It ' s not that . Lots of Americans , mostly from rural areas or the rust belt , feel betrayed by the entire system , and have some justification for thinking that way . They have little power to change things , and what little they do have ends up electing corporate lickspittles who do nothing for them . They ' re pissed off and they want to lash out . Then the walking Molotov cocktail named Donald Trump comes along and says Throw me ! It ' s ok ! They ' ve been seething quietly for so long now when they finally get a chance to strike back , even if it ' s just symbolically , they will take it . The biggest problem is the Democrats and frankly , the GOP who never really wanted Trump are so disconnected they don ' t realize how furious middle America is with the political system and they nominated the person who is perhaps more emblematic of that system than anyone else . Sure , Hillary was qualified , but she IS the establishment . Years of neglect has made millions of Americans utterly despise anything with that tag . It ' s why the Democrats were so utterly foolish to stack the deck against Sanders , who could have also ran as an antiestablishment candidate and probably would have defeated Trump in a landslide . Too often we think these movements arise because of ignorance or hatred , when they really rise due to the political class utterly neglecting the proletariat .