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.
And no one ignores the plight of rural folk as much as Republicans. Indeed they want to make it worse to gin up more discomfort. Iām from deep rural Alabama. To say my family votes against their own interests is a given, for the two choices, but they vote for the most extreme antithesis to their best interest every time because frankly, theyāre committed to the āinvisible war against āāāotherāāāā.
I agree they should escape, but I also am not going to extend them some bullshit about how theyāre āforgottenā or āignoredā. They know exactly what theyāre doing. They are making their choices.
Iām not saying theyāre good people, in fact i donāt think most people who live out here can be saved. Making cities livable and consolidating the population just prevents new generations of subhumans. Or at least, this particular brand of subhuman.
Edit: and i donāt think you understood anything i typed out. The people are the issue being ignored.