That does not preclude them from being uneducated and gullible to brainwashing. In fact, there is a strong case to be made that being well-educated and affluent primes one to become more likely to be uneducated/brainwashed. When you are well-educated and affluent, the "yes men" show up and start to make you feel like you know everything, and it becomes really easy to lose the skepticism and awareness that one normally has.

> It's not poor, rural red-staters listening to his message.

Was there something to suggest that it was? I see no mention of this group anywhere.

If you guys ran on just doing that you’d win every election. The only reason you ever lose an election is that you’ve yoked redistributionist policies to the largest social experiment in the history of the world. People don’t want to be guinea pigs in an experiment to see how many of the problems that afflict third world countries are caused by the culture of the people who live there.

The American left could solve this problem overnight by following the lead of the social democratic party in Denmark and getting onboard with immigration restriction. Then you could have a broad coalition to achieve the economic reforms you want. You simply choose to die on the immigration hill instead.