Yet despite Trump’s ignorance, there is no doubt that he has tapped into a real sense of economic insecurity among Americans across the country, particularly those in areas like the Rust Belt who have suffered from decades of needless decline. The Washington Post’s Dave Weigel recently found many of these folks during a campaign stop in Michigan — good, honest people weakened by years of deindustrialization and starving for political leadership and economic salvation. Many, though not all, thought Trump — and his fight against the corporate and political elite who were supposedly outsourcing America’s future — might finally have the answer.

The bitter irony of this support, however, is that Trump’s economically ignorant message prevents real reform and serves to protect the very leaders who got folks in Michigan and elsewhere in their current predicament. Indeed, the American political landscape is littered with union leaders, CEOs and, of course, politicians who falsely blame foreign trade and immigration for the awful-but-totally-expected failures produced by their anti-market policies. Policies that, rather than embrace and harness economic dynamism, doom workers and constituents to a life of slow decline and increasing government-dependence.

Such decline and dependence, however, are far from inevitable. Leaders in states across the south and west have limited their own political power, accepted the realities of globalization, and adjusted to them by embracing free(r) markets; lighter regulation; a clear, consistent legal regime; and, yes, international trade. The results can’t be clearer: states across the Sunbelt like Texas, as well as energy powerhouses like North Dakota, are leading the U.S. recovery, even expanding manufacturing, and are consistently atop the national rankings in terms of business, jobs and prosperity.