"Make America Great Again." Trump's campaign slogan was a direct appeal to nationalism. As a son of the Rust Belt city of Dayton, Ohio, I wasn't surprised to see that it worked.
People in the postindustrial Midwest and in much of the rest of fly-over country are tired of being ignored by the urban coastal elites who seem to think laid-off factory workers should shake off their blues and get a job as a coder. Not that the children of the dispossessed stand a better chance: Silicon Valley is a great wealth generator but a lousy job creator. Many highly skilled American tech workers are unemployed, cheated out of jobs by sleazy companies who abuse the H1B visa program to hire compliant foreigners for a fraction of the cost.
If you're one of the millions of left-leaning Americans shocked and awed at Donald Trump's first week as president, his "America First" inauguration speech, his orders to build his Mexican border wall, tear up NAFTA, start a trade war, and especially the sudden brutalism of his Muslim travel ban, I have news for you: There are just as many others who are cheering him on, thrilled that he's keeping his campaign promises. As far as they're concerned, the rest of the world — including refugees from countries whose wars were started by the U.S. — can go to hell. After all, their hometowns already have.
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