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 CenterāsĀ 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 Trumpās extraordinary rural white supportāthe most important story in rural politics in decadesāis something many scholars and commentators are reluctant to explore in an honest way.
ā¦
What isnāt 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 didnāt destroy the family farm, college professors didnāt move manufacturing jobs overseas, immigrants didnāt pour opioids into rural communities, and critical race theory didnāt close hundreds of rural hospitals. When Republican politicians and the conservative media tell rural whites to aim their anger at those targets, itās so they wonāt ask why the people they keep electing havenāt done anything to improve life in their communities.
Whatās so weird about donnie in particular is that he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, spent much of his life trying to be accepted by elite culture in Manhattan, was given a game show in which he played a businessman.
Heās like the embodiment of every single douchebag in an 80s flick. I grew up in an extremely rural area, and most people I remember, left and right, hated donnie and his antics as a so-called businessman. I just donāt get how he has transformed into someone they think represents them. Does he insult other elitists? Okay, yeah. Is he still an 80s caricature of a douchebag who flies around in his own jet and plays a lot of golf? You bet.
Because he doesnāt tell them theyāre wrong.
The biggest thing I absolutely hate about Biden is how fucking arrogant he is. His voters have spoken: Stop sending weapons to Israel and the fucking prick just keeps doing it anyway. U.S. politicians have gotten so used to telling the public to go fuck themselves they have no idea how to fight someone who just agrees with them all the time.