Stolen Pride: How Pike County’s Lost Status Fueled a Political Shift
The decline of coal jobs and rising resentment against “elite shaming” explains why so many voters in Pike County turned sharply to the GOP.
“In recent years, Pike County voters had once been Roosevelt, Kennedy, and Bill Clinton Democrats. But the county had now become one of the five counties in the nation most rapidly shifting Republican.”
This is one of the opening quotes from Arlie Russell Hochschild’s book Stolen Pride. Pike County voted for Trump by 82.2% in the 2024 presidential election. The county swung to John Kerry by 52% in 2004, marking a sharp right turn over the previous two decades.
People in that county are part of a different culture than the one many readers probably come from. Rural Kentucky is different from even Louisville a few hours’ drive away. Those cultural differences are at the core of one of the tragedies of the area specifically and the country more broadly:
“We have divided into two economies and two cultures, one red, one blue. Red states faced both tougher economic times and the more demanding, old-school brand of individualism in which no government help, no class or racial advantage—only one’s own hard work—could account for one’s fate. Those in blue states experience better economic times through a less shame-inducing cultural lens.”
The formative cultural experience Hochschild encounters over and over again is the loss of status that came with coal jobs leaving Pike County and becoming frowned upon by much of the country. As the economy worsened, the opioid epidemic ravaged the area and deaths of despair rose.
Cultural Differences
The economy is only the start of the grievances. One 40-year-old grandson of a former coal miner explained that someone like his grandfather would lose his job, his ability to provide for his family, and face the disapproval of a culture where he is blamed for the economic opportunities leaving his community. After all of that:
“Then he may read some op-ed in the Appalachian News-Express calling people like him a deadbeat for not supporting his family and paying taxes the town needs for its sewer repair. He’s not a contributor. On top of all that, he sees on the internet people outside the region firing insults at him as ignorant, racist, sexist, or homophobic. Now he’s mad at the shamers. And by this point he’s forgotten about the shame. He’s just plain pissing mad.”
When Donald Trump launched his presidential campaign in 2015, he was mocked by many pundits. His previous presidential runs had been publicity stunts and dead ends. This time, he found a ready audience for a candidate willing to strike back against the liberal elite that had shunned many parts of the country.
Trump’s Appeal Overcomes His Policies
Trump’s second-term tariffs and the retaliatory tariffs from countries like China are expected to hurt Trump counties more than Democratic ones. Trump’s appeal to people who are struggling to make it in areas that aren’t doing well isn’t based on policy.
Instead, it’s cultural.
When Trump holds a rally and lists off the institutions that have wronged him, his opponents hear him whining about parts of the world that he can’t control or the consequences of his actions. But his fans hear someone hitting back against institutions that have made them feel ashamed, that have stolen from them, as Hochschild explains:
“…in his role as victim, Trump won sympathy from many who’d felt brought down, put upon, ignored, taken from too. Trump seemed to offer himself as a quasi-religious figure of sacrifice for his many followers who had themselves suffered loss. Through him, they could grieve their own stolen pride.”
When Trump talks about taking the country back and reviving manufacturing, he is inspiring an audience that has been told for decades that their way of life is wrong. Further, status has moved from coal miners who “powered the country” to techy elites with a completely different set of concerns from Trump’s voters.
Understanding Trump’s appeal is crucial for anyone who wants to understand the country’s anxieties and frustrations. Stolen Pride is an invaluable resource for achieving that understanding.