Thom Hartmann mentioned one of our own, Maxrandb today! See the excerpt below:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

— Do We Ignore Or Engage Rural Voters? Maxrandb is posting over on Democratic Underground that we’re wasting our time reaching out to rural voters, a perennial obsession with Democrats, particularly since the bestselling book Hillbilly Elegy catapulted its author into the GOP race for the US Senate. This Republican meme, that Democrats are ignoring and thus insulting “flyover country” is a useless waste of time, Maxrandb suggests. Instead, Republican voters — who are in the minority in America by substantial numbers — should be reaching out to city dwellers to understand their unique needs and concerns. I agree and think you’ll find it a thought-provoting read (if you’re not offended by obscenity).

Well done, Maxrandb!




I will look for a link. I think this may be the thread: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216121525

[SheltieLover]

1. Ty, Peggy!

[malaise]

2. K & R

[Grasswire2]

4. countdown now to the rushing of some DU-ers to discredit Hartmann here.

4-3-2-1-


Thanks for posting, CalPeg!

[gab13by13]

12. Ed Schultz got ripped, why not Thom?

Every chance I get I listen to Thom.

[brush]

24. Thom's message stays progressive. Schultz' went right wing.

[electric_blue68]

33. I was so shocked by that... Does anyone know why?...

I remember sometimes on Air America he'd get callers saying how they finally got what he was talking about, and we're glad they heard someone like him.

sigh.

[brush]

35. When he was on "Air America" he was still a "progressive."

It wasn't until after he parted ways with MSNBC that he switched back to being right wing...on "Russia Today."

[electric_blue68]

36. Ty...

Oh.... right, I think... he had a TV show for a while? I didn't have cable, so...

I just wonder why he got trigged, slid into being Trumper.

[Elessar Zappa]

25. Schultz

went right wing and worked for Putin at the end of his life. He went to the dark side.

[Tommymac]

20. Not me - one of my most cherished books is 'Screwed' -- Thom autographed it for me.

I'll always be a big Thom Hartmann fan. Brilliant man. Funny man. Nice Man.

Not always right, but at least he tries to present solutions, not just complain about things on the air.

[Ferrets are Cool]

27. Thom is one of my hero's. I too, have a autographed edition.

[ProfessorGAC]

5. Cool!

And, good for Max!

[dalton99a]

6. Kick

[BlueJac]

7. Good one!

Bravo

[KT2000]

8. So right on

I had to read it again. Such a good post.

[blm]

9. maxrandb is always a worthwhile read.

Great observations and, FUNNY! An exalted figure from early bartcop years.

[judesedit]

10. Post states really good points. It was written by a veteran, too.

[KS Toronado]

11. We know for sure that Thom Hartmann visits DU

Heck he might even be a member. Plus this reminds me why as average citizens we need to express our ideas
and thoughts here on DU and other Democratic sites because well connected Democrats are looking for new
ways to attack reQublicOns and they know websites like ours are full of insightful ideas.

[Liberal In Texas]

32. He posts here. He's a member.

Star Member thomhartmann (3,955 posts)

As far as I'm concerned, he's a national treasure.

[SWBTATTReg]

13. Really! I agree that urban / city dwellers have always provided the paychecks for these

rural dwellers somewhat by buying their produce and other products, lumber, meat, you name it. I do get tired of being mocked, made fun of, by these rural folks too, I heard it all of the time and oftentimes, it was total bullsh**, crime was raging out of control, drugs everywhere, blah blah blah, in the cities. Last I heard, was that Meth and Herion were doing a pretty good number on rural areas, so don't just point the fingers one way, it's a serious problem all around (the drugs).

[Farmer-Rick]

14. Saw that post when it first went up.

But since I'm in a rural area I didn't know what to think.

No one is really doing anything to help farmers and rural workers ever since free trade took off all depression era price controls on farm products. Now most local farms and dairies are either closing due cheap imports or being bought up by conglomerate organizations.

