Scholar Thomas Schaller, co-author of “White Rural Rage: The Threat to American Democracy,” recently played up this bias on MSNBC, saying that rural voters are “the most racist of any geographic demographic group.” xenophobic, anti-immigrant, anti-gay.” Country. …They are most likely to condone or justify violence as an alternative to peaceful public discussion. ” Book It soon became a trend with X.
As two scholars of rural politics who have spent the past three years scrutinizing thousands of investigative interviews with rural Americans, this caricature of inciting the rural mob is deeply puzzling. Instead of threats to democracy, defiant politics, and reflexive anger, we keep finding something different. It is a common destiny that intertwines pride in rural life, a sense of community belonging, and the economic well-being of the rich and poor in rural communities. Yes, there is resentment, especially towards government officials and experts. But resentment is not a stereotype. It’s motivation and it’s a story.
Still, intense stereotypes sell better than complex backstories. And they become easier to understand for our political and media ecosystems. Seeing some data points about his QAnon conspiracy in the center, even more funding from nervous liberals in the city (who happen to live next door to his QAnon conspiracy believers three times as many as his) can be collected. Hard attacks on xenophobia in small towns can mobilize urban voters to the polls. Fury attracts clicks. Droplets fly. Indeed, racism and hostility toward these groups exists in rural areas as well as throughout the United States. And we are deeply troubled by the enduring role it plays in American politics. But this is a national problem, not one to which rural white Americans are uniquely contributing.
What we are actually seeing in rural America is a unique set of resentments and grievances that stem from real and perceived contempt for rural communities. These include economic policies that have decimated local industry, a lack of investment in local infrastructure and education, and a sense of cultural neglect from city-centric media and politics.
Such failures help explain the deep skepticism of government policy solutions in many rural areas. Consider the aftermath of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement. Proponents of NAFTA, including both Democrats and Republicans, promised that the deal would bring prosperity to small farmers, but between 1998 and 2018, one in 10 small farms in the United States lost prosperity. promised to bring. Had disappeared. Shortly after trade barriers were lifted, Canadian ranchers flooded the U.S. market with beef, causing prices to plummet and small farms to go out of business. Meanwhile, large agribusinesses took advantage of open borders. If government negligence kicked your grandpa off the farm back then, why would you trust it now?
It’s these resentments that you need to understand if you’re interested in building political coalitions that include local voters and that can lead to more inclusive and fair policy decisions. . The stereotype of America’s rugged countryside misrepresents the complexity of the rural experience. That’s why, while Hollywood became obsessed with Sen. J.D. Vance’s (R-Ohio) story of Appalachian poverty, he ran a political campaign that championed the resilience, values, and pride of rural people. That’s why I didn’t realize that it was happening. And that’s why most progressives have little sympathy left for rural voters, even though they have deep feelings for nearly every other marginalized group in American society.
In some circles, this lack of empathy stems from the fact that these so-called deplorables are blamed for bringing Donald Trump to power. Paul Waldman, second co-author of “White Rural Anger,” said, “If Donald Trump returns to the Oval Office, it will be because once again, rural white people put him in the Oval Office.” That’s probably because I did it.”
But President Trump is not responsible for rural America. If voting for Trump is enough to make you “outraged,” that’s exactly what makes people angry in the cities and suburbs where Trump won 80 percent of the vote in 2020. Attributing President Trump’s gains to decades of losses to rural America is another form of confirmation bias, reinforcing pre-existing beliefs without critical examination. Rarely do you hear mention of figures like Bill Clinton, who defended NAFTA, or Hillary Clinton, who seems to openly celebrate the fact that she lost the regions that suffered the most economically.
The stereotype of anger is also accompanied by the stereotype of irrationality. But rural people have every reason to blame Democrats, experts, and university professors in part for their misfortunes. They know full well that federal farm and trade policy is driven by both Democrats and Republicans. did Destroying the rural economy. And liberal elites stood by as rural students became one of the groups least likely to attend college and one of the most likely to drop out. Promoting diversity and inclusion should include rural kids, right?
I also noticed that people living in cities tend to use stereotypes as crutches to hide the fact that they know very little about how different people live their lives. People in the countryside and people in the city have different values for “others.” Although many of these differences are exaggerated, some of them are definitely true. We see it in our own lives. As a college professor who chooses to live in the countryside, I hear my colleagues playfully say we’ve “gone local” and our neighbors think we’re squirrels. . We love both worlds and the people in them, even if our values are different. But stereotypes, generalizations, metaphors and unchecked exaggerations exclude the possibility of bridging this gap.
To truly heal the rifts in society and find common ground, we must dispel the myth of blind anger and focus instead on a shared desire for recognition. Nevertheless, progressive commitments to multiculturalism and pluralism seem to apply only to groups that vote for the “right” way. It’s as if they haven’t learned that lesson. As long as rural America is treated with contempt, should we really be surprised if America reluctantly turns to Trump again?
