white people in those states voted for Trump than voted for Romney...but those states have been narrowing for quite some time and I do not think it is due to some belief that the Democrats aren't helping them economically and the Republicans somehow will. It's more due to cultural warfare, IMHO, and a long time coming.

For example, look at the results of the 2004 election. Kerry won both Pennsylvania and Michigan by barely more than 100,000 votes. Obama won by large margins in 2008....but he pretty much did everywhere (he even won red states like MO, IN, and NC). He lost significant ground in 2012 and then in 2016 Trump was able to get turnout for his base up, while Hillary got more or less the same number of votes Obama did in 2012 (fewer than 2008). That was a trend already in place, and has more to do with things like Obama's "cling to guns and religion" or Hillary's "deplorables" comment and the aversion in these old white towns of things like BLM, #metoo, fear of immigrants, the gun debate, God in schools, etc. than the economy.

When I refer to the white working class myth I mean the notion that Democrats need to start pandering to poor rural whites with an economic message. They don't; it's a lost cause. These areas are culturally conservative, and their values and prejudices are, quite frankly, incompatible with what the Democratic party stands for. It is what it is. The Republicans have chosen to become a nationalist party much like European "blood and soil" nationalist parties, and that's what these people want and that's what they support. Don't be fooled with this "woe is us" nonsense about the economy. They want a dictator who hands the country -- which they think is "theirs" culturally -- "back" to them, and see the rest of us as the enemy.