability for children. Self-destructive behavior produces trauma that will last a lifetime. With little guidance or incentive to choose education over crime, the damage was done.
British physician and psychiatrist, Theodore Dalrymple, who served the white underclass in the UK said: “Listening as I do every day to accounts people give of their lives, I am struck by the very small part in them which they ascribe to their own effort, choices, and actions. Implicitly they disagree with Bacon’s famous dictum that “chiefly the mold of a man's fortune is in his own hand”. Instead, they experienced themselves as putty in the hands of fate.” For those without purpose and the means to find it, they adapted well to the poverty mindset. Although not as a result of one’s race, one’s intellect, or even government interference, their helplessness was largely a choice. It is a learned worldview that imagines their situation as the result of outside influences and dark forces beyond their control.
In J.D. Vance’s 2016 book, “Hillbilly Elegy”, Vance recounts his own experience growing up in Appalachia with a family that suffered the effects of alcoholism and drug abuse, along with a lack of proper parenting. Yet, Vance also describes a dichotomy between his hard-working but poor grandparents and neighbors who increasingly became dependent on government handouts. He watched as redistributed wealth provided a means to finance their addictions while gorging on food that Vance could only dream of. In the end, his Mamaw’s ethics would help guide him to a level of success rarely found in Appalachian offspring. A movie by the same name recently became available on Netflix.
As the end of Trump’s first term approaches, the tariffs and protectionism have done little to resurrect poor rural whites from their helplessness. The government that contributed to their dependency will do little to resolve it. While Vance acknowledges that many in rural Appalachia are born with the short end of the stick, he believes that change is possible. To start, resist the blame game and take responsibility for areas of life that can be controlled. Avoid the path of least resistance and look for purpose and meaning to help develop goals and the structure to achieve them. And lastly, end the cycle of poverty in your family, and replace it with a commitment to improvement.
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