graduating from Yale is a huge negative in my book.
He comes off as one of those people that always consider themselves to be the smartest person in the room. That can be apt to lead to doing what he thinks is best for the people rather than what the people want. I think he feels that he’s risen ABOVE the Appalachian hillbilly background that he never actually experienced but along with being poor, felt qualified to write a book about. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillbilly_Elegy#Summary
Yeah, a Yale educated lawyer who grew up in a sizeable city knows all about the Appalachians and being poor.