I am a white working-class rural female voter. And I am also a Democrat. I work in heath care and I watched in real time as my neighbors went from joyous relief at the arrival of the covid vaccine, thrilled to get their lives back, to "Hell, no I'm not letting them inject their 5G wireless tracking devices in me. Besides, covid is a hoax to get more money for hospitals."
A lot of those folks died. So many, in fact, that our 26 bed hospital had to convert our cafeteria into a morgue for two years. We had covid patients refuse any treatment except Ivermectin. Then we pulled a sheet over their faces, rolled their dead bodies down to the cafeteria, and made room for the next guy in a red hat, knowing he'd be in the cafeteria in a day or two also.
They're a dying breed. They die in droves from disinformation and alcohol and despair, and in 20 years we'll look back and say "THAT was a weird time, wasn't it?
For this veteran of the Civil Rights Movement of the 60s, the resurgence of racism is too disheartening to be borne. Sometimes it seems that all that work just resulted in more minorities being in TV commercials. What you say in this analysis seems too true and ties in with so much more we see today.
eye-opening, I had no idea...particularly noting that the myth of rural purity, of white communities untainted by other races not bc they have defended their communities from invaders of color but bc they have relentlessly expelled nonwhites from them...and Jefferson as the promulgator of the myth of rural whites as the *real* Americans...tangent, but I am so sick of the general treatment of Dems as remedial children who need to be guided on when to be worried and when not to—we're always either "bed-wetters" who freak out like Una O'Connor in Bride of Frankenstein, or we're too stupid to be sufficiently alarmed about some supposed threat or other. such stories often begin with the pundit saying, "okay, Dems, time for some tough love." Can not recall a single instance of GOPs being similarly coached in their emotional states, which are apparently always appropriate and properly calibrated...
::White supremacy is popular among white rural voters, as it is with many white urban voters. That is the problem for Democrats in rural areas, and it is not a problem they should fix by becoming more like the GOP.::
Ain't that the truth! My Maternal Grandma who lives in San Diego, CA, who I loved dearly, was...a bigot, no two ways about it. My Uncle, who I haven't spoken to in decades and who lives in a small town on the South Dakota/Minnesota border, is also a bigot. Guess which one dropped N-bombs into casual conversation, and which one whispered "code words", when talking about Black people?
My Uncle, who lives in a town so White that an Italian family that's been there for two-three generations is considered "colored", and only sees a Black person when he travels to Minneapolis, Arizona or Hawaii, has no problem using the N-Word. My Grandma, who lived in a mid-sized city with a huge U.S. Navy presence and one of America's biggest cities less than two hours away, hasn't used that particular racist slur in at least four decades, and possibly longer—because she saw and interacted with Black people all the time, sometimes even having them as her immediate superiors at work.
So yeah—White people, especially older White People, are gonna Bigot. It's just a LOT easier when everybody around you is White, too.
Really on target, I can attest. I live in one of the most segregated cities in the country and really that's saying a lot. But they don't talk about the reason for the concentration of POC in the urban areas ever locally, even on the occasions we are discussing the long-term effects of prior discrimination like red-lining and building expressways through their communities. But the numbers say it better. 44.2% of the African American population of the state live in my county but when you shrink it down just a little bit it jumps to 52% of the population live in the Louisville Metro Area. That's kind of amazing just to see it so clearly. And it's disheartening when I think about our state government's priorities lately and even our Democratic city government and their focus.
Amen. Well said. That Politico article was so weak. It's so difficult to make that "the rural community is special and not being courted correctly" when the race elephant in the room so obviously looms and is being ignored. It astounds me that writers keep trying.
There is one piece of Jefferson's approach that I like, if you just take out the "white" part. I like the idea that rural voters are the "heart of the country". That is, all rural voters, and Noah points out that Democrats need to speak to ALL of them. Somehow.
Wow, that last paragraph is such a fine condensation of this entire excellent article!
You nailed it. The points here finally moved a tired old discussion off the dime.
Can’t thank you enough!
