I think they voted for the candidate who they believed respected them, their family and their communities MUCH more. Whether or not you agree with that is another thing, but I think many of these people didn't have to infer all that much to come to the conclusion that Hillary Clinton and many other Democrats in other areas of the country thought VERY little of them (I mean, just look at a lot of the posts here), and they felt the only dignified thing to do was not vote for them ... kind of like a New York Republican who might have liked Ted Cruz's views refusing to vote for him after the "New York values" thing.
This is to say nothing *better* about the GOP platform for Appalachia, but it IS my opinion that Trump signaled a bit more dignity their way than Clinton or any past Republican or Democrat of the past twenty years. So, they didn't "vote their economic interests," but I think a lot of them would readily admit that.
Because Donald Trump is nothing else if not all about dignity.
it would be much more accurate to say that trumps campaign wasn't so much about extending dignity or respect towards such voters, but rather demonizing their perceived enemies and "the other".
There was obviously a strong element of this, but one needs to remember why Trump rallies are such a potent weapon: if your town has been in economic decline for decades, and losing population as the young people move away to find jobs, it means something when Donald Trump, whose name is synonymous with wealth, gold, and success, is coming to your town to hold a rally. There's a reason why people take his "forgotten man" schtick seriously and think he's a man of the people, even though when you look at actual policy, Trump clearly doesn't give a rat's ass about improving their lives and has governed indistinguishably from a generic R president, aside from rhetoric and some stuff on immigration.
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