This is something I see a lot with the houses that have Trump signs in my area. They always have a multitude of run down cars, a house that is falling apart, a bunch of stuff in their yard that are not lawn ornaments, and occasionally are fenced in. It’s pretty consistent and they always have Trump signs and flags even though voting for Harris would likely help them afford to fix up their cars or house.
Maybe it’s a post hoc ergo procter hoc, ie. the run down property, and voting for Trump, are both symptoms of the same thing: That life’s been hard, that they are in over their heads, and that nothing seems manageable anymore. (Doesn’t it sound an awful lot like undiagnosed neuro divergence?)
Maybe voting for Trump initially was an f you to the intellectual elite that “are keeping them down”? After a while it became part of the identity. And now they may not have much going for them, but they have their savior Trump.
I just noticed that both previous paragraphs starts with “maybe”, that wasn’t planned, but it doesn’t convey my own doubts.