Rural Rage is Not Really a Thing
And Urban Elitism isn’t Really a Thing Either.
I grew up in rural America, on a stunning family farm where I am a part owner along with my mom and three brothers.
You may have heard about a recent book on rural Americans, “White Rural Rage, The Threat to American Democracy” by Tom Schaller and Paul Waldman.
The thing is, I don’t get the sense that rural Americans are necessarily in a rage. Of course, I haven’t done a broad-based study of subject, but I do have my finger on the pulse of my family and friends who live there.
Additionally, my undergrad degree is in Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology. So, not only have I grown up on a farm and own a part of it, I’ve also studied the sociology of rural folks.
Progressives often try to dump rural folks into one of a few baskets such as:
- angry
- stupid
- racist, xenophobic, homophobic
- brainwashed
- anti-immigration
On the flip side, living in Los Angeles, a county that is alone more populous than forty states, gives me a good window into the so-called, urban elites.
That’s stupid, too.
According to the last Census, median household income (in 2022 dollars), is $83,411 and per capita income in the past 12 months (in 2022 dollars), is $41,847. Those are worthy numbers, but I don’t think they qualify as elitist.
As far as education goes, 80.3% of the L.A. County residents are high school graduates while those that hold a bachelor’s degree or higher is 34.6%. Again, not quite an elitist population.
These are both examples of stereotyping. Sure, many rural folks are angry. Just like I know that there are urban elites. But evidenced by the above-mentioned statistics, they are certainly a minority in Los Angeles.
One of the problems I see in progressives all the time, (I consider myself a progressive) is that they don’t actually know any rural Americans.
And one of the problems I see in rural America, is that the people there spend precious little time in big cities meeting minorities and immigrants.
The people I know aren’t rageful at all. In fact, my entire (large) family is pretty happy. They love living in the country and one can see why. It’s beautiful and indeed much less stressful than living in big urban areas like Los Angeles. (Although a lot more boring IMHO.)
Despite my fancy degrees (none of my farm co-owners have college degrees), they live a life that many would consider nicer than mine mostly because the cost of living is so much more affordable.
And in spite of their lack of college education, they are not stupid at all; they are actually some of the smartest people I know and quite successful.
To be sure, most of them are Republicans, but for the record, none of them like Donald Trump. They think he’s a jackass.
Would they vote for Kamala Harris in the general election? I doubt it, but why should they vote for a Democrat when the Democrats call them stupid and brainwashed?
Why should people in urban areas vote for Republicans who support hopelessly outdated ideas. And many of these ideas are just created by the wealthier class of Republicans who just want tax cuts. They feed it to the rank and file of Republicans through Fox News and the like, whip them into a frenzy and convince them to vote against their own best interests so they can get their tax cuts. Because let’s face it, there aren’t enough wealthy Republicans to win a national election by themselves.
I think “blue” states like California and New York feel disenfranchised because they have so many more people and contribute so much more to the national GDP than most red states and still get only two Senators.
Fair point. But that’s the hand America was dealt and we have to either change it or live with it.
Side bar: California is the leading producer of food in the United States, producing 11.04% of the country’s agricultural value, even though it only has 4% of the farms and ranches in the country. We have a lot of rural Americans here, too.
Here’s my point. The Democrats need to increase the size of their tent. These people can be reached. Yes, it’s true. And the Republicans need to jettison their backward ideas about urban people, Democrats, LGBTQ, and especially immigrants. Because guess what, they’re going to be paying a lot more for their food without migrant workers. If they think inflation is bad now (and it’s not because it is down to 2.5%), wait until the farmworkers are deported en masse back to Latin America.
I’m not sure how to bring these two groups together because I’m not a trained politician. I’m just saying it can be done.
To counteract this divide, media sources could write and speak more about positive immigration stories. Community outreach organizations from nearby urban areas could sponsor events where rural residents could actually meet immigrants.
Many rural Americans have never even met a first generation immigrant. How can you know about a thing if you’ve never been introduced to it?
And maybe urban/suburban progressives can make an effort to meet rural Americans. We could be the ones making the effort to hear about their very real concerns.
Maybe I’m grasping at straws here. But I can tell you one thing, lumping people into categories and getting angry at them is not going to help. And frankly, that is un-American.
There could be a rainbow over the barn for all of us. We just have to put down our differences and find our commonalities. There are many of them.
