Thanks for the read and the thoughtful response Richard.

My initial thoughts to reading your comment was how this trend was not, is not, and doesn’t have to be inevitable. Policy decisions on both sides of the aisle have let the factories close, Walmart (the 2nd biggest employer in my town) and Amazon murder small businesses, and they let the education system degrade.

All of it has left rural Americans angry, distrustful of all things DC and “elitist,” and they’re looking for answers as to why they’re working harder than ever and barely scraping by. It has been because of policy decisions. Rural America has been abandoned and the people are rightfully pissed off, leaving them receptive to the demagoguery and hyper-nationalist rhetoric of Trump, Tucker Carlson, etc.

They look at DC and — rightfully — only see corruption. Here’s a pretty common sentiment, “Global pandemic? Well, those politicians are getting big pharma money, so I’m not buying what they’re selling. I’ll take my chances with the disease before I touch their backdoor dealing bullshit.”

I’m a bit of a class reductionist and see it through a materialist lens, so I think if America could address the economic pain and hardship, things would smooth out dramatically. It wouldn’t solve all problems, but it would ease some anger and tension for sure.

And part of me would love to move back, but I’m not sure I could leave the cobblestones and language diversity of Europe. We’ll see.

Again, Richard, thanks for the read and the thought-provoking response.