The Will to Secede

In 2016, Trump won rural America in a landslide with 65 percent of the rural vote—compared to Romney’s 60 percent in 2012 and McCain’s 53 percent in 2008. More broadly, the populist movement now surging through most high-income countries bears a strong regional aspect. For “traditionalist” rural voters, the rhetoric of the anti-establish­ment parties an…