Rural America, capitalized here to name the places across the wide swaths of the country that are considered “country”. You will hear these places called many things. The mountains, plains, hills, valleys, hollers, backwoods, bum-fuck-nowhere, and more. These places were historically agricultural or thrived on resource extraction such as coal mining, oil fields, and rock quarries typically. Rural America, and her people, are also one of the most highly sought after political demographics out there. Even so, the same people trying to woo those of us in fly-over country, don’t know who they are trying to win over. Or how.
Politicians have always been after Rural America. Except, what they are really after is poor, Rural America. The middle-class and up have always known their political affiliations. There are country families that vote straight Dem every election then, of course, there are Klans…pardon me, clans of MAGA supporters as well. These are the political parties’ front line soldiers in winning over Rural America. Then again, not even those local dynastic and wealthier families know what they are really after. They aren’t bothered to learn either. Poor whites are the most popular target. But the majority of the poor and “working class”, that is those who make a living by selling their labor to someone else for a wage, are not just white. They are Black men and especially Black women. Latino and Hispanic communities are growing in Rural America every year. This is not a white, Christian adjacent monolith. These are the people that are talked AROUND and never talked ABOUT when it comes to Rural America.
These are the masses of people in this country that have been pushed out of the political system. Yelling at a mom with two or more jobs that VOTING is the most important thing she could possibly do, is not helping her feed her family. She’s been working multiple jobs under Bush, under Obama, and still under Trump. Scolding non-voters as if many of these rural citizens even have the opportunity or resources to vote is not helping. It pushes them further out of the political system. So what does work? I am not 100% sure. What I can say is when you ask someone why they aren’t voting what is the go-to answer? “My vote doesn’t matter.” “It doesn’t matter who I vote for, nothing will change.” In my mind, there is only one way to change this: policies that create real material change for everyday working people coupled with a large mass movement of people to advocate for it.
Both parties know this, of course, deep down they do. However, corporations have taken the place of the electorate. The people are not the constituents but instead, the companies and the large corporations are. Decisions don’t get made without a quick check from the oil lobby or the tech giants, or Amazon, whoever is paying the pockets of Pelosi, McConnell, and the other ghouls in Washington D.C. They have pushed so much of the rural masses out of the process through gerrymandering, voter suppression, and gutting voting rights through the courts the last three decades.
What if you could get adequate healthcare in Rural America free of charge at the point of service through a Medicare for All program? What if you gave that mom with multiple jobs a LIVING wage (The Fight For Fifteen is 10 years old now we need a $22 minimum wage) so she can actually care for her family the way she needs? What if you let her children attend a four-year college or university FREE so they could go on to lead the next generation of Rural America or just be able to make their lives better in general? When it comes down to it, the majority of people do not participate in our political process.
What is NOT helping Rural America is this: military recruiters in our schools telling 15, 16, 17, and 18-year-olds lie about service, police departments with military equipment including armored vehicles, a violent and oppressive war on drugs, liberal elites scolding our regions for electoral outcomes we have NOTHING to do with, decaying infrastructure, dead-end jobs that fill the air with dust, debris, harmful contaminants, and lead to further cycles of poverty and disease. Another thing NOT helping Rural America: Weak, ineffective candidates that run vanity state congressional races that need bold ideas to win who just turn around and say they are a “Pro-Life Democrat”.
So when someone asks you, “What is it going to take to get Rural America to come around?” Your answer should be “How about some actual fucking politics?”