America desperately needs post-election scenario planning—the strategic approach to anticipating future challenges the U.S. military, intel community and administrative apparatus are already engaging.
Well written and researched -but - in the essay you refer to armies of minions willing to do trump’s bidding, hundreds of lawyers willing to serve, state voting boards willing to lie and cheat and thousands of followers who await the call - WHY? I have yet to find an argument that answers why hundreds of thousands of people serve this master. I do get why racists would but that cannot be the only reason.
"I have yet to find an argument that answers why hundreds of thousands of people serve this master. I do get why racists would but that cannot be the only reason."
Please tune in to a *whole week* of Steve Bannon's show -- a festival of lies, conspiracy theories, conversation with "experts," and pro-far-right propaganda; even while serving a short stint in prison, Bannon's show continued unhindered with guest hosts and tons of complicit advocates (including Bannon's daughter, some of Trump's lawyers and other enablers, and Republicans in the House and Senate) pushing absolutely-unhinged lies about Biden, Harris, and regular Dems. But, the thing is, this stuff *doesn't sound like lies* to those who have little grasp of history, politics, laws, etc.; or who just like what is being said by the nice-sounding host; or are just tired (and worn out) and want to be told what to do; or like how "educated," "sincere," and God-fearing Bannon & guests seem.
And it's not just Bannon, it's Fox Lies & Propaganda network, rightwing AM talk radio, OAN, X (Twitter), and thousands of other coordinated (and well-funded) and independent MAGA/rightwing/far-right pundits pushing the same (and other) lies, disinformation, and misinformation. And, that stuff is repeated constantly --- I mean CONSTANTLY --- it's like how we used to learn song lyrics by listening to chart-toppers played repeatedly on the radio, and could sing along with (and regurgitate the lyrics of) our favorites.
Then, according to cult experts, Trump (these shows and other pundits) fill a sense of community and socializing lacking from many in their lonely lives, or appeal to people who like others to be in charge and tell them what to do and think. Again, listen to Bannon (in particular), he's polite, comes across as compassionate and caring and their biggest advocate, acts like he's a huge Christian, seems informed and hosts "informed" guests, and pushes massive excuses for whites and so-called "Christians" who, Bannon says, have been under attack by Dems and others around the world. For a lonely person, it can be like eavesdropping on their own virtual neighborhood conversation with their favorite BMOC (big man on campus).
You can hear the successful results of these repeated lies and propaganda by listening to callers on C-SPAN after hearings in the House and/or Senate, and after the State of the Union Address, etc. --- the majority are MAGAs (and right-leaning independents and neo-libertarians) who (seem to) regularly tune into Bannon (and to all those others who aren't kind, compassionate, Christian, or honest) as callers repeat disinformation they've heard on their favorite shows by their favorite people.
I don't think this huge, well-funded and well-coordinated far-rightwing lies, conspiracy theory, and propaganda machine gets enough attention. It helps Trump, but has existed much longer than his political career, and is coordinated with (and by) many of those over the decades who crafted Project 2025, starting way back with Reagan's first presidential term. This machine will not go away if Trump loses, or even if he flees the country. They've employed experts over decades to learn how to best influence people and to get them to disengage from voting and politics completely, and believe that Dems & Republicans are exactly the same so why bother voting (or paying attention), and to create a huge and dedicated faction *who do engage* and think they're doing a good thing.
Your question can't be answered in a quick line or two since people have been deliberately targeted by a complex "network" of nefarious, corrupt, and dedicated groups hellbent on repealing New Deal programs and policies, and installing a government (or dictatorship) that favors THEM --- not us --- and certainly not those who so passionately listen to these popular disinformation shows (some shown constantly on military bases and in nursing homes) and repeat the lies and propaganda to themselves and others.
Yes, but why? What is it about humanity that some will follow a cruel, lying, self-involved individual? Trump is totally about trump. I watch trump followers on tv and they simply cannot all be racists so what do they see and desire that we do not?
They want a King/Dictator/Despot to rule them. They don't want to have to think or decide or have responsibility- which is what Democracy is. "For the People and By the People." They want to throw everything on "The King's Body," essentially an ancient mythology of the Divine Right of Kings to make all the decisions. Also, you've heard of diversity in film so people can see someone they can relate to? Trump is a Media King who talks and acts and thinks like they do. The perfect wave to hit America by its own un-evolved and degenerate people.
