Rep. Huelskamp should have spent more time sucking up to the Kochs.
It helps to understand some things. There is an Independent running. The western 2/3 of KS is a deep, deep red area, with generations of knee-jerk Republican voting, and those people have been taught an active hatred of Dems, mostly via hate radio and Faux. But the Reps are making everyone mad, and guess what? An âIndependentâ doesnât carry the hated Dem label so could be an acceptable compromise. A Dem would be crushed from the starting gate, and itâs kinda hard to find someone with the chutzpah and the money to run a totally losing campaign. I could wish the current Indie were stronger, but Iâm happy with at least the option of a non-Rep in the general election. Would I be happier to see a Dem in there too? Not if thereâs otherwise a chance the Indie could be elected⌠the Dem would be the spoiler in that case, which almost happened in the governorâs race last time. This transition, if thatâs what is happening, will take time.
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SD, ND, OK, KS, UT, MT, ID, AZ, NV. Democrats do not run in those states in rural turfs. First, in many rural turfs, there are no democrats. Not a single one. Second, the D message is totally lost in rural areas. The D message is the appeal to all kinds of interest groups except WWC folks. Hey, guess who lives in rural turfs? WWC folks. Thatâs the entire thing in the rural areas. D party folks HATE WWC voters. And WWC voters know that. I did run, as a D, in a state senate race. I didnât spend much because it is cheap to run (< $5K, most of which I ponied up myself). I did OK, pretty much getting the registration #s. But finding an argument for D policies is hard. More illegals? Not a winner. More taxes? Again, not a winner. I worked the teacher argument, and that was a little effective, but wayyy not enough.
The Dem Party in KS really is small. Itâs also very poor, and what wouldnât be by comparison to the mammoth financial resources of the Kochs? The more heavily populated areas are pretty blue and do ok given their minority state, but the vast Plains areas are stuck back in the days when Reps were fine, people farmed and pretty much ignored âpoliticsâ, and the few Dems so scattered they canât put together much in the way of offensives.
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The D Party has NOTHING to attract voters outside of cities. Thatâs the real issue. You canât be actively hostile to a group without them noticing. Itâs really easy to find comments like ârural voters are racist idiotsâ (which is certainly false btw) on any âliberalâ comment board. Plus the constituency out there is WWC voters, and again, the D party is not interested in that vote, does not seek it, and has no policies to help such voters. And that issue, BTW, is why gerrymandering is so successful. The R pols know that the D policies repel rural voters. So, the constituency is reliable and can be counted on to vote R, all elections. Thus, gerrymandering can work.
I havenât seen Western KS voters called âracist idiotsâ anywhere⌠of course I probably donât inhabit the same venues you apparently do. KS, especially Western KS, is pretty much all white, racism isnât much of an issue and never really has been. The people out there are generally kindly, friendly, tolerant, and decent people, just not city types. Theyâre also pretty intelligent and educated. They care a great deal about education and their families in general. They work hard and are proud of their families, farms, towns, and way of life in generalâand it is quite a pleasant one after all. Hate really isnât their styleâeven Dems pretty much are âhatedâ only in the abstract, philosophically, not personally.
Their knee-jerk Rep voting is mostly from their long history of competent, moderate Rep leadership with a comfortable across the aisle relationship with Dems. What was there not to like? What was there to make them seek out a different party? If it ainât broke, donât fix it? And the Kochs and surrogates kept hammering against the Dems anyway. But now itâs âbrokeâ and theyâre apparently realizing that. Weâll have to see what comes of it.
Yes, they donât want to lose ag subsidies, and frankly, for the smaller farmers (vs the huge-corp ones) I tend to agree with them at least in part. They all know of farms lost and families impoverished by uncontrollable weather, bottoming-out markets, and other catastrophic events. Those lost farmers are a loss to our nation, not just to those people.
And at the risk of sounding really dumb, wottheheck is WWC? White Water Closet? World Wide Crostics? Willy Wonka Candy? It would be helpful when people use such acronyms that they spell it out the first time at least.
Sorry. WWC is white working class. I do use it without definition. Sorry for the confusion.
