Materially, it makes little sense for blue-collar workers to vote for Modi, Orban, or Trump, a billionaire whose platform is to cut taxes for the rich. Hitler and Mussolini had their share of support from the poor too.
What are some of the theories of why this happens?
I know scapegoating foreigners for poverty is part of it. Wilhelm Reich wrote The Mass Psychology of Fascism but I haven't read it.
Social conditioning. They're told very explicitly that there is no alternative and attempting to seek one will just cause you misery and make you an outcast. American citizenry have no political power, voice, or will. The status quo is violently enforced by state agents largely free of accountability. and the rich are freely permitted to prey on the poor. Our entire society is monstrous, and it has a tendency to weed out those who are not and also do not have the means to care for themselves. So they become monstrous enough to fit in. They want to fit in, after all :bateman-ontological:
Or they just fucking die. Not all at once, it's usually long and slow and miserable, but it comes.