In the beginning God owned the world and everybody in it. Then he selected kings as overseers, who further delegated authority. We have been trying wriggle out from under this scheme ever since.
As an Indigenous woman, I can say that in the beginning was the Word. And humans took the Word in different, some self-serving, ways. Some made humans, owners- to lord over the fields and the forest to own them. Then Royalty decreed that the Doctrine of Discovery by an Inquisition Pope made the royal flag, representing the royal persons, have the power to own all the land (and even the humans) the flag was put in. We Natives don't believe that the Word was to be used for that kind of power.
Your question is a good one, lynn. We used to hear from the Joseph McCarthys and other rabid anti-communists that the. Commies were “brainwashing” people. And that always sounded like hogwash. But with Fox News and the rise of computers and the “social media” they enable, it appears that thousands, tens of thousands, can be so thoroughly convinced of even crazy stuff (“Jewish space lasers,” “Democrats extract life-extending fluids from children”) that they have truly been *brainwashed.* The question is, can those people ever recover? And the answer seems to be, “Many are lost forever.”
We don't ask why enough, or get to the base why enough. We ask, "What was the mass shooter's motivation for the shooting?" Response is that he was a [blank]-ist due to his rants or social media messaging. But why should we take his word for it? No, it's not because he was a [blank]-ist. It was because he was angry/sad/depressed/mentally ill and took his feelings out on some random group. (This is not an effort to support guns, I am definitely pro-gun control.) It is not rational to hate a random group of people. It is not rational to follow an authoritarian and be blind to the fact that it is not in your best interest. I have a theory that some people grew up in authoritarian households and are drawn to it. And maybe some people grew up in very lenient households and crave authority. Some people can't handle gray, don't want to dicuss because it takes effort and time and work. I can see that households on the edge of survival can't afford the luxury of discussion. I think some children leave for a different world. Some crumple and abuse drugs or alcohol, and some continue it. Look at Trump and his family. He doesn't discuss. He orders. Is it because he was never capable? Or has he just not exercised that muscle for so long that he lost any ability to? People want answers. They think being tough or hard is the answer. They want simplicity. They want things fixed yesterday. They don't want to look at the complexities of the world and human beings.
Seth- thank you. Not knowing is the worst. I can handle anything as long as I know the truth. I just told my husband that this is your Masterpiece. I have followed you since 2016; and it has all led you to this moment where you have so incredibly prepared us with your research, that no one else I know has done, nor is research that I can trust as much as I do yours.
Great. Now I won’t sleep for the next 70 days even though I know election integrity bulldog Marc Elias has joined VP Harris’ legal team, and that she has double the number on her team now that Biden did.
That's terrific news! Marc is an amazing guy and has already done so much to combat the election frauds already underway. It's still a horrific time and I pray you all take care of yourselves.
Excellent, one-of-a-kind review of scenarios! Yes, hope for best but prepare for worst. You mentioned about today's legal profession being totally different than the past times I remember. I had forgotten about the special schools mentioned, that train for courtroom far-right political advocacy. Truly, we are in a different time, one to hope for the best but prepare for the worst. I echo the story about Benjamin Franklin, a democratic republic, if we can keep it.
Mark Meadow agreed to cooperate with Jack Smith in exchange for immunity from federal prosecution last October, and it's reported that he was interviewed at least three times. If Trump was at the hub of the coup scheme, Meadows was the spoke leading to the moving parts: Stone, Alexander, and Flynn. As Seth points out, Stone engaged in exactly the same conduct as a Proud Boy who's been sentenced to a long stretch in the pen. It defies belief that Smith does not have anything to indict any of these three, and perhaps others, like Cleta Mitchell and Ginni Thomas. And, in my opinion, the same goes for an amended charge for Trump: why is he not charged with Seditious Conspiracy?
If the stakes are higher for Trump this time around, they are higher for his partner in crime-in-progress V. Putin as well. If Trump wins, Putin has his way with Ukraine.