I live in SD. The situation here is much the same. The rural folks are generally nice, kind, but not interested in issues about 1) LGBTQ: no interest in rural areas 2) BLM: active contempt or disdain in rural areas 3) illegals: they both actively dislike and depend on illegals 4) taxes: they donât want more taxes
Issues which could attract rural voters: 1) jobs in rural areas and TIF-like approaches (TIF: Tax Increment financing: tax breaks for specific areas) 2) todayâs version of the REA: widespread broadband 3) road maintainance 4) fewer regulations on farm labor 5) minimum wage which is not oppressive to them 6) good supply of labor: I advocate parolling folks into rural areas to supply farmers with labor, and get the parolees away from the toxic homies.
I tend to agree on farm subsidies to some extent. The recent innovation of crop price insurance is possibly a good one. That way, you get to get insurance to cover your costs. It may be a better approach.
Hey, whatever, dudetypeperson. Your comments (which can be summarized as ârural voters are dumb fuckers who we can ignore since we hates themâ) indicate that you are profoundly ignorant of anything outside of city life, so a discussion would be a teaching session from me to you, and I donât have time for that - it would take a lot of teaching. Itâs good to read stuff like what you wrote - it reminds me how correct i am usually.
I think Demsâ/Indiesâ best immediate approach to W. KS, and all KS for that matter, will be to start fixing what Brownback & Co. has broken-- schools, roads, health care, etc. Most of the middle-size business people were not all that pleased with trading these high priority things for a few dollars less in taxes, so would be amenable to having those taxes restored if there were an indication theyâd be well used. Then the Medicaid expansion I think would appeal to most, with all the money that would bring in and the hospitals it could help save. Internet coverage should be VERY available everywhere; the internet is a great equalizer and these are intelligent, curious people so theyâd learn to use it and expand their understanding of the world they live in. The state and nation can only benefit by ensuring the isolated areas of this country are brought onto the net.
Beyond that weâd just have to look at what these folksâ problems remain, and what might be good solutions. I think non-partisan and bipartisan solutions to most issues could be found, if we can restore the moderate-Rep and minority Dem state legislature we had before. And if Brownback doesnât veto everything that comes across his desk from them. 
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Many good thoughts here. The plight of rural hospitals is little known to many, but these hospitals are in bad shape. Obamacareâs IT requirements are not do-able for these - my employer has taken over many hospitals in rural areas due to IT.
The infrastructure issue is an important one. If Dems could find a way to address it, it might be good. For instance, in WI, there is a stretch of I-894 which has been under repair for about 8 years. Why so long? The fucking morons in the R WI legislature will not put in a tax increase to cover the costs of finishing this high-priority repair. As such, the costs have doubled, inconvenience is huge, and people are annoyed. Borrowing money in todayâs interest rate climate is a good idea. Float those bonds, fix those roads. Stop fucking around.
In KS, Brownback is allowing many rural roads to revert from paved to gravel. This is progress? Thereâs got to be an issue there.
Even in SD, Medicaid expansion is backed by the Gov and all Dems and a few Repubs. Itâs a win-win-win, but Repubs will not go for it. Thereâs got to be some way to get it done. Obama has done well in this area.
The dead stinking donkey in the room, however, is that Obamacare is dying as we speak. Insurers are pulling out of the exchanges, and this is little acknowledged.
When I ran for state senate, I floated 2 small ideas: couple wind power farms with enterprise zones, and set up apprenticeships. These would both help in rural turfs.
Fixing the schools is also key. Brownback has really damaged education, and the recent rebranding of âgovernment schoolsâ is an ominous and unwelcome development.
âHalf-truths and smears were spread by someone elseâs billionaires that bought a seat in Kansas,â said the Koch-financed tea party conservative.
I am sure. There are groups of med schools who have clubs or organizations who are pro life and groups that form in medical school that are pro choice. You can bet that Catholic based med schools do not teach the practice. Check this out in The Atlantic:The Scarcity of Abortion Training in Americaâs Medical Schools
âMany students who want instruction arenât able to find it. And those who get it, like me, often arenât willing to move to the areas of greatest needâ
My kid was in med school and it was pooh-poohed in the Christian belt where he went. Absolutely appallingâthe religious right has infected medicine.