Rural America Is Desperate. It Is Also Part of the Democratic Base. Don't Abandon Them.

[X_Digger]

45. No, rural voters aren't resentful at not having a starbucks on every (other) corner.

They really don't give a shit about a good chinese takeout or a jewish deli.

I know a hell of a lot of rural folks who are desperate- working two part time jobs, or one full time (but seriously underpaid) job and maybe trying to take night classes to get a better job. Ex-factory workers, welders, heavy machine operators, HVAC techs, mechanics- all trying to stay afloat doing work they're vastly overqualified for at a fraction of their previous pay.

Businesses are leaving because their infrastructure is crumbling because their tax base is eroding because their kids can't find jobs locally because their local businesses are closing because their infrastructure is crumbling.. (lather, rinse, repeat.) Rural populations are aging not because they're getting past child-bearing years, but because kids get the hell out as soon as they can for economic reasons.

If they have kids, child care is catch as catch can- maybe your neighbor and you can work something out, maybe you have an older parent who's still spry enough to keep an eye on the kid(s). Maybe someone from church babysits for you when she can.

That's part of the reason that these folks can't up and move whenever they feel like it. There's a whole social web of connections and help that keeps their noses above water. Maybe your wife's high school gal pal cuts hair and you get a discount. Or your husband's football buddy is a mechanic and he gets you tires at his cost.

Moving to a place where that web doesn't exist? Hugely expensive, and largely invisible to someone not well entrenched in the social fabric of a community. With property prices being so lopsided between rural and urban, you can forget about selling your home and moving to the city.

Blithe dismissal of the inability to pick up and move wherever and whenever you feel like it demonstrates ignorance of many rural people and their situations.

But go ahead and discount them as simply 'resentful'. Let's see how that works out for you-- oh wait. Been there, done that.