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.