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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsKasich says "we need to listen to rural America". I think I've listened enough.
So John Kasich was just on CNN saying that he thinks Biden will win, but that we are so divided we need to listen to each other.
He then went on to talk about NOTHING but listening to "rural America".
The thought that Retrumplicans need to "listen" to urban America never crossed his mind.
So, let's look at what democrats have done for rural America.
It was the Democratic Party that provided electricity to their homes and towns.
It was the Democratic Party that provided them roads to better get their goods to market.
It was the Democratic Party that saw their elderly starving and gave them Social Security.
It was the Democratic Party that gave them Medicare and Medicaid so that they didn't have to die in their late 40's from treatable and preventable disease.
It was the Democratic Party that ensured their children had access to education.
There's more, but here's my point.
For all that the Democratic Party has done, we asked for ONE thing in return.
We asked that they please acknowledge that black and brown Americans were just as American and just as entitled to the freedoms and opportunity of America as they are
That appears to be too much to ask, so forgive me if I'm about DONE "listening"!
Ninga
(8,272 posts)SharonAnn
(13,771 posts)Laelth
(32,017 posts)Undoubtedly, there are intelligent people in Rural America who are not Fox-zombies. I am perfectly happy to listen to them. They probably voted for Biden/Harris.
-Laelth
LymphocyteLover
(5,636 posts)berni_mccoy
(23,018 posts)That's the problem with America right now.
walkingman
(7,578 posts)BeyondGeography
(39,345 posts)What do people believe? The things they hear.
No point in listening to them; all you get is a regurgitation.
Dark n Stormy Knight
(9,760 posts)They don't want people to think so much that they see what is really happening..
sop
(10,100 posts)country's democracy than all other factors combined.
MOMFUDSKI
(5,432 posts)You are SO right.
bdamomma
(63,799 posts)nt
misanthrope
(7,408 posts)The elimination of the Fairness Doctrine is the bigger issue.
Harker
(13,976 posts)They're not all that common.
AleksS
(1,665 posts)Its time for rural America to wake up and listen to reality.
Trump did nothing for them. Fuck. Trump didnt listen to them. Theyre not trumpets because theyre listened to. Theyre trumpets because theyre disgusting, deplorable, sick fucks, and when they end up homeless after Monsanto comes to conglomerate their shitty farms into more massive corporate farms, I hope they suffer. They get what they fucking deserve.
Goodheart
(5,308 posts)The fact their lives are boring snoozefests worthy only of endless masturbation is not my fault. Stop whining, because our system gives them far more political sway than to what they should be entitled.
Rice4VP
(1,235 posts)They are racists who claim to be pro-life but voted for a guy who let 230,000 people die
Yeehah
(4,568 posts)and allowed our enemies to escape.
Thrill
(19,178 posts)They contribute the least. The electoral college gives them too much power
NotAPuppet
(326 posts)Voters. How are we the party that fights for the average Joe, when the average Joe votes for Trump because we cant get our message across to them?
Trust me, I agree with all your points, but we have to learn how to communicate our policies better to ALL Americans and how to communicate our accomplishments. I dont k ow how many people in rural areas know what Democrats have done for them?
madaboutharry
(40,187 posts)They are the ones who are divisive with their "rural" vs. "urban" bullshit and their mantra that somehow living out in the hinterlands makes you a purer America. It is manipulative and disingenuous.
Hotler
(11,394 posts)Progressive Jones
(6,011 posts)and intelligence of a large number of rurals.
I'm sick of everything in this nation being in deference to rurals and Bible addicts.
Newest Reality
(12,712 posts)Last edited Wed Nov 4, 2020, 03:49 PM - Edit history (1)
We should listen to people impulsively acting on their base instincts to the point they see nothing other than what an authority figure tells them?
Listen to a cacophony of pickup trucks, guns and their idea of God? We have heard that forever and its getting old. Iit's incredibly stale and adds nothing new to our knowledge at all. Messages from Backwardistan are not going to help us deal with today's problems and move into the future at all.
Listen to their paranoid xenophobia and inability to extend their freedoms to others? The ones who believe that freedom is not reciprocal and that it doesn't come with clear responsibilities that they can seem to understand at all? A freedom that just applies only to me is just another form of tyranny.
Where will all of that get us? Downer and more ignorant?
I could go on, that was the short list
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)albacore
(2,398 posts)...if they just weren't such welfare queens.
https://www.businessinsider.com/red-states-are-welfare-queens-2011-8
Notice the source for this one...
UTUSN
(70,644 posts)mtnsnake
(22,236 posts)because if we don't do that, we could be in for a fuck of a time in future elections when we're not running against a moron like Trump. I agree with Kasich.
JHB
(37,154 posts)...because God forbid you talk to rural voters who don't agree with him.
How about we talk to rural Democrats and rural liberals? It's not like they don't know what their neighbors think; the neighbors never feel the need to hold back.
Azathoth
(4,607 posts)Other than vague bitterness towards "urban elites", what exactly is it that "rural America" wants? Are they really coming out in droves to repeal the estate tax and Medicaid and the regulations on derivatives trading? Half the stuff they claim to care about is explicitly opposed by the guys they're voting for, and the other half is implicitly opposed.
No. They're coming out because fuck the gays and fuck the Mexicans and fuck the blacks and fuck the illegals and fuck the Muslims and fuck the atheists and fuck the people who want abortions and fuck the people with college degrees who waive elitist concepts like math and science in their faces. And also fuck shadow enemies like "antifa" and "BLM" and "socialism".
Hassin Bin Sober
(26,311 posts)Or maybe he has his finger on those wedge issues they have been pushing for the last 40 years.
Fuck him.
LuvNewcastle
(16,834 posts)LymphocyteLover
(5,636 posts)who unfortunately dominates our political system
onethatcares
(16,161 posts)and clog the roads while we're trying to get to work and they are looking for the next fast food joint.
Why don't they just go to the Villages and grab some STDs instead of running the highways with their turn signals on for miles?
BlueStater
(7,596 posts)I hate that politicians have to kiss their asses all the fucking time.
I'm sure that there are politicians who don't kiss their asses, such as McConnell or Lindsey.
They don't give a shit about their constituents.
Dawson Leery
(19,348 posts)IT IS TIME TO END ALL AGRO SUBSIDIES!
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)When Nixon so called opened China the Population Shift began. When Jack Welch went to India and found out they spoke English,this Shift accelerated. Coming originally from the Ag Industry,saw first hand the shift. Towns and Villages dried up and people had to relocate in order to provide for their families.
At the same time,Public Education failed to keep up with the needs of a new Society as a whole. So as a result we Educated people to be functional to the local labor markets with a few exceptions and those exceptions left the local area where their talents were above the local needs.
Rural America is a functional Society with Tribal instincts controlled by Religion and out dated belief systems.
renate
(13,776 posts)So sick of this what do rural voters want crap. Racism, control of the state by the church, and blue state-to-red state welfare.
There. Done. Can we talk about something else now?
Wounded Bear
(58,598 posts)maxsolomon
(33,244 posts)Dems have no way to actually "talk" to them.
Efilroft Sul
(3,578 posts)Rural Republican voters are killing America and the rest of the world by extension.
They put a gun to their heads, exclaim, "I owned the libs!", and pull the fucking trigger every time.
JHB
(37,154 posts)It's always an excuse to say "do what I say."
Peregrine Took
(7,412 posts)Its a shame that his fugly mug took up speaking time are OUR convention.
llmart
(15,532 posts)That's coming from someone who grew up in a rural community in Ohio. I'm sick of this meme and how it just emboldens them to think they are more important than the rest of us. I will judge who I associate with and listen to by what that person believes in and has done with their life, not by where they live.
I went back in 2016 for a reunion and stayed for a long weekend and what I saw - trump signs everywhere in the poorest yards, high school classmates who were so stuck in the 1950's that their days consisted of meeting at the local diner and rehashing old high school stories - made me hightail it back to my home. I vowed never to go back because there was really nothing to go back to. I saw that coming as a very young person of 18 and I left that little rural town as soon as I could.
Maeve
(42,271 posts)And yes, left the rural area I grew up in and would not want to go back. However...
The farms and small towns have seen their way of life fade away. Farm that were in families for generations just can't cut it anymore, jobs that used to pay well are gone, local stores have been overtaken by Walmart and the people left are at a loss. They don't understand what happened (the world moved on) and they want to blame SOMEBODY! Must be all them immigrants and city types (read: blacks). Mom still lives in a small town and I see what has happened there in my lifetime; it isn't pretty. I understand their despair and they are going to need help out of it but mostly they get preyed upon by RW vultures.
Kasich has a point, but no solutions. Stopped clocks never do.
llmart
(15,532 posts)But I have a problem with the ones who are stubborn enough to think that they don't have to move on with the times. There are many, many places where young people ARE starting smaller farms that are organic and making a go of it. Then they follow a political party that has never done anything for them and criticize those people in the cities. The GOP tells them they are the party of personal responsibility, but they won't take personal responsibility for their own life situations. They demean anyone who's pursuing higher education as "elitists".
You say they're going to need help out of it, but they despise others getting help. "Pull yourself up by your bootstraps" is their mantra when it comes to others but not themselves. Plus, isn't needing help what they rave about saying the Democrats are promoting socialism?
Instead of us being told we have to understand and empathize with them, what they really need is to either accept their lot in life or at the very least start admitting to themselves that they've been conned by the Republican party.
P.S. Did you grow up in NE Ohio by chance or the southern part?
Maeve
(42,271 posts)Circleville area to be exact. Mom lives about half a mile from where the Beast held his rally Oct 24th.
I never heard of it growing up in Lake County. But then we never ventured very far as kids. We were too poor to go anywhere. I left the state in the early 80's when Reagans policies decimated the rust belt. I still say he was the beginning of the end for the rural areas with his anti-union stance.
PA Democrat
(13,225 posts)the Electoral College and the Senate.
Those folks would have a lot fewer rural hospitals during a pandemic that running rampant through their maskless (FREEDUMB!) population if it weren't for the fact that the ACA saved many rural hospitals in states that took advantage of the Medicaid expansion.
I'm SICK of rural America.
chowder66
(9,054 posts)ffr
(22,665 posts)cherish44
(2,566 posts)Uneducated white people are a bane to our democracy.
bdamomma
(63,799 posts)masses easier to manipulate, brainwash and control we have witnessed that first hand.
Proud Liberal Dem
(24,392 posts)Well said
Yavin4
(35,421 posts)They already have all the guns they want. They can worship any God they want. They have college football, pro wrestling, pick up trucks...What the fuck else do they want?
Non-White, women, and LGBTQ communities are citizens as well. Sorry, we're not going to negotiate taking away their citizenship rights.
Lock him up.
(6,918 posts)AlexSFCA
(6,137 posts)But dems do need better messaging to counter rw radio. Why cant we just buy all these radio stations and local newspapers with Bloombergs money?
gratuitous
(82,849 posts)Here we go, four more years where Republicans don't breathe a word about "the will of the people," but instead insist that the country be run to suit some special interest minority group that just happens to be heavily Republican.
The Magistrate
(95,241 posts)This crap works both ways, or it does not work at all.
In fact, as the life experience of urban people is a good deal wider and more varied than that of rural people, it is much easier for city folk to understand rural sorts than vice versa. The idea rural people have of city life is often ridiculous, and generally amounts to nothing but ignorant bias, clouded by their own overweening self-satisfaction. Which is itself rooted in their ignorance of any lives or conditions other than their own. The need for listening and education runs from the town to the country, not the other way round.
"America is mostly people who've never been more than a hundred miles from where they were born, convinced they live lives superior to those in any other place in the world."
yaesu
(8,020 posts)in the white house.
they never got over that. A very smart and articulate "black man".: shrug:
kimbutgar
(21,055 posts)Talk radio? And now that corona virus is swirling around their areas and not many hospital beds available they are going to have tough two months.
IronLionZion
(45,380 posts)So the big problem with all those great Dem programs that help all Americans is that some Americans don't want other Americans to have it. They are fine getting screwed as long as people they don't like get screwed more.
There was racist opposition to Social Security in the beginning. Same with Medicare/Medicaid. Same with ACA.
Demsrule86
(68,456 posts)if we want to win senate seats and on a presidential level, we have to attract more of the vote. You don't say when you want support 'here I am; I am not changing' so support me. Winning election is everything. And we need the Senate. So we need to have a plan to expand our numbers. Obviously, we don't compromise our principles, but we need to expand the base...we win when we have a big tent...always have.
BBG
(2,525 posts)They want to be away from others, they separate themselves on purpose. There ideal is not in community but being alone and away from others. They are antisocial and are not interested in contributing to a greater whole.
Demsrule86
(68,456 posts)You have to win votes and I think some in our party have forgotten this. Field candidates that can win in rural areas.
hamsterjill
(15,220 posts)They come to the urban areas for everything. They dont pay taxes.
Yes, we need their farms, etc., but that doesnt mean they dont need us, too.
They come to the big cities when they need healthcare especially. Youd think theyd want to stay away from us.
LisaM
(27,794 posts)If we pull this thing out, that needs to happen.
world wide wally
(21,738 posts)Vinca
(50,236 posts)theories? I'm sick of the Cuban Americans in south Florida, too. Booga, booga, booga "socialism" while Shitler is about as close to a Fidel Castro clone as you can get. People are really pissing me off today. Actually, I'm wavering between extreme sadness and being furious. Eddie Glaude made me cry when I heard him express his frustration with white America. He wants to know what they want. Why would they vote for Trump after everything that's happened? I have to agree and I'm a white American looking out at 66 million idiots who still think Covid is a hoax. Not all of them are billionaires enjoying the casino stock market. Some of them will soon die because they're fools and won't wear masks. Some will wish they were dead when the medical bills pour in when Obamacare is gone. I'm just fucking disgusted with this country. If I were one of the aforementioned billionaires, I'd buy an island off the coast of another country and never think of the 66 million morons again.
bucolic_frolic
(43,044 posts)JDC
(10,114 posts)budkin
(6,698 posts)That is all.
Chili
(1,725 posts)Hip2bSquare
(291 posts)but what are they listening to. It's not reality. Rural Ohio must know manufacturing isn't coming back. It isn't, but they still believe it will.
Coal industry is dying... even moscow mitch of coal country told them, but they are told it's coming back... it isn't.
Is it fox news and/or is it a real mental issues that haven't been addressed? I've heard for decades that these industries are coming back... they are not coming back.
How do you reach them?
blueinredohio
(6,797 posts)LymphocyteLover
(5,636 posts)It's sickening
Greybnk48
(10,162 posts)He's not much different from Trump, and I don't trust one word he says.
It's time to stop kissing the asses of rural America when it's clear that the majority of them are racist, bigots. Enough with them.
LPBBEAR
(294 posts)Fuck each and every one of them. Fuck the Electoral College for giving them a unfair advantage despite there being far fewer of them than us. Fuck allocating 2 Senators to every "shithole" state rather than allocating fairly by population. Fuck em Fuck em Fuck em.
Kashkakat v.2.0
(1,752 posts)cos of lack of job and education opportunities and.... dare I say it, small minded vindictive people who blame others for their shortcomings and gossip and hold a grudges literally for 40 yrs or more. We left cos we LIKE diverse cultural opportunities.
However we still have fam and friends and connections and maintain a strong affection for those places in spite of having made the choice to not live there
Some fam and acquaintances who are trumphumpers but many who are NOT. Note that even in the deepest rural areas there are surprisingly liberal/progressive folks who yeah might keep a low profile but know what they believe.
STOP MAKING THIS into some polar opposite either duaility that it isnt.
Actually there is a phenomenon now of city dwellers moving to rural or small towns cos of lower housing costs and now being free to work from home. So that will certainly erode the city dwell vs. country bumpkin dichotomy.
Jakes Progress
(11,122 posts)They said we hate children. They said we think they are above the law. They said we want you to think we are christian, but we don't believe or act on anything that christianity preaches. They said we are so afraid of everything that we will literally destroy the country rather than man up. They said we will use stupidity as an excuse to be greedy, mean, and nasty. They said "We are trump".
Yep. We listened. They were very clear.
Bettie
(16,069 posts)can fuck itself.
There are very few decent people in rural areas, at least in Iowa.
Major Nikon
(36,818 posts)More than just a bit tone-deaf, Gov Kasich.
Response to maxrandb (Original post)
JHB This message was self-deleted by its author.
Progressive dog
(6,899 posts)The other states get a number of representatives approximately proportional to their population. The population is as measured by the last census. There is no permanent apportionment for the house and never was.
movingviolation
(310 posts)These yahoos need to pull their collective head out of their collective ass and join the 21st century.
I'm through listening to ignorance, fear, superstition, projecting, and indecency.
Doremus
(7,261 posts)Had my fill of him in Ohio and certainly don't want to hear from him now. His thoughts and ideas are irrelevant to me.
llashram
(6,265 posts)I will never believe in this country and its lies ever again. I'm going to try to find a quiet place and just retire from this hypocritical rat race called wilfully racist Amerikkkan society.
Autumn
(44,980 posts)They have nothing to say. Nothing
melman
(7,681 posts)theaocp
(4,232 posts)bdamomma
(63,799 posts)Maybe they don't fucking listen to us, stuck in their ways and are racists.
Just very sad.
diva77
(7,629 posts)Leith
(7,808 posts)Just what insights does some small town or rural resident have that escapes the rest of us?
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)I'm sorry, how do I put this politely? Fuck rural America! They are the reason we are in this mess we find ourselves in now. I'm done with them. Their racism, sexism, stupidity, ignorance, backwardness, vulgarity, crudeness and aversion to progress.
They need to listen to US! Sorry, rural DU'ers. I know that you are with us in spirit.
tenderfoot
(8,425 posts)grobertj
(187 posts)most of the people I know who live there are VERY Pro-Life and anti-Liberal (Socialist). Kasich has a point that Democratic leaders do need to do a better job of explaining exactly what you described and a lot more. I wish we could find a way to negate the Pro-Life argument. If that was possible, we'd see a BIG change in rural voters.
Dark n Stormy Knight
(9,760 posts)Seriously, Palin's "real Americans" BS again?! People who support a POTUS who's never even read the Constitution should be our guiding light???!!!
DBoon
(22,338 posts)living impoverished short lives.
They are dependent on urban America for their financing, trade, machinery, and the advanced knowledge to run a first world agricultural system.
K&R!
leftyladyfrommo
(18,864 posts)Red rural area.
I try to stay completely away from the rural areas. Why beat myself up for nothing? They have a completely separate kind of lifestyle and way of thinking.
It reminds me of when I lived on Utah. Venturing into Southern Utah was just plain dangerous if you had long hair.
GaYellowDawg
(4,446 posts)Rural voters have told us who they are for the last 4 years. Time to stop listening.
luvallpeeps
(935 posts)You just said it all! But pitting rural against urban, black against white, educated against not educated they take advantage of US ALL!!! Divide and conquer. That's it. We got to live together!!!
nakocal
(545 posts)They just refuse to admit their fault. And of course the corporate media with their bull shit, both sides do it have fanned the division.
Blue Owl
(50,256 posts)MichaelSoE
(1,576 posts)scarytomcat
(1,706 posts)and take responsibility for the criminality of their members
EndlessWire
(6,455 posts)We've just been put through four years of hell, and watched a narcissistic pr*ck rape our country and reward his friends and family with the spoils of our country. We'll have to spend years just getting back to where we were, if it's even possible.
The rest of the world doesn't trust us now. Plus, we have this plague to conquer.
I would talk to them about INCLUSION of every citizen in the business of the country, but they will have to follow along and educate themselves in how to be part of the 21st century. I don't give a shit how they feel! I'm in favor of smacking them down into submission!
And that goes for the Rust Belt, too. Ya'll get it together!
peacebuzzard
(5,148 posts)I love nature as much as the next person, but rural America is yet to be defined.
Mr. Sparkle
(2,928 posts)and stop playing the victims.
Earthshine2
(3,945 posts)I don't know why CNN, in particular Don Lemon, loves to interview this guy.
theaocp
(4,232 posts)I'll simplify the thinking process: FUCK REPUBLICANS. There. All set. Moving on.
theaocp
(4,232 posts)It's called the Senate.
Baltimike
(4,137 posts)KentuckyWoman
(6,679 posts)Horse with no Name
(33,956 posts)That didnt work out so well.
Buckeyeblue
(5,499 posts)I think this would be a big step in starting to bridge the divide between the country. Trump blew up the bridges. He wasn't interested in bringing people together.
If Kamala does this, I think it could really be informing. And I think it would allow her to really be in position to not just run for president but to lead the party and more importantly the country.
There are always going to be things we disagree about. But are they as important as the things where we have agreement?
machoneman
(3,997 posts)get not one dollar more in Federal funds than they pay in.
Eliminate all farm subsidies. Make them pay the full boat in Federal taxes for all diesel, gasoline and oil used in processing (big money here btw). Slap an ad valorem tax of oh, say 25%, on all new farm equipment. Raise farm inheritance taxes a bunch, say 50% more than now in play. Make them file for bankruptcy in droves then we buy up the farms and donate same ot Democratic farmers!
See, unless we break their backs they will always vote Republiscum. Let's teach them a financial lesson they will pay dearly for. Sure, our food prices will go up for awhile but it will be worth it to destroy rural R-Scums.
North Shore Chicago
(3,301 posts)Tired of playing nice, obviously the rural shoeless rubes enjoy crass bullies. Give 'em what they want.