Rural Democrats: Party Ignored Us, Suffered the Consequences

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Rural Democrats: Party Ignored Us, Suffered the Consequences

Strategists say candidates need to emphasize broadband internet for all, consider advertising in rural newspapers, radio

Posted Nov 29, 2016 5:00 AM

Alex Roarty
http://twitter.com/Alex_Roarty

Democrats in rural America have a blunt message for the rest of their party: We saw the electoral disaster coming — and it’s your fault. ... Strategists and party officials say their warnings about the party’s lackluster outreach to rural voters went unheeded by Democratic leaders for years, culminating in this month’s shock defeat to Donald Trump. A presidential candidate who actually performed poorly in many cities and suburbs nonetheless scored an upset victory because of a surge in support from small towns and rural areas.

To these old Democratic political hands — many of whom hail from well outside the cities where most party professionals live — the outcome would have been preventable if the party had developed and sustained an effort to win over these voters. Instead, they say a Democratic Party that focused on only the urban and suburban vote either ignored rural America entirely or badly mishandled the outreach it did undertake.

“The Democratic Party ceded rural America to the Republicans quite some time ago,” said Vickie Rock, a member of the Nevada State Democratic Central Committee from rural Humboldt County. “They invested nothing, they built no bench. They don’t even send out signs anymore, which is a staple of rural politics. ... “All Trump had to do was peel off a small percentage of urban votes, and he was going to win,” Rock said. “Because he already had, in his back pocket, rural America.”

Most of these rural strategists are now hatching plans to undo the damage, convinced that a handful of simple steps would go a long way toward winning votes. One longtime rural Democratic strategist from Massachusetts, Matt Barron, is trying to organize a conference call with New York Sen. Charles E. Schumer, the incoming Senate Democratic leader, to talk about outreach strategies.

[Aviation Pro]

1. Here's an outreach strategy for them....

...just show up with truck loads of bullshit, which seems to have worked for POTUS-e. After all, everyone loves a good pander.

[Buzz Clik]

3. Holy crapoli. Are you campaigning for Cynic of the Month?

I had no idea I'd have competition....

[NoGoodNamesLeft]

17. Rural voters are more likely to listen to whoever actually takes the time to come talk to them

Trump did that. In doing so he sent them the message that he cares about them. Of course we all know he doesn't give a slobbering snot about them...but they think he does because he showed up and no one else did.

[Cosmocat]

21. lol

Yes, Donald Trump "listened" them ...

THAT happened.

And, he showed up?

He spent his whole campaign landing and having rallies at airport hangers and the biggest arenas he would get in to.

It wasn't like he was doing a tour of Moose Lodges.

[gollygee]

22. 1

He said what they wanted to hear, but that was talk about rounding up Muslims and building a wall between us and Mexico. They eat that stuff up.

But he didn't have to go to them for them to hear it.

[NoGoodNamesLeft]

53. Yes, he listened to them. That doesn't mean he cared or intends to do for them..

But he DID show up, and that made them THINK he cares. I think we all know he's a fraud and a con. And if he is the only one to show up to visit an area and talk then that is the ONLY message those people get to hear. Why should they listen to people who don't bother to come talk to them? That's the point I'm trying to get at. You HAVE TO SHOW UP to win.

[Cosmocat]

133. HE didn't "show up"

And, he sure as fuck didn't "listen."

In no way shape or form did this person every "listen" to anyone.

Again, he was doing all his huge ass ralies and that is it.

BOTH candidates had surrogates all over the place.

There are a lot of stupid things dems are trying to shoe horn into rationalizing where we are, this is is one of the most banal.

[NoGoodNamesLeft]

136. Once again...

Yes, he "SHOWED UP." He went to the goddamned states, didn't he? Yes, he did, so that means he SHOWED UP. What part of that do you not understand?

Yes, he "listened" to them. There is video evidence of the orange asshole walking around, shaking hands and listening to people talk to him. In no way does that mean he CARED or intends to do a damn thing...but he was able to give those voters the IMPRESSION that he did, and that is all it took to get them to vote for his stupid ass because he was the ONLY ONE to bother.

