Well, Mike, that puts what I call probability balance in stark, human, emotional terms — scary stuff. You know that old guy carrying the sign — the end is near —he might finally be on to something.

It is sort of like the crazy cartoon where the coyote walks off the cliff edge but doesn’t fall until he looks down. The once middle class looked down and panicked by voting for Trump. Boy does that make for one hell of a fall.

I think you have answered the question of why folks voted against their own self-interest. They knew there was no self-interest left, so by voting for Trump they were just letting out a scream of fuck it.