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.
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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.
Yes. You canāt stand the fact that Iām making my own choice. My opinion clearly didnāt matter in the 2020 democratic primaries so it definitely doesnāt matter now.
It will matter when whoever becomes the next president picks one or two new Supreme Court justices. Who would you rather do that between Trump and Biden?
My opinion didnāt matter in the 2020 primaries so it doesnāt matter now. Best of luck or whatever.
I didnāt get who I wanted in the primaries either. Thatās democracy. You donāt always get what you want. We get either Biden or Trump. So who do you think would do worse at choosing Supreme Court justices?
Not my problem. Go ask the people who voted for Biden in the primaries.
Iām not interested in their opinion. Iām interested in yours. Which of the two would do a better job picking SC justices in your opinion?
Not my problem. I didnāt elect either of them in the primaries.
The decisions the justices they pick will make most definitely will be your problem