We say very clearly that rural America is hurting. But we refuse to justify attitudes that some scholars try to underplay.
Something remarkable happened among rural whites between the 2016 and 2020 elections: According to the Pew Research Center’s validated voter study, as the rest of the country moved away from Donald Trump, rural whites lurched toward him by nine points, from 62 percent to 71 percent support. And among the 100 counties where Trump performed best in 2016, almost all of them small and rural, he got a higher percentage of the vote in 91 of them in 2020. Yet Trump’s extraordinary rural white support—the most important story in rural politics in decades—is something many scholars and commentators are reluctant to explore in an honest way.
…
What isn’t said enough is that rural whites are being told to blame all the wrong people for their very real problems. As we argue in the book, Hollywood liberals didn’t destroy the family farm, college professors didn’t move manufacturing jobs overseas, immigrants didn’t pour opioids into rural communities, and critical race theory didn’t close hundreds of rural hospitals. When Republican politicians and the conservative media tell rural whites to aim their anger at those targets, it’s so they won’t ask why the people they keep electing haven’t done anything to improve life in their communities.
We’re going to have to, at some point. Or they’ll be forever holding us back.
We may have to force on them things like good schools and living wages, before they’ll be able to grow past the “hate liberals” phase
You use The Airliner method. You put on your own oxygen mask before you put on a child’s. We need to take care of ourselves before we can take care of them.
There are plenty of things we can and should be doing at the local levels. To accomplish this that we aren’t. It’s the problem of all politics in america. People are waiting for someone responsible at the top to do the right thing. And actually help people. The people at the top don’t care enough to actually do anything. And yet people only vote in a national elections like the presidential election. Many of them not bothering to vote in their local elections at all. Where they would actually stand to have the biggest impact.
Perhaps we should look into kick starting and crowdfunding solar punk technocratic communes in rural middle america. Getting started would of course be the hardest part. Finding knowledgeable educated people willing to devote time and energy to helping develop something new unique and bigger than themselves. But I am sure there are people out there with the knowledge and the interest. It’s just a matter of getting everyone together. Once you have the first few built and sustainable. You can start building more. And more and more and more. Till eventually they become rather common and actually start helping people like them after they’ve been exposed to it long enough for their irrational fear instincts to die down.
Not to poo poo your fantasy or whatever, but this sounds like every tech bro’s “build an island country” when they get their first billion.
Most cities weren’t built where they were purely by chance or coincidence. Infrastructure is hard and complicated to build, and relies on natural resources being somewhat available locally in most cases.
Even if you manage to build it, there’s no guarantee they will come.
In the very last sentence. And especially in the context in which we were discussing. It’s literally the opposite of that. Likely buying up rural land that had already been a town at one time but ceased to be because of industrialization. And revitalizing and rebuilding it in a more socialist / communist model along with other interested people. But still integrating into the larger society and environment around it. Building A Better Community from within. Not some outside Island to play King on.
All these people fantasizing about 15 minute towns and cities here in the United states. Let’s fucking go let’s do it. Solar panels, windmills, tight high-density communities. The power that be don’t want it. We gotta do it ourselves.
So you rebuilding the railroad? A lot of small towns only existed because of the railroad. Now some of them only exist because of the interstate.
A lot of towns are rotting because there’s no real reason for them to exist anymore, and for some of them there wasn’t a real reason besides a truck stop for them to have existed in the first place.
If it’s needed sure. But again there’s other avenues other ways. However you’re focusing on rebuilding them how they used to be. Not rebuilding them better or anew.
These days we’d probably be better off building somewhere close to Interstate access. And then worrying more about data access. Than something like building our own private Railroad. Or railroad access in general.
That’s just starting a new liberal city in the middle of Trumpistan. It’ll be like Austin or Atlanta even if everything goes perfectly.
I say we get a few California and New York billionaires to just buy a small shithole town in rural Appalachia or Louisiana or something. Give every resident $70k a year, for free. Free healthcare, college, job training, for life. Fix up their houses and their infrastructure. You could probably do it all for just one billion dolllars. And slap banners everywhere saying COURTESY OF THE US DEMOCRATIC PARTY.
Shower these dumb fuckers with cash so they’ll shut up about the culture war shit. And then in a generation when their kids are educated, they’ll be normal, non hate filled people.
Only if you ignore all the talk about communism communes and socialism. And yes of course there will be pushback and unrest. You have to win them over. But it can be done. Especially by showing them a way to preserve their communities and ways a life.You’re not going to win anyone over if you never try.