So in other words nothing for us to do besides vote, stockpile food and water? I agree with your analysis mostly because it is right in front of our eyes both through the rhetoric and the Project 2025 manifesto. The problem with the die hard republican voter is they stopped paying attention to politics because it became too difficult to reconcile the beliefs they were raised under, their self-perception and they have narrowed down their interest to the long misguided idea that Republicans are better for the economy. You will find republicans saying to you socially as I have "we understand that we have different political parties, but that does not mean we do not like each other or cannot get along." As a matter of fact there has been a very popular meme going around stating just this. The only tactic that I have found that has stopped a republican in their tracks is to state: "by this point the only reason I can see that a person would support Tramp, is you see something in him that is just like yourself. We all like to associate with people who are like us, it is human nature. So if you are inclined to cheat on your partner, you relate to Tramp. If you are inclined to rip people off after they have provided a service, you relate to Tramp, if you believe women are objects to be used and abuse, you relate to Tramp, if you have a need to feel superior to other humans, you relate to Tramp." To allow individuals who are going to vote for him, to distance themselves from the character or the individual they support, is the huge injustice. There are zero excuses left for supporting an individual preparing for and if allowed destined to destroy democracy-NONE. I am prepared for the worst and have been since he announced his re-election bid. Wondering now if I can even put up a yard sign.
Your observation is good, that people (we all) tend to like others with whom we share some characteristic. And then using that idea to ask Trump supporters which of his most reprehensible or hateful behaviors they see in themselves. Hopefully it can make some of them stop for a minute to think and perhaps reconsider.
I’ve once again tried to share the link to this stack to as many resourced and influential actors as I have the ability to try contacting as a concerned constituent or citizen. We have little reason to sit back and trust that Garland’s DOJ (specifically the Political Integrity, domestic Counterrorism divisions or the FBI) are as prepared as they should be. Yet again you have shown us what modern journalism is capable of when deployed to the best of its ability. Forewarned will hopefully become forearmed.
This is a great and thoughtful essay, Seth. Thank you so much for writing it. I appreciate the sound reasoning of it all. After several years of the MAGA nonsense, I have come to believe that the United States is home to a good portion of American citizens who are racists, see themselves as Christian, believe in fantasy and misinformation, don't care about facts or education or science, love guns & enslavement and abuse of women, brainwash their children, are not curious and do not want to learn, love cruelty and stupidity, and I could go on and on. In other words, whatever scenario is next, there is no getting around the simple fact that 35-40% of Americans live in a world and society that I have no interest in - nor do I care about. That's enough Americans to eat at the soul of the country, like deranged termites, for the next century. No future scenario can prepare for this ongoing sad fate of national decline and ruin.
Quite Off-Topic: Rather than continuing to wonder, I clicked on your name and was transported to your substack to find out . . . Yes, It's Robot Hull! That's fucking amazing! I read your Creem stuff from about 1978-81. I have to say: It makes me very happy when a writer I liked from the distant past is (a) still around and (b) intelligent (i.e., progressive). (Charles M. Young is also on this list.)
Thank you so much! All of the stuff I wrote for Creem is now available (via subscription) on the magazine's excellent archival site. I went on to write for The Washington Post, Rolling Stone Books, and Time Inc., and for the rest of my career in music, I was an executive VP of Development and Marketing for Time-Life Music (you know, those direct marketing packages you would see on TV via infomercials and 60-sec spots). I went on to work for The University of Virginia in PR and Communications, and retired, comfortably, 5 years ago. Just wanted you to know, so that you wouldn't imagine me forever as a "Robot"....Thank you for reaching out! It's always good to hear from a former reader of my stuff.
Is there any more information about the Abbey Gate bomber, Abdul Rahman al-Logari, an ISIS-K terrorist who was freed from the Bagram prison by the Taliban. Was he freed as part of the deal between Trump and the Taliban? I’d appreciate seeing a timeline of events.
Between the irresponsible far right news organizations, the anti-liberal narrative that the GOP has been pushing for decades and social algorithms, it really shouldn't be much of a surprise. There are a great many people in this nation, on both sides of the aisle, that do not follow politics or national news. Add to all of this the numerous U.S. regions with a subpar education system and it's a perfect recipe to get where we are as a country right now.
Jess Piper wrote a great stack on why rural voters often vote against their best interests. It also provides some interesting context.
Well written and researched -but - in the essay you refer to armies of minions willing to do trump’s bidding, hundreds of lawyers willing to serve, state voting boards willing to lie and cheat and thousands of followers who await the call - WHY? I have yet to find an argument that answers why hundreds of thousands of people serve this master. I do get why racists would but that cannot be the only reason.
"I have yet to find an argument that answers why hundreds of thousands of people serve this master. I do get why racists would but that cannot be the only reason."
