Anyone who can help direct attention of national, urban-centric Democratic funding toward rural community organizing would be appreciated.
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This is key. Itâs actually WalMart and other multi-state retailers. These take the money from each community back to Arkansas (or Minneapolis in the case of Target). Rather than a local business owner, you have clerks. Main Street and itâs small shops have been mallified.
What is needed is restraint of interstate commerce, to encourage local commerce.
We can help. Donât shop at WalMart. Donât shop on Amazon. Shop locally. Ask for local stores to order stuff. Pay more for local stores to sell stuff.
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My thoughts exactly. All of these folks lost their seats so I am curious how they are going to tell Democrats how to win.
As for who to lead this effort: With the election of Trump grassroots groups have been forming all over the country, many lead by women and people who are new to politics in general. Weâve heard that many of those are encountering resistance from old guard democratic leaders. My suggestion is that rather then being met with hostility these folks should be embraced. Letâs dump old failed policies and leaders from the past lets get some new blood.
Those who are interested in this issue should read âThe politics of resentmentâ by K Cramer. In this book, a U WI political science professor went around the state to many âWaffle Houseâ and other discussion groups. She spoke to a lot of people. She wanted to know why Scott Walker did well. Itâs a good book, although you need a map of WI to read it most usefully.
âListen liberalâ is another book about why Dems no longer get rural votes and the votes of WWC voters.
If you are one of the idiots who says âracistâ and âruralâ in the same phrase, you in particular, and your clueless ignorance, would be helped by reading these books.
Of course, reading the other comments here, itâs very clear that it will be a cold day in hell before the Dems ever appeal to rural voters. The hatred, disdain, and elitism is disgusting.
This should top their reading list:
https://www.amazon.com/Moral-Politics-Liberals-Conservatives-Think/dp/0226467716
As one reviewer said:
The book is a challenging read. Itâs a lot like a difficult to climb mountain. Youâll struggle with almost every step but the view will only get better and better.
Also this one:
https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Think-Elephant-Debate-Progressives/dp/1931498717
It is very easy to read and very short. Both are written by George Lakoff
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Give them confidence that we (the hated âleftâ) care that their fiscal issues are covered, then we can chip away at their stubborn bigotry⌠It may not succeed, but it really is our only access to these people.
We canât take over FOX News or Sinclair, or the pulpits their white-enclave âchurchesâ, the world they live in is safely insulated from reason⌠but we can give them benefits that help them survive.
This is very encouraging, these very wise, familiar Democrats are going to THEM, there is no chance they will come to us. This is the only way to heal the wound between rural and urban America⌠meet somewhere in between.
What the hell are you smoking?? Whatever it is, for sure it was not grown in Kansas.
Their voters ran away from them.
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As someone who was raised in rural America, I have to say itâs probably a lost cause. Democrats spend your money, and words in the white suburbs where you can get somewhere. Youâd have to twist your policy into pretzels to please these people. They fundamentally donât like anyone with a brain.
This really IS very encouraging.
I ASK, DESPERATELY, THAT MY DEM PARTY FRIENDS ON THE FAR LEFT WHO CONSIDER THESE FOLKS SOME SORT OF âBLUE DOGâ BRANCH OF OUR PARTY GET OVER YOUR STUBBORN PARTISANSHIP!!!
However you feel towards their ability to compromise about issues you consider sacrosanct, DO NOT discourage the rest of us from supporting them, this is bone and marrow meeting again, where they have been divided by falsehood for decades.
Farmers are, quite naturally, progressives, especially if they arenât persistently brainwashed by FOX and Fiends and the rest of right wing mania media.
Reaching out to them offers an opportunity to offset that FOX influence, and only improves our chances of pulling our nation back from the brink of disaster.
Unify first, THEN influence the profound changes we all agree are essential to our future. But get a foot in the door first, on THEIR terms,⌠otherwise, your stubborn posture looks very much like theirs.
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I can only make one correction here⌠but it is essential to the truthâŚ
That difference is crucial to understanding the underlying issues.
Until this initiative the Democrats sin has been to simply abandon the field to the Republicans.
Donât preach to me about what the hell rural people want. I was born and raised on a farm. I had a hay and straw business in the 70âs and I covered three states. Farmers were my livelihood. I had a bunch of auctioneers mostly in Iowa contact me when a big sales were coming up so I could have three or four semi loads of hay or straw there. I turned down Ralston Purina for owning and operating a pelleting plant for them in 77 or 78. Dumb move on my part.
My home community now is rural also. I talk to Trump voters every day. I am not a far lefty. I voted for Hillary.
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Iâm not sure I agree with that. I believe that farmers go with who supports THEIR issues and ideas. Repubs: rural outreach has been successful. Dems: Obama wanted to regulate the work of kids on farms.
From 2011:
Itâs this kind of moronic shit that turns off farmers from dem policies and politicians. For farmers, Dem = city elitism and regulation.
Good luck. Youâll need it. You will first have to convince them that youâre not trying to send them to a FEMA camp. This will be difficult.
well, now THAT was a mighty leapâŚ
I can certainly do that if you want, but as yet I havenât.
Republicans certainly capitalized on the red shift, but you give them too much credit for planning it, you confuse well-planned politics with creeping insidious FOX industrial-strength brainwashing, this happened outside party politics, it has more to do with which entertainment and news sources people were stuck with âout there.â
we disagree fundamentally on that point⌠especially in terms of farm safety.
It isnât a pretty story, so I wonât go there, but suffice it to say, farm kids need the same protection from greedy profiteers, related or not, that any city kid gets. Just because its family farm work doesnât make it OK somehow.
How this escapes people so casually is beyond me.
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There are lots of smart people I disagree with at times, I never take it personally.
Iâve noticed that modern Democratic Socialists have a tell. To wit, they shit all over anyone with the letter D after their name as their opening salvo. Not the worst sin, but in a true vacuum of ANY persons or groups seeking to make improvements with rural red state voters, as in this case, itâs simply the sign of an anarchist, or dilettante.
Just my opinion, and I welcome that yours differs.
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I so wish that they could all be as pure as the driven snow but absent that knowledge, experience including winning elections and committment will be just fine.
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