In Obama's mind, what does "clinging to religion' mean, exactly?

[Lief 🗽]

His point (well, I have no idea what his point is, I'm not a psychic and I really don't care but whatever) is that these people, here referring to working class folk in Pennsylvania if I remember correctly, have been driven into desperate destitution by the international neo-liberal institutions that control our economy and our politics. Their economic and social way of life has been destroyed, many of them have lost their jobs or their homes (and with it their self-sufficiency and confidence in themselves). With the destruction of their communities, their livelihoods, their futures and their history, the only thing they have bigger than themselves to attach themselves to is religion. And the right-wing in this country, very cynically as is their modus operandi, will make up false threats to this religion (THE WAR ON CHRISTMAS! BIG CITY LIBERALS! ATHEISTS! BANNING PRAYER IN SCHOOL!) that these cornered, frightened animals of people cling even tighter to this last ray of (false) hope in their lives, in doing so ignoring the real villains who have actually wronged them.