Please tune in to a *whole week* of Steve Bannon's show -- a festival of lies, conspiracy theories, conversation with "experts," and pro-far-right propaganda; even while serving a short stint in prison, Bannon's show continued unhindered with guest hosts and tons of complicit advocates (including Bannon's daughter, some of Trump's lawyers and other enablers, and Republicans in the House and Senate) pushing absolutely-unhinged lies about Biden, Harris, and regular Dems. But, the thing is, this stuff *doesn't sound like lies* to those who have little grasp of history, politics, laws, etc.; or who just like what is being said by the nice-sounding host; or are just tired (and worn out) and want to be told what to do; or like how "educated," "sincere," and God-fearing Bannon & guests seem.
And it's not just Bannon, it's Fox Lies & Propaganda network, rightwing AM talk radio, OAN, X (Twitter), and thousands of other coordinated (and well-funded) and independent MAGA/rightwing/far-right pundits pushing the same (and other) lies, disinformation, and misinformation. And, that stuff is repeated constantly --- I mean CONSTANTLY --- it's like how we used to learn song lyrics by listening to chart-toppers played repeatedly on the radio, and could sing along with (and regurgitate the lyrics of) our favorites.
Then, according to cult experts, Trump (these shows and other pundits) fill a sense of community and socializing lacking from many in their lonely lives, or appeal to people who like others to be in charge and tell them what to do and think. Again, listen to Bannon (in particular), he's polite, comes across as compassionate and caring and their biggest advocate, acts like he's a huge Christian, seems informed and hosts "informed" guests, and pushes massive excuses for whites and so-called "Christians" who, Bannon says, have been under attack by Dems and others around the world. For a lonely person, it can be like eavesdropping on their own virtual neighborhood conversation with their favorite BMOC (big man on campus).
You can hear the successful results of these repeated lies and propaganda by listening to callers on C-SPAN after hearings in the House and/or Senate, and after the State of the Union Address, etc. --- the majority are MAGAs (and right-leaning independents and neo-libertarians) who (seem to) regularly tune into Bannon (and to all those others who aren't kind, compassionate, Christian, or honest) as callers repeat disinformation they've heard on their favorite shows by their favorite people.
I don't think this huge, well-funded and well-coordinated far-rightwing lies, conspiracy theory, and propaganda machine gets enough attention. It helps Trump, but has existed much longer than his political career, and is coordinated with (and by) many of those over the decades who crafted Project 2025, starting way back with Reagan's first presidential term. This machine will not go away if Trump loses, or even if he flees the country. They've employed experts over decades to learn how to best influence people and to get them to disengage from voting and politics completely, and believe that Dems & Republicans are exactly the same so why bother voting (or paying attention), and to create a huge and dedicated faction *who do engage* and think they're doing a good thing.
Your question can't be answered in a quick line or two since people have been deliberately targeted by a complex "network" of nefarious, corrupt, and dedicated groups hellbent on repealing New Deal programs and policies, and installing a government (or dictatorship) that favors THEM --- not us --- and certainly not those who so passionately listen to these popular disinformation shows (some shown constantly on military bases and in nursing homes) and repeat the lies and propaganda to themselves and others.
The answer is why hundreds of thousands served the masters of Hitler, Mussolini, Franco.
Yes, but why? What is it about humanity that some will follow a cruel, lying, self-involved individual? Trump is totally about trump. I watch trump followers on tv and they simply cannot all be racists so what do they see and desire that we do not?
They want a King/Dictator/Despot to rule them. They don't want to have to think or decide or have responsibility- which is what Democracy is. "For the People and By the People." They want to throw everything on "The King's Body," essentially an ancient mythology of the Divine Right of Kings to make all the decisions. Also, you've heard of diversity in film so people can see someone they can relate to? Trump is a Media King who talks and acts and thinks like they do. The perfect wave to hit America by its own un-evolved and degenerate people.
In the beginning God owned the world and everybody in it. Then he selected kings as overseers, who further delegated authority. We have been trying wriggle out from under this scheme ever since.
As an Indigenous woman, I can say that in the beginning was the Word. And humans took the Word in different, some self-serving, ways. Some made humans, owners- to lord over the fields and the forest to own them. Then Royalty decreed that the Doctrine of Discovery by an Inquisition Pope made the royal flag, representing the royal persons, have the power to own all the land (and even the humans) the flag was put in. We Natives don't believe that the Word was to be used for that kind of power.
I agree. That's their scheme, not mine.
