1 Not unexpectedly, in the aftermath of this presidential election, many Americans are wondering how this happened, according to an article by Lynn Neary of NPR. To quote Neary, “… a lot of Americans are still wondering how it happened. In part, working-class anger is said to have fueled Trump''s victory; and to understand where that anger is coming from, some people are turning to books.”

One of the nonfiction reads the puzzled are turning to is Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance, describing poverty in rural Appalachia and Rust Belt Ohio. In addition to nonfiction works, fictional works are coming forth depicting rural life in coal country and other non-urban population centers.

Comprehension-starved non-Trump supporters, it would seem, are anxious to enter the mind stream and life experiences of Trump voters to get where they’re coming from. Book offerings abound to fit that need:

Knockemstiff by Donald Ray Pollock, American Salvage by Bonnie Jo Campbell, Burning Bright by Ron Rash, Preparation for the Next Life by Atticus Lish, World and Town by Gish Jen, Sweetgirl by Travis Mulhauser, The Round House by Louise Erdrich, The Secret Wisdom of the Earth by Christopher Scotton, and Winter''s Bone by Daniel Woodrell.

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1 Still Puzzled By The Election? Authors Prescribe Fiction For Better Understanding. Lynn Neary. All Things Considered, NPR. December 22, 2016 <http://www.npr.org/2016/12/22/506476143/still-puzzled-by-the-election-authors-prescribe-fiction-for-better-understanding>

But at end of the day, history explains their cultural transference to the ballot box has little to do actually with jobs and opportunity for these disaffected malcontents. Especially so, in light of Trump’s disparate policies from those which could lift them above their circumstances. They may wax on about social and economic deprivation in public discourse, but in their personal confab between one another, it is racial sentiment that garners their voting habits.

A quick scan of American history summarized under the following rubrics: Slavery, Plantations, White Rule, Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln Assassination, Jim Crowe, Separate But Equal explains the quintessential self-identity that is at the heart of Trump’s rise. The notion that someone so unqualified, reckless, dangerous, reactionary, dishonest, immature, retaliatory, and divisive should be in charge of our socioeconomic welfare and military is beyond absurd. It is suicidal.

So while the intellectually disposed wrestle with the psychology of divided America in an attemp to speak and think hillbilly, I’ll leave you with the visual universal translation above of where things are regardless of language.

Carl Hitchens