And stop with the "surrogates" nonsense. HE showed up to talk to them, not his surrogates...HE showed up in those areas and promised he was going to bring their jobs back so they listened. It's really NOT rocket science.

I voted for Hillary and wanted her to win. She made some mistakes and taking the rust belt stats for granted was one of her biggest mistakes. That MUST be recognized so it's NEVER repeated.

[OhioBlue]

124. Pence, Don Jr. and Eric all campaigned in my rural area. n/t

[Cosmocat]

131. And Hillary supporters campaigned in my rural area

We aren't digging out of the rat hole until we get what is going on.

[NoGoodNamesLeft]

137. Are you in one of the rust belt states?

And was she talking about jobs and the economy or why Trump was bad?

[Hoyt]

54. Yeah, Trump went to them with the campaign of Make America White Again.

[NoGoodNamesLeft]

55. This shit is getting beyond old

I am a rural swing voter who usually votes for Democrats but I swear to God if people on the left don't stop fucking attacking rural voters like myself (who voted for Hillary when some of the fucking liberals here DID NOT) then Democrats are going to push me away with the radical dumb ass bullshit JUST like the GOP does.

[OnionPatch]

69. I feel your frustration!

I don't live in the rust belt but grew up there in a rural area. Most of my family there are lifelong Democrats who voted for Hillary. I am so thankful none of them come to this website and see this crap.

[NoGoodNamesLeft]

71. I dare them to switch out "rural" for the word black, Mexican, muslim or gay

And then read the shit they keep posting. So sick of it.

[OnionPatch]

78. Yep. Exactly.

All Muslims are not terrorsts, all Mexicans are not rapists, no, but all rural Americans are ignorant racists.

[NoGoodNamesLeft]

79. I'm glad I'm not the only one able to see the hypocrisy

I've been seeing so much of this nonsense the last couple of days and it's REALLY turning me off. I came so close to switching from Independent to Democrat after Trump was nominated...but it's THIS EXACT SHIT that reminds me why I'm NOT a Democrat. The two absolute worst offenders of hypocrisy while claiming to be purists are religious zealouts and extreme leftists. Both piss me off beyond belief.

[OnionPatch]

88. I've been a Democrat my whole life.

I've never once voted for a Republican in my 40 years of voting. Reading this board this past week is making me think of changing to Independent. It seems like the left is becoming the elitists they always said we were. Which is really scary. We will not win with this attitude.

[NoGoodNamesLeft]

95. I'm just beyond frustrated with the elitist attitude

Sadly, I can see why Trump won. I had to leave my rural area for work and survival. The people in rural America are NOT what I keep seeing written here. They are STRUGGLING and are DESPERATE for anything to help them dig themselves out of a financial hole. Some of the jerks on here need to be plucked up and stuck in a desolate area with no goddamned job and see how well they fare.

[Hoyt]

70. Believe what you want to believe. Trump didn't start leading in his primary until he called for

deporting Hispanics, had rally attendees beat up Blacks, etc. I'm sorry, that is racism, and it's not just in rural areas.

[NoGoodNamesLeft]

74. How is stereotyping rural Americans different from stereotyping any other group?

It's not. So riddle me this, batman...why the hell are so many supposed champions of social justice being such goddamned bigots?

[Hoyt]

86. You expressed your exasperation earlier. Here's mine -- in the past 8 years, I've probably had 100

white wing Obama haters call me bigoted for expressing my disgust with their racism (the Discussionist is one place we are familiar with where that happens). I'm tired of that too. I don't think it is bigoted or racist to call out white wingers who hate black and brown people, and are friggin proud of it. Sorry.

[Sunlei]

94. It's the mention of skin color at all, that starts those arguments.

[NoGoodNamesLeft]

97. You were NOT calling out certain behavior by a few people

You were lumping people based on more than that.

