I agree. I left my home in northeast OH when I graduated college and moved to the Boston area, not knowing a soul, be cause that's where I got a job. Moved back to OH several years later to beat the MA slump that occurred at the end of the 80s. Left a job in my 19th year because I was sick of the games and sh*tty politics and moved to IN. The recession in 2008/2009 hit and killed the side of the business I managed, so found a new job - and moved again. You do what you need to do.
There are people on both sides that sadly need a hard slap upside the head. To the (former) blue collar dems, the world has changed and there's no going back. To the snowflakes on the left, it's time to grow up and learn that you don't get a trophy just for showing up, that you DON'T have the right to not be offended while you believe you have the right to offend anyone that disagrees with you, and you DON'T have the right to do nothing and get everything paid for by people who actually work for a living.
And btw, I know plenty of college educated people that willingly voted for Trump; and they're some of the nicest people you'd ever want to meet without a scintilla of racism, sexism, xenophobia, islamophobia, homophobia, tranyphobia. It's just that they have the temerity to disagree with the evolved humans of the left.
Well if absolutely nothing else his father was an immigrant thus was willing to move somewhere else to seek opportunity. If you're not willing to take any action (like leave your dying town to go to where jobs are) then yes the metaphorical "bootstrap pull" won't be so easy. Just expecting your economic prospects to change when you take no other steps to change anything else about your situation is wishful thinking. When you expect to passively have everything done for you then you can't pull yourself up by your bootstraps because you're not wearing any boots.