Agreed. But telling them (a) sorry, truth is those jobs are not coming back and (b) sorry, truth is the way out for your children is to learn to live in a different way than you do, is not going to attract them. So you the clever shameless populist promise them that you’ll bring back those jobs (even if that’s a lie) and that they can sleep easy knowing that no matter if things improve or worsen moneywise, at least their boy will stay a boy, marry a girl, go to a church that worships Jesus and not have to move to the Big Bad City.
The rural white poor AIUI were perfectly fine with benefitting from New Deal programs, though. (Though TBF very often these were cast as “work programs” or farm aid and such that provided some cover of not-really-accepting-aid.) But, sure, there is a component there of the curse of “honor cultures”.
Same for CNN, which is bowing and genuflecting as hard as they can:
ETA: the preview is small; the CNN headline in question is “Trump considers US expansion --If he’s serious, a territorial expansion into Panama, Greenland and Canada would rival the Louisiana Purchase”
Such breathless excitement about Trump’s bold move to rival the Louisiana Purchase!!!11!!!11!11!!!1
So, if I were to bring any of this up to your average trumper, would they use the “he’s just kidding, that’s just trump, har har” explanation, or would they actually think it’s not only feasible but a good idea?
I think it falls under the category of thinking “Gee, wouldn’t it be nifty if…” that for most of us doesn’t make it past our censor against saying stupid things in our out-loud voice.
Look on the bright side: Iran has an opportunity for Epic levels of snark, by releasing statements about US nuclear testing that are literally just Trump’s own words with “Iran” crossed out and “United States” written in, in crayon.