Jim Goad: Donald Trump and the Revenge of the Yahoos

Jim Goad writes:

As I wrote in a book oh so many moons ago, rural whites have been the most openly despised and mocked racial, economic, and geographic group in America since at least the 1960s. But negative stereotypes of American “white trash” extend back centuries further. And nearly every culture on earth seems to have some sort of pejorative to describe ignorant, stupid, knuckle-dragging country folk. There are certain terms you’ve heard all your life but probably don’t realize originally were used to denote ignorant rural people. “Pagan” comes from a Latin word meaning “country people,” and “heathen” used to mean “dweller on the heath, one inhabiting uncultivated land.”

This election, America’s pagans and heathens pushed Donald Trump over the top.