https://www.blurb.com/b/10799783-the-botleys-of-beaumont-county
Joe Ed is one of the secondary characters, and perhaps the most colorful. His family has lived in Beaumont County for generations. They worked the land, but most likely someone else's, except for what they grew for themselves on their land.
Normally these folks are the backbone of the community. However, after a few generations, they get tired of being at the bottom of the social order, at least as far as whites are concerned. The more ambitious join the military or move away.
Eventually, this branch of the Crudup family disintegrates. Joe Ed barely passes high school and shows little interest in the paths available to him. His resentment against people like the Botleys grows each day and smolders like a fire within him.
Discovering FOX News and a host of right-wing radio commentators, Joe Ed finds a message. When he combines it with his fundamentalistic Christianity, which barely covers his nationalism, things start to happen. Joe Ed becomes a local radio personality and leaves the country church for a storefront church in Marion.
Barack Obama's election sets Joe Ed on fire. His venomous broadcasts get him taken off the air. Fr. Stallworth starts his new church near his storefront mission. And Joe Ed cannot handle it.
There are millions of Joe Eds in America today. Not all of them are as vocal, but he represents a large group of people who feel left out in 21st Century America. The country they remember or heard about from their elders
is changing, and not a single one of them likes it. Donald Trump did not create a movement. He merely manipulated it.
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