Throughout Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, many leftists were confused that such a sizable number of white, blue-collar workers supported him. He won, in part, thanks to these votes, which edged him to victory in the key Rust Belt states.

The 2016 presidential campaign held plenty of surprises, but Trump’s appeal to that section of the American working class didn’t surprise me at all. I grew up in Stoughton, Massachusetts, a small town a little less than twenty miles south of Boston. Today, locals know it because it’s home to New England’s largest Ikea. Back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, however, Stoughton achieved notoriety for something very different: it became a battleground over low-income, racially integrated housing.

In that context, the notorious southern bigot George C. Wallace came hunting for votes and found a ready-made audience among blue-collar workers.