I am a white working-class rural female voter. And I am also a Democrat. I work in heath care and I watched in real time as my neighbors went from joyous relief at the arrival of the covid vaccine, thrilled to get their lives back, to "Hell, no I'm not letting them inject their 5G wireless tracking devices in me. Besides, covid is a hoax to get more money for hospitals."
A lot of those folks died. So many, in fact, that our 26 bed hospital had to convert our cafeteria into a morgue for two years. We had covid patients refuse any treatment except Ivermectin. Then we pulled a sheet over their faces, rolled their dead bodies down to the cafeteria, and made room for the next guy in a red hat, knowing he'd be in the cafeteria in a day or two also.
They're a dying breed. They die in droves from disinformation and alcohol and despair, and in 20 years we'll look back and say "THAT was a weird time, wasn't it?
For this veteran of the Civil Rights Movement of the 60s, the resurgence of racism is too disheartening to be borne. Sometimes it seems that all that work just resulted in more minorities being in TV commercials. What you say in this analysis seems too true and ties in with so much more we see today.
Shorter version: use your energy to motivate your friends don't waste it trying to convert your enemies.
eye-opening, I had no idea...particularly noting that the myth of rural purity, of white communities untainted by other races not bc they have defended their communities from invaders of color but bc they have relentlessly expelled nonwhites from them...and Jefferson as the promulgator of the myth of rural whites as the *real* Americans...tangent, but I am so sick of the general treatment of Dems as remedial children who need to be guided on when to be worried and when not to—we're always either "bed-wetters" who freak out like Una O'Connor in Bride of Frankenstein, or we're too stupid to be sufficiently alarmed about some supposed threat or other. such stories often begin with the pundit saying, "okay, Dems, time for some tough love." Can not recall a single instance of GOPs being similarly coached in their emotional states, which are apparently always appropriate and properly calibrated...
Fantastic piece. It really puts the BS myth to rest.
::White supremacy is popular among white rural voters, as it is with many white urban voters. That is the problem for Democrats in rural areas, and it is not a problem they should fix by becoming more like the GOP.::
Ain't that the truth! My Maternal Grandma who lives in San Diego, CA, who I loved dearly, was...a bigot, no two ways about it. My Uncle, who I haven't spoken to in decades and who lives in a small town on the South Dakota/Minnesota border, is also a bigot. Guess which one dropped N-bombs into casual conversation, and which one whispered "code words", when talking about Black people?
My Uncle, who lives in a town so White that an Italian family that's been there for two-three generations is considered "colored", and only sees a Black person when he travels to Minneapolis, Arizona or Hawaii, has no problem using the N-Word. My Grandma, who lived in a mid-sized city with a huge U.S. Navy presence and one of America's biggest cities less than two hours away, hasn't used that particular racist slur in at least four decades, and possibly longer—because she saw and interacted with Black people all the time, sometimes even having them as her immediate superiors at work.
So yeah—White people, especially older White People, are gonna Bigot. It's just a LOT easier when everybody around you is White, too.
Really on target, I can attest. I live in one of the most segregated cities in the country and really that's saying a lot. But they don't talk about the reason for the concentration of POC in the urban areas ever locally, even on the occasions we are discussing the long-term effects of prior discrimination like red-lining and building expressways through their communities. But the numbers say it better. 44.2% of the African American population of the state live in my county but when you shrink it down just a little bit it jumps to 52% of the population live in the Louisville Metro Area. That's kind of amazing just to see it so clearly. And it's disheartening when I think about our state government's priorities lately and even our Democratic city government and their focus.
Amen. Well said. That Politico article was so weak. It's so difficult to make that "the rural community is special and not being courted correctly" when the race elephant in the room so obviously looms and is being ignored. It astounds me that writers keep trying.
https://stateline.org/2020/10/05/few-in-number-black-residents-in-appalachia-push-for-justice/
There is one piece of Jefferson's approach that I like, if you just take out the "white" part. I like the idea that rural voters are the "heart of the country". That is, all rural voters, and Noah points out that Democrats need to speak to ALL of them. Somehow.