I think it is not a matter of punching up or punching down but how either is done. If you straight up tell rural poor people you want to make their lives better and build a better future for all it will simply not connect and perhaps even get you called “gay.” If you meet them where they are and tell them their towns aren’t shit and they have been voting for shit because they have been too demoralized to pursue what they are owed, they might actually say you are giving the tough talk that is needed and that you aren’t mincing words like some bullshitter.

You are less likely to uplift the already downtrodden by starting off with a message couched in positivity and auspiciousness, it just is not how the terms of engagement in such societies are. I have lived in the poorest areas in India, China, Jordan and the US and I know this much to be true. That is not to mention that rural red area politics aren’t a monolith, and there are good chunks of people who are liberal but outnumbered, hate the beliefs and policies of where they are, and are forced to hold their tongue due to social pressure, and such people are just waiting for a fearless shit talker left-leaning leader to galvanize them and finally make their displeasure socially acceptable enough to voice.