Lyndon Johnson said it best. "If you can convince the lowest white man that he is better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you". He said this back in the 60's but it applies oh so perfectly to the MAGA crowd.

A good read on this topic is "Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right" by Arlie Hochschild. She spent a couple of years embedded with folks in the bayou country of Louisiana trying to figure out why they kept electing politicians who would roll over for the oil and chemical industries as they trashed the environment that these hunters, fishermen, and outdoorsmen love so much.