THE church billboards in the mountains of middle Tennessee give a fair sense of the region’s politics. Lately they have expressed support for the police, enlisting Jesus as an authority for the view that “all lives matter”—meaning, implicitly or explicitly, that there is nothing particularly meritorious about the black kind. Those mottos go along with injunctions to piety (“You think this is hot? Try hell”), sometimes with an up-to-the-minute flavour (“Jesus Christ is better than Pokemon”).
This is deep Trump territory, as the yard signs that dot the winding mountain roads proclaim. Those signs are far more numerous in this beautiful part of the country than Muslims or immigrants, let alone terrorists. Given Appalachia’s poverty and social problems, life may not quite be “as peaceful as a baby’s sigh”, as the old Dolly Parton song has it. (Locals still subsidise their incomes by gathering wild ginseng, as Tennesseans have for generations.) But, as in many other places, it is not obvious how Donald Trump’s policies, such as they are, will help.
The Economist stopped at a remote...Continue reading
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