Perhaps you're too fixated on seeing the familiar, ER. You've assembled all the traditional arguments to make the traditional case...but I must point out that Mutz goes a bit further by basing her work on actual studies of voters in 2012 and 2016 (I just waded through the paper; you're welcome, it's a slog).

But if you're not willing to be data driven, what about the conservatives you know? In my universe, there's not a one who is under financial stress, just the opposite: They've always done well and continue to do well. And it's equally true that every one of them is, at a minimum, conscious of being "white", and have a noticeable tendency to parrot the stock complaints about the "fall" of the "white race". Far too many are just flat out racist, anti-semitic, and misogynist.

ER, the reason Mutz's study has "caught on" is because it accurately describes the real people we know. That instant analysis blaming Trump support on being economically "left behind" never did ring true to my ear, because it never seemed to match the real Trump supporters I know. It's reasonable to suspect that explanation is self-serving, perhaps unconsciously, because it says there's an easy answer to be found in tweaking neoliberal economic policy. Problem solved.

But the reality is that the problem is far more intractable. About a quarter of our fellow Americans are simply irredeemable assholes, and no "reaching out" or "accommodation" will ever get through to them.

I tried to watch the first episode of the "Roseanne" reboot, and turned it off after ten minutes. In another example of the dishonest propaganda that ginned-up all this bitterness and resentment, they divide up their prescription medicine and whine about the high cost and how they just can't afford what they desperately need...and never, ever, admit that an Obamacare policy would solve their problem instantly. THeir problems are manufactured and self-inflicted for the political profit of rightwing politicians.