Your question is a good one, lynn. We used to hear from the Joseph McCarthys and other rabid anti-communists that the. Commies were “brainwashing” people. And that always sounded like hogwash. But with Fox News and the rise of computers and the “social media” they enable, it appears that thousands, tens of thousands, can be so thoroughly convinced of even crazy stuff (“Jewish space lasers,” “Democrats extract life-extending fluids from children”) that they have truly been *brainwashed.* The question is, can those people ever recover? And the answer seems to be, “Many are lost forever.”
We don't ask why enough, or get to the base why enough. We ask, "What was the mass shooter's motivation for the shooting?" Response is that he was a [blank]-ist due to his rants or social media messaging. But why should we take his word for it? No, it's not because he was a [blank]-ist. It was because he was angry/sad/depressed/mentally ill and took his feelings out on some random group. (This is not an effort to support guns, I am definitely pro-gun control.) It is not rational to hate a random group of people. It is not rational to follow an authoritarian and be blind to the fact that it is not in your best interest. I have a theory that some people grew up in authoritarian households and are drawn to it. And maybe some people grew up in very lenient households and crave authority. Some people can't handle gray, don't want to dicuss because it takes effort and time and work. I can see that households on the edge of survival can't afford the luxury of discussion. I think some children leave for a different world. Some crumple and abuse drugs or alcohol, and some continue it. Look at Trump and his family. He doesn't discuss. He orders. Is it because he was never capable? Or has he just not exercised that muscle for so long that he lost any ability to? People want answers. They think being tough or hard is the answer. They want simplicity. They want things fixed yesterday. They don't want to look at the complexities of the world and human beings.
YES.
Because MAGA is a cult. TFG aid the figure head, and it has all of the ten signs of a cult.
Even if you grant the impulse behind fascism as a reality, why this guy? Hitler and Mussolini at least had talent.
Seth- thank you. Not knowing is the worst. I can handle anything as long as I know the truth. I just told my husband that this is your Masterpiece. I have followed you since 2016; and it has all led you to this moment where you have so incredibly prepared us with your research, that no one else I know has done, nor is research that I can trust as much as I do yours.
Great. Now I won’t sleep for the next 70 days even though I know election integrity bulldog Marc Elias has joined VP Harris’ legal team, and that she has double the number on her team now that Biden did.
That's terrific news! Marc is an amazing guy and has already done so much to combat the election frauds already underway. It's still a horrific time and I pray you all take care of yourselves.
Excellent, one-of-a-kind review of scenarios! Yes, hope for best but prepare for worst. You mentioned about today's legal profession being totally different than the past times I remember. I had forgotten about the special schools mentioned, that train for courtroom far-right political advocacy. Truly, we are in a different time, one to hope for the best but prepare for the worst. I echo the story about Benjamin Franklin, a democratic republic, if we can keep it.
Mark Meadow agreed to cooperate with Jack Smith in exchange for immunity from federal prosecution last October, and it's reported that he was interviewed at least three times. If Trump was at the hub of the coup scheme, Meadows was the spoke leading to the moving parts: Stone, Alexander, and Flynn. As Seth points out, Stone engaged in exactly the same conduct as a Proud Boy who's been sentenced to a long stretch in the pen. It defies belief that Smith does not have anything to indict any of these three, and perhaps others, like Cleta Mitchell and Ginni Thomas. And, in my opinion, the same goes for an amended charge for Trump: why is he not charged with Seditious Conspiracy?
If the stakes are higher for Trump this time around, they are higher for his partner in crime-in-progress V. Putin as well. If Trump wins, Putin has his way with Ukraine.
So in other words nothing for us to do besides vote, stockpile food and water? I agree with your analysis mostly because it is right in front of our eyes both through the rhetoric and the Project 2025 manifesto. The problem with the die hard republican voter is they stopped paying attention to politics because it became too difficult to reconcile the beliefs they were raised under, their self-perception and they have narrowed down their interest to the long misguided idea that Republicans are better for the economy. You will find republicans saying to you socially as I have "we understand that we have different political parties, but that does not mean we do not like each other or cannot get along." As a matter of fact there has been a very popular meme going around stating just this. The only tactic that I have found that has stopped a republican in their tracks is to state: "by this point the only reason I can see that a person would support Tramp, is you see something in him that is just like yourself. We all like to associate with people who are like us, it is human nature. So if you are inclined to cheat on your partner, you relate to Tramp. If you are inclined to rip people off after they have provided a service, you relate to Tramp, if you believe women are objects to be used and abuse, you relate to Tramp, if you have a need to feel superior to other humans, you relate to Tramp." To allow individuals who are going to vote for him, to distance themselves from the character or the individual they support, is the huge injustice. There are zero excuses left for supporting an individual preparing for and if allowed destined to destroy democracy-NONE. I am prepared for the worst and have been since he announced his re-election bid. Wondering now if I can even put up a yard sign.
