Schaller: Well, Chinese markets are important to all Americans, but the impact, as you suggest, may be disproportionate for rural communities.
That’s because you can’t have major plants and stuff in [urban] and suburban areas because of zoning and property cost reasons.
The last time this happened, farmers got hurt badly by Chinese retaliatory tariffs which were aimed at U.S. exports like soybeans, corn, and wheat.
I think Trump, as you know, is a guy who views the world transactionally, and he projects his view onto everybody else.
And of course, Trump is both of those things: a bully who had a rich daddy and a big mouth.
And there’s certainly some truth to that, but I don’t think necessarily rural voters or conservative voters are always voting against their economic interest.
If you look at the charts of Trump support and rurality, the more rural the area, the more they support Trump. »
