Retired Standard & Poor’s Director Jim Branscome has a theory for why Appalachia and rural America clings to Trump, and it has everything to do with exploitation.

“What our [greedy] milk cows taught me on [my] mountain farm, [Ecologist Garrett] Hardin elevated into a principle that explains much of what ails modern society,” Branscome told Salon.

Most English villages used to have a “commons”, a collective grazing area where everyone could feed their sheep, but some farmers took advantage of the commons by increasing their herds and razing it.

The literal “commons” of Appalachia — its mountains, forests and mineral wealth — were similarly exploited under the banner of progress, said Branscome, “leaving environmental ruin and economic instability in its wake.

“… Just as outside corporations extracted coal until the land and communities were depleted, outside political forces extracted votes with grand promises, acting in their lust for power, until the reservoir of trust was drained,” he writes.

“The region’s shift to MAGA reflects a final, seemingly rational act of self-preservation by mountaineers who feel the entire system governing this shared ‘pasture’ of opportunity and fairness has failed them. They are opting for a disruptive herder who, however flawed, at least claims the old, depleted grazing rules no longer apply.”