Your observation is good, that people (we all) tend to like others with whom we share some characteristic. And then using that idea to ask Trump supporters which of his most reprehensible or hateful behaviors they see in themselves. Hopefully it can make some of them stop for a minute to think and perhaps reconsider.
I thought... I haven't heard from Seth for a bit... great work .. on point.
This kind of vigilance is democracy's work.... I guess that's why it is used against it:
The "good guys" don't want to have to fight... that's what makes them the "good guys".
I’ve once again tried to share the link to this stack to as many resourced and influential actors as I have the ability to try contacting as a concerned constituent or citizen. We have little reason to sit back and trust that Garland’s DOJ (specifically the Political Integrity, domestic Counterrorism divisions or the FBI) are as prepared as they should be. Yet again you have shown us what modern journalism is capable of when deployed to the best of its ability. Forewarned will hopefully become forearmed.
This is a great and thoughtful essay, Seth. Thank you so much for writing it. I appreciate the sound reasoning of it all. After several years of the MAGA nonsense, I have come to believe that the United States is home to a good portion of American citizens who are racists, see themselves as Christian, believe in fantasy and misinformation, don't care about facts or education or science, love guns & enslavement and abuse of women, brainwash their children, are not curious and do not want to learn, love cruelty and stupidity, and I could go on and on. In other words, whatever scenario is next, there is no getting around the simple fact that 35-40% of Americans live in a world and society that I have no interest in - nor do I care about. That's enough Americans to eat at the soul of the country, like deranged termites, for the next century. No future scenario can prepare for this ongoing sad fate of national decline and ruin.
Quite Off-Topic: Rather than continuing to wonder, I clicked on your name and was transported to your substack to find out . . . Yes, It's Robot Hull! That's fucking amazing! I read your Creem stuff from about 1978-81. I have to say: It makes me very happy when a writer I liked from the distant past is (a) still around and (b) intelligent (i.e., progressive). (Charles M. Young is also on this list.)
Thank you so much! All of the stuff I wrote for Creem is now available (via subscription) on the magazine's excellent archival site. I went on to write for The Washington Post, Rolling Stone Books, and Time Inc., and for the rest of my career in music, I was an executive VP of Development and Marketing for Time-Life Music (you know, those direct marketing packages you would see on TV via infomercials and 60-sec spots). I went on to work for The University of Virginia in PR and Communications, and retired, comfortably, 5 years ago. Just wanted you to know, so that you wouldn't imagine me forever as a "Robot"....Thank you for reaching out! It's always good to hear from a former reader of my stuff.
Is there any more information about the Abbey Gate bomber, Abdul Rahman al-Logari, an ISIS-K terrorist who was freed from the Bagram prison by the Taliban. Was he freed as part of the deal between Trump and the Taliban? I’d appreciate seeing a timeline of events.
Thanks for this!
and flagging a very minor typo: know—> now, in “enforcement apparatus in the United States as he know promises to do should he be re-elected in 2024”
Thank you Seth, “Trump goes full fascist in Truth Social posting spree” by RollingStone
"when President Ronald Reagan won his 2024 re-election bid"
1984?
Fixed! Someone else caught it right after publication, so the fixed version has been live online for a day now.
"Re-terminator," a normal Republican is sent into the future to save his party from fascism...
Thank you for this. It has been a major concern of mine since 2020.
Between the irresponsible far right news organizations, the anti-liberal narrative that the GOP has been pushing for decades and social algorithms, it really shouldn't be much of a surprise. There are a great many people in this nation, on both sides of the aisle, that do not follow politics or national news. Add to all of this the numerous U.S. regions with a subpar education system and it's a perfect recipe to get where we are as a country right now.
Jess Piper wrote a great stack on why rural voters often vote against their best interests. It also provides some interesting context.
https://open.substack.com/pub/jesspiper/p/im-rural-i-vote-against-my-self-interest?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=o4g2t