I can't stand how ignorant people hated on Obama either. But I sure as hell know there are A LOT of rural people who voted for him twice, quite proudly, and I was one of them.

[Hoyt]

106. Are you an "ignorant white wing racist." If not, I am not talking about you. Should be obvious.

I've lived in the South all my life, and it doesn't bother me for people to refer to Southerners as racists because that is exactly what the majority are.

[NoGoodNamesLeft]

113. You replied to my comment, which was....

"Rural voters are more likely to listen to whoever actually takes the time to come talk to them.
Trump did that. In doing so he sent them the message that he cares about them. Of course we all know he doesn't give a slobbering snot about them...but they think he does because he showed up and no one else did."

You responded with:

"Yeah, Trump went to them with the campaign of Make America White Again."

Nothing in my post even remotely alluded to race. Rural does NOT equal racist for fucks sake. Not all of rural America is in the south, either. I come from rural New England and people where I come from love their guns, need damn jobs but are NOT racists.

If you don't want me stereotyping you then don't fucking do it to me.

[Hoyt]

116. My post stated what I believe Trump did going to "rural" areas. I still believe I'm right

and it is a mistake to think he did it for any laudable reason.

[NoGoodNamesLeft]

117. What you said operates on the unfair and false assumption that white voters in the rust belt

are bigots. The conversation wasn't about what Trump did or what his motivations were. This thread and many others on this site over the past couple of days has been an all out assault on rural white voters. Guess what...a whole hell of a lot of those white rural voters vote for Democrats. I am DEEPLY offended by the happy horseshit I'm reading on here. Why the hell should I support a party that holds me in such low esteem?

[Hoyt]

118. Do you honestly believe his strategy was other than to appeal to ignorant white wing racists?

That does not imply that ALL folks in the area are racists -- but the majority are and you'd be as silly as I would be if I stated the majority of whites in the South are not ignorant racists. They just are. I accept it and don't mind when people say Southerners are racists -- the majority are and I fully understand why they think that. Look at their votes. Now, if they call me ignorant, etc., that's different.

[NoGoodNamesLeft]

121. Once again...this is NOT about Trump's strategy because this thread is about VOTERS

Rural Democrats is what the thread is about...and the fact that the Democratic Party has ignored the severe economic suffering of the rural communities while fighting for things like legalizing recreational marijuana. Of COURSE those communities are fed up! If you need help and one group is ignoring you and offering no assistance and someone else comes in and says they are going to bring back your jobs when you NEED jobs then you are going to listen. Don't you realize that these DESPERATE people want SO BADLY to believe those jobs are coming back that they tuned out all the negative crap associated with Trump? Stop calling them all racists because they are NOT. The rural south does have more racists, I'll grant you that, because that's where I live now, so I do see it. But you know what...there are a lot of minorities in the south who also assume that people are racist when they aren't. It has happened to my own family. Christ, we have black family members, hispanic family members, LGBT family members, etc. The only people I have a problem with are people who are assholes...and I base it exclusively on their behavior. People need to STOP assuming things about other people and groups because assumptions aren't usually accurate. Now I think Bannon is a racist piece of crap and that he planted lots of dog whistles that DID set out to appeal to racists...but I believe that faction of Trump supporters is in the minority. I'm utterly DISGUSTED by the rise in hate crimes and Trump's rhetoric was disgusting. HE is a vile piece of shit. Some of his supporters are vile pieces of shit. Most of his supporters are just desperate for change and made a very foolish choice because they were either very ill informed, don't pay attention or were angry that the Democrats didn't do more to help them. Many of these same voters DID vote for Obama, so calling them all racist is pretty dumb.

[HassleCat]

93. Lumped in

I can see how you would get tired of being categorized as ignorant, just because of where you live.

[virginia mountainman]

125. I hear you, I know EXACTLY where your coming from..

But they don't...... And they don't care too, and they don't mind telling you that too your face....

...I dread the midterms...

