Is it Culture or Economics? Why Rural Communities Have Moved to the Right

There’s a recurring debate among liberal and progressive folks as to whether or not the huge shift to the right among rural and working-class people is driven by “cultural” or “economic” concerns, by hot-button social issues like “abortion, guns, and gays” or by bad economic fortunes. You can use voting patterns and survey data to make a case for one over the other, and many people do just that. Similar arguments are made regarding the role of “wokeness” in alienating people, or of race and racism in driving white folks...