Caste is the wrong word for what you describe. Yes, those are cultural markers that clearly identify a person belongs to a certain group, but it's not nearly the same thing as caste.

In my experience that's not true at all. People from all strata of society wore those red hats. It's not a signal of class or 'caste' or anything similar. I've never met anyone who'd open carry an assault rifle, but again, I doubt you can really tell much about their background like whether they're rich, poor, working class, elite, or whatever else from it.

I've also never seen a work environment where you could open carry anything. (Though I have been to a church that had a small sign in the parking lot, asking that people not open carry in church. And no, that was not what you would consider to be a "redneck" church.)

The first is political affiliation, and the second is simply being an idiot, neither of which are markers of caste nor protected classes.

Are you trying to imply that discrimination against rural/southern people is ok because they have unacceptable political views? I don't know how else to read your reply. If so, you've done a great job of illustrating GP's point.

That's not really caste because it's not based upon any immutable characteristic. Political affiliation is not caste.