[jack_krass]

126. 1

[RonniePudding]

138. So it's no factor then?

And if it is, how much of a factor?

[Sunlei]

59. He connected with them, I agree.

[NoGoodNamesLeft]

77. Not sure it was really so much about any connection as it was that because he showed up

they were tricked into thinking he really cared about them, which he doesn't.

[Sunlei]

83. No candidate had to show up in rural areas to win. They connected or not by what was said.

I know he lied, on twitter & at his 16 months of rallies & republicans also lied about Hillary, but every lie made daily headlines.

For Clinton it was 8 years of lies and bashing by Republicans.

[NoGoodNamesLeft]

123. It's actually been way longer than 8 years of lies about Hillary

It started back in the 90's when Bill Clinton was president. He put Hillary in charge of trying to develop a universal health care plan. This infuriated Republicans that this first lady had career goals and was given this task. She was attacked in the most hateful and brutal way. It was around this time that some gun nut conspiracy theorist started the stupid and FAKE smear campaign conspiracy theory that the Clintons were offing all these people that supposedly knew stuff about them. That woman has been being smeared and attacked for going on 30 years and she STILL just wants to use her talents to help others and do good works. She honestly was the best candidate ever to run in regards to what she could have accomplished. She's not much of a talker but she IS a doer and she's always been great at working to get things done with the opposition.

[duffyduff]

115. They already had their minds made up. Trump just reinforced their bigotry.

Sick of the mansplaining about what a woman candidate for president should have done.

She did nothing wrong.

[Cosmocat]

20. YEP

more succinctly - bash "them" heartily and with great enthusiasm.

[Goblinmonger]

36. So nothing is the Clinton campaign's fault?

I think Bill was telling them this and was told to just do what they told him.

[Buzz Clik]

2. Take a number. The line of groups complaining about being ignored is growing.

Maybe they'll find motivation to vote after four years of Trump.

Maybe not.

[Goblinmonger]

37. Or maybe the DNC can change what it's doing

No, that crazy. Just keep doing the same thing--eventually people will vote for you.

for the impaired.

[Buzz Clik]

52. If you don't like what's happening at the DNC, take over. It's not impossible.

However, if your philosophy includes, "I didn't vote for you because you didn't woo me," then you will always be spectator.

[Kentonio]

72. Equally if the DNC can't be bothered to woo voters anymore, the party will also be a spectator.

[Buzz Clik]

85. The system dictates who gets attention and who does not.

Sanders, for instance, was never within 100 miles of me during the primaries.

Sounds familiar. None of the candidates were.

So.... what am I to take from this?

[Kentonio]

87. Completely depends on a number of factors.

You could live in the middle of nowhere for all I know. We're not talking about candidates visiting every single spot on the map though, we're talking about outreach to rural areas, and platforms that respond to their needs and concerns.

[Buzz Clik]

89. Or maybe we're just flinging shit in random fashion trying to assign blame where it doesn't belong.

It fits a pattern.

By the way, I have had a bellyful of you. You're the first on my ignore list.

Congrats.

Enjoy being a pain in the ass. Now, go annoy someone else.

[Kentonio]

90. Aww it sucks when DU isn't just an echo chamber for you anymore, doesn't it.

[LanternWaste]

134. Your simplistic choice is one of the most "bless your little heart" things I've read this week

Your simplistic choice (accept or take over) is one of the most "bless your little heart" things I've read this week. Please, please, please God-- let him try to rationalize it further... I want the depth and entertainment of bumper-stickers this morning.

[Buzz Clik]

135. Wow. So much petulance in so few words!

Don't let me interrupt your ongoing, four-year long pout.

(Will that fit on a bumper sticker?)

[yallerdawg]

4. Take that, you Democrats.

Now you're going to get what you deserve for ignoring us.

[KittyWampus]

12. Nothing like that was posted in the OP. Why are you projecting such nasty rhetoric on someone

who lives in an area that might have turned blue or purple?

Nothing like blaming the victims.

