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 Centerā€™sĀ 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 Trumpā€™s extraordinary rural white supportā€”the most important story in rural politics in decadesā€”is something many scholars and commentators are reluctant to explore in an honest way.

ā€¦

What isnā€™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 didnā€™t destroy the family farm, college professors didnā€™t move manufacturing jobs overseas, immigrants didnā€™t pour opioids into rural communities, and critical race theory didnā€™t close hundreds of rural hospitals. When Republican politicians and the conservative media tell rural whites to aim their anger at those targets, itā€™s so they wonā€™t ask why the people they keep electing havenā€™t done anything to improve life in their communities.

  • just2look@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    50
    arrow-down
    2
    Ā·
    9 months ago

    Of course Iā€™m aware. What Iā€™m saying is that itā€™s stupid to give rural white Americans a pass for being shitty and racist just because life hard.

    They want to blame everyone else for the problems and double down on a party of grifters and con men, because that is more appealing than admitting they have been wrong. That the propaganda they have been fed their whole lives is a pile of garbage they have been happily eating.

    They would rather continue swimming in shit as long as they are told that they are better than everyone else, which is what the right has been telling them for decades.

    • maynarkh@feddit.nl
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      15
      arrow-down
      8
      Ā·
      9 months ago

      Itā€™s not giving them a pass. But you can blame them and do nothing, or you can try and lift them up.

      • just2look@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        25
        arrow-down
        3
        Ā·
        9 months ago

        And you propose I do what exactly? They are dead set on ignoring reality and substituting their supremacist fantasy. Any program that is aimed at uplifting people is deemed communist and assaulted by the very people itā€™s aimed at helping. Any influx of people and capital that could replace all the lost industry is viewed as an invasion of ā€œelitesā€ or whatever enemy of the day is.

        They are ruled by fear and hate of everything that outside of their safe propaganda bubble. They cannot be helped until they are willing to do a bit of introspection, and decide they are open to listening and learning. I will not feel sorry for the people who would happily destroy the world around them just because it doesnā€™t align with what they want it to be.

        I grew up with this. I know these people. I got away from it, and I am happy to never go back.

        • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          1
          Ā·
          9 months ago

          School funding and broader educational reform. More teachers, more training for teachers, better curriculums for students and teachers.

      • Introversion@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        Ā·
        9 months ago

        Give us a viable path fom here to there, given that capitalism doesnā€™t give a shit about them and that they have been trained to hate SoCiaLisM?

        Seriously, if you had a magic wand that could cause the entirety of our federal, state and local governments to want to improve the lot of poor rural Americans, what would result from that?

        Because most of the things I can think of, like universal basic income, universal free (at point of access) healthcare, etc, are exactly things that conservative poor rurals have for decades been propagandized to hate as SoCiaLisM.

        Myself, I grow tired of hearing that I need to better understand those folks and why they vote as they do. Iā€™ve lived in rural areas, in my youth. Itā€™s among the reasons that I donā€™t live there now.