Most of the corporate models are all about abuse of animals and land with an added incentive to monopolize all farm markets and processing facilities. That's why you can't find any slaughter houses that will take your couple hundred chickens. The big corporations have turned most slaughter houses into their private little kingdoms. No one else allowed. Their anti- competitive contracts stipulates that.

The GOP does nothing about the real problems and people seem to be too damn stupid to notice. Just st so long as they can hate someone.

[Tommymac]

21. The GOP wants the Corporate Co-ops to shutout the independent farmers.

The family farm was deprecated in the USA decades ago. Just like Putin's Russia.

Don't expect the QOP to do anything except blame libruls for all the world's problems...and watch the M$M echo all their memes and words.

[electric_blue68]

34. While not since the pandemic...

and not as much as I once did I always go down to our big NYC Green Market to by from local, regional small to medium farmers. A few I knew for decades. 👍

[PTWB]

15. Rural voters tend to be undereducated.

As a group they’re simply not going to have the mental capacity to identify that is in their best interest to reach out. Hell, they’ve been voting against their own interests for decades.

If anyone is going to have to reach out, it’s the educated, compassionate, urban city dwellers.

[2naSalit]

16. The problem I see is that there are quite a few...

Rural folk who have been to the cities, didn't find it a place where they could thrive and went back to ruraland. It's what I did. The more I see of cities, the less I have any desire to go to one.

Doesn't sound like anyone is thinking about that part.

[maxrandb]

18. That wasn't the point I was trying to make

My point is that there are good and decent people in both urban and rural America.

Both have quite a bit of the same struggles, aspirations and issues.

I have NEVER seen an OP ED from a Retrumplican chastising his party for not "reaching out" to Urban area they lose by 70-80% points.

I have NEVER seen Chuck Todd, or other media, go to urban area to conduct a "focus group" to discuss why Retrumplicans are so "out of touch" with "these" Americans.

Every time the media wants to address "America's Issues", they go to some place like Beaver County, PA and describe it as the "heartland".

Maybe if rural America where EVER asked to "understand" urban America, enough of them would see that they're passed off about the same things and it would make a difference.

Just like any relationship, it doesn't work if you only listen to one side.

[panader0]

29. I found out long ago that I couldn't live in the city.

I bought 40 acres in '78 and love being in the boonies. Lots of elbow room.
I am fairly well educated, even for a college dropout, and I've been a diehard
Democrat since I was young, coming from a long tradition from my Democratic
ancestors.
But I fully understand your point. Most of my neighbors are politically uneducated
Republican voters. Nice people for the most part, but bought into the Rush Limbaugh
ethic. About 2 to 1 around here, even though, over all, the district is blue.
Congrats on getting Thom's attention. Pretty cool.

[llmart]

17. I loved that post!

I always love a good Maxrandb rant! Such a way with words - words even a trumper can understand.

[H2O Man]

19. Recommended.

[PCIntern]

22. Congrats!

He mentioned my posts twice tgat I know of, once reading my entire lengthy post many years ago. It’s a great honor, really.

[Hiawatha Pete]

23. K&R

[IronLionZion]

26. I won't be holding my breath for rural people to reach out to urban residents

Rural people like to own stuff and keep outsiders out. Urban people are used to common shared spaces and how our actions impact those around us. We like using the public services our taxes pay for.

That's one of many reasons why urban people are more liberal while rural people are more conservative.

Rural people won't be able to understand the socioeconomic root causes for why teenage girls would carjack an old delivery driver and kill him in broad daylight. They'll just blame it on minorities since they don't have many in rural areas where they live, and don't have many violent carjackings. They do have lots of meth and opioid problems that they would prefer to blame on foreigners even though it's made in USA by Americans.

[Skittles]

28. I think the point is

why should we care so much what they think? they don't care what city folk think

[IronLionZion]

30. And then there are suburbs which can swing either way

Winning more suburban swing voters and higher turnout from urban voters would be more important for us than perennially trying to pander to rural voters.

[Skittles]

31. yes

and concentrating on the way-too-many people who currently fail to vote....yes indeed

[leftstreet]

37. DURec

[orleans]

38. that was a great post. thanks peggy! nt