[yallerdawg]

18. The title of the piece?

Seriously - rural Republicans are not the salvation of the Democratic Party.

[Goblinmonger]

39. The OP is talking about rural Democrats

Which the Clinton campaign clearly ignored.

[yallerdawg]

47. More like rural Democrats ignored Clinton.

Keep justifying and rationalizing why Corrupt Trump is taking office.

Every Democrat repeatedly told Democrats, if you don't turnout something bad could happen.

The Democrats who weren't paying attention made something bad happen.

If you have to persuade a Democrat to vote for the Democratic nominee - then WTF is that Democrat?

[Goblinmonger]

50. But Bill Clinton knew that she needed to target working class whites more

but they went with suburban votes. And lost.

Why even have campaigns, then, if people should just vote the way they are supposed to vote.

But, hey, I'm sure if the DNC learns nothing from this and just keeps doing the same thing, it will all come around eventually. Sounds like an awesome plan for change. Oh, toss in some, "it's all your fault, you stupid fucks in rural America" and I can see nothing but Democratic victories forever!

[yallerdawg]

57. In the three states which cost us the election...

it was Bernie supporters who cost us the election. Your "Democratic working class whites.'

Bernie was supposed to deliver them. He didn't.

It's just so irritating that you all just won't give it up!

It's over!

[Goblinmonger]

60. I thought Bernie was supposed to deliver the millenials.

You know, the "we want things for free" crowd that so many dismissed, too.

You're right. It wasn't Clinton's fault. It wasn't the DNC's fault. It was all horrible people. Just keep doing the same thing and I'm sure it will change. Great philosophy.

[Sunlei]

91. He did and he helped Hillary change a lot but there wasn't enough time or change from 'status quo D.

[KittyWampus]

10. Sort of like, love it or leave it. How about you move out of the city and repopulate the rural areas

What a sick comment.

[SoCalNative]

11. Never gonna happen

the Industrial Revolution happened for a reason.

[KittyWampus]

14. And societies change. Your attitude and comment is disgusting. Trash Democrats living in rural areas

Trash people who the Democratic Party leadership have ignored over the last 8 years.

Trash people the Democratic presidential nominee took for granted or ignored.

Democrats in rural areas need support.

[LonePirate]

30. It is a flat out lie to say Obama and the Democrats have ignored rural America for eight years.

The ACA (and its expanded Medicaid coverage) gave health care to millions of rural Americans who did not have it. The ACA also saved countless rural hospitals from closing.

Not only that but the trade deals and globalization promoted by Obama have been a huge success for American agricultural exports and American farmers. Demand for American agricultural products in overseas markets has exploded.

Yes, more can and should be done but Obama has not ignored rural Americans at all.

[KittyWampus]

31. Are you suggesting they got the resources they needed from the DNC and Clinton Campaign?

This is about POLITICS and building parties.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

13. Oh, never mind. It's already been removed. NT

[onecaliberal]

6. You'll be the ones suffering the greatest. Sad and pathetic.

[KittyWampus]

16. Where does it say the writer voted for Trump? You are blaming Democrats who need support

in turning their areas blue? WTF is wrong with DU?

[Ace Rothstein]

19. DU seems to be in full fuck poor, white rural voters mode.

[potone]

24. It doesn't say that the writer voted for Trump, as you know.

This attitude toward rural voters is part of the reason for our defeat. They asked for help and didn't get it. You ask what is wrong with DU? What is wrong with DU, in my opinion, is that so many people felt certain of Clinton's victory and, in shock and anger at Trump's victory, they have turned on the electorate, rather than accepting the fact that we have to look objectively at why the Democratic party has lost the allegiance of many former supporters.

The fact is that the Democratic party has, as the article states, left rural America to its own devices:we haven't solicited their views, we haven't listened to their concerns, and when campaign workers from other states do bother to show up, they lecture their audiences rather than listen to them. This is an arrogant and self-defeating attitude.

I grew up in the Midwest, and there is a strong populist tradition there. Many remember the 80s when many family farms went into bankruptcy. Rural farmers are no friends of Wall Street. When they saw how close Hillary's connections to Wall Street banks are, that had to be alienating. It is false and self-destructive to view all of rural America as populated by racist, misogynistic bigots.

[hueymahl]

42. Ding Ding Ding - we have a winner

My favorite part:

. . . so many people felt certain of Clinton's victory and, in shock and anger at Trump's victory, they have turned on the electorate, rather than accepting the fact that we have to look objectively at why the Democratic party has lost the allegiance of many former supporters.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

73. Not to mention urban folks who are told...

... "those jobs aren't coming back" in a ho-hum way, at odds with long-time union supporters. So I guess we can kiss those voters goodbye too eventually.

Are we being pulled toward laissez-faire capitalism by many modern Democrats or what?

We're just totally at the whim of our "global economy" now? And what's the light at the end of the tunnel? Unless it helps to ensure greater unity and survival of humanity rather than hedonistic crap like "cheaper smart phones," it's not very influential on me.

What I perceive happening is greater ownership of technology by a small number of people that cuts out the non-owner laborers from getting any real benefits of those God-almighty "advancements."

At least a "universal basic income" like what Sanders proposed would keep people afloat as they try to transition instead of the "sorry about your luck" attitude that I often see.

Hillary Clinton had some encouraging economic messages (and I wish I'd HEARD them more instead of needing to look up her website), but sometimes it's the "common Democrats" and THEIR messages that seem pretty damn callous to me.

It's still no excuse for anyone to vote for Trump, of course! How many people can't see the appeal of his "populist" messages to some voters strikes me as odd, though.

[potone]

107. Yes, you are right.

The cavalier attitude toward the loss of manufacturing jobs and the declining membership of unions is deeply disturbing and counter-productive. We really need to ditch the DLC/New Democrat ideology and get back to our roots as a party. The party is becoming moribund; if it isn't reformed it will die and be replaced by a new party. This is a crisis.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

109. What the heck is the end game?

More and more automation?

That would be great IF it wasn't just a small number of capitalists reaping the most benefit from it. So much for the old sci-fi stories about people in the future living a life of mostly leisure as machinery does the dirty work! That doesn't apply to everyone!

The owners generally aren't even technologically savvy enough to even create such things. They just have legal contracts declaring them the "owners" of it.

It will be interesting to see how artificial intelligence might someday affect the jobs of people who currently feel smug about their security.

End game? Life as "The Borg" from Star Trek? I can hear it now... "If people aren't willing to adapt to our more efficient Borg-like life, that's their fault." I'm mostly kidding about that, but are we really supposed to just be at the whim of "markets" now with no questioning of where it's headed, families and other concerns be damned?

[Cobalt Violet]

66. there is no shortage of poor bashing here.

[onecaliberal]

108. I am blaming people who think voting for trump is going to help them in any way shape form

Or fashion. That Fucking vote might have just undone 200 years of democrwcy. There is not one fucking thing wrong with me, I'm just mature enough to care about the whole country and if we survive more than myself. The climate will kill all humans it may already be to late. putting people in office who deny this fact will ensure the end of humanity if you think I'm going to apologize for that I don't know what to say for you.

[Paladin]

7. Really nice hissy-fit, rural Democrats.

Now watch Trump do two things as a result:

1. Do his best to end democracy in this country and replace it with a fascist cult of personality; and

2. Continue to ignore you, just like those nasty, nasty Democrats did.

Thanks for nothing.

[KittyWampus]

15. Where does it say these rural Democrats voted Trump? The commentary in this thread is DISGUSTING

[liquid diamond]

100. All it takes

for the bad guys to win is the good guys doing nothing. Even if these dirt diggers didn't vote for the fuhrer and just sat out the election, their temper tantrum will bite them in the ass soon enough.

[Amishman]

101. If you want to get pissy, aim your angst at rural independents

The failure was to convince the rural independents to vote for us. There are a lot of.people that don't neatly fit in one party, their set of principles and beliefs have a foot in both worlds. These are the people we need to convince, and we didn't do it. Rust belt / rural Democrats like Feingold were sounding the alarm, and the party did nothing.

[TwilightZone]

8. It's your fault we voted for a psychopath.

Sure, go with that.

[KittyWampus]

9. I think these are the voices that need to be heard and the Democrats who need to step up.

I am willing to listen.

[hueymahl]

43. Agreed. NT

[Kentonio]

76. Yup.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

23. I don't live in a rural area. Despite that, I'm not going to make the mistake of...

... calling them all racist rednecks and the like. Why do that? Do we want to lose more elections at all levels of government?!

I admit that I don't really understand their concerns, though.

Gun control? Is that one? I can imagine people living in the boonies aren't as worried about gun violence from their neighbors.

Farm subsidies? Have Democrats screwed that up somehow? I truly have no idea. I would've assumed that Democrats would be more willing to help farmers who are struggling. Am I wrong?

Speak up, rural folks! Why do you think Republicans are better for you?

[TwilightZone]

27. Farm subsidies and gun control

I spent 40 years in rural flyover country. In my experience, farmers ranted constantly about the evil Democrats while simultaneously demanding that their farm subsidies be protected. The most anti-government of the bunch were usually the ones getting the most government assistance. They couldn't grasp that the only reason we still have farm subsidies is because Dems protected them for decades.

Anecdotal, obviously, but it seems like a common theme.

As for gun control, my spouse's cousins in the Midwest want elementary school teachers in their small (2,000 population), rural town to be armed, despite the fact the town's 98% white, has very little crime, and has exactly zero history of anything resembling a threat at the school.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

29. Ugh. That's what I feared about farm subsidies.

How in the heck can people not realize which party fought to provide such help?

It's like the people on Social Security who vote Republican, but they would lose their minds if it was wiped out by investments in Wall Street as Republicans constantly urge. Or even abolished altogether as their more Libertarian brethren would prefer!

Look at when Democrats were extremely strong in this country (at all levels)... after the Great Depression! Then after WW2 when the economy was strong, back to the conservatives they flocked!

[Nay]

68. I can second TwilightZone's experience. Montana wheat farmers all wanted their

huge farm subsidies (FYI, many farmers spent the winter in AZ) while excoriating the lazy welfare bums who got food stamps so they didn't starve to death. I lived there, listened to that shit, and was so disgusted I felt like hitting somebody.

And isn't it amazing that in EIGHT YEARS of Obama, nobody came and got the guns from all these citizen patriots? Obama didn't give a shit about your guns; he still doesn't; and he never WILL give a shit about your guns. Have the gun nuts learned anything from that? NO. When the next Dem gets in, the GOP leaders will gin up the useful crackpots and, round and round we go with the same propaganda. The sad thing? It will be effective again. I don't know what you do with people like this in times like this.

[frazzled]

25. What rural Democrats?

Everybody knows that for decades, there has been a movement of liberals/Democrats to urban areas, where they congregate and concentrate their votes in the larger cities. This occurs even in the red states, such as Texas. Rural America has been red for many, many years.

Sure, there may be a few rural Democrats dotting the landscape in rural America, but they are few and far between, and outnumbered by Republicans in their areas.

If you want to change the map of rural America, don't look to strategists or messaging: just leave the cafes and theaters and museums and universities and move to the countryside in Tennessee or Nebraska or Iowa. And have fun.

[TonyPDX]

26. You expressed it better than I could have.

[TwilightZone]

28. Agreed.

The never-ending assumption that we could swing rural areas that have been 70-80% red for decades if we just pandered to them...er, had the right "message"...kind of perplexes me.

[Goblinmonger]

40. Wow. That's some elitist BS right there.

I live in what would clearly be labeled rural Wisconsin. I am very much a progressive. I know plenty of progressives. We actually DO HAVE cafes, theatres, museums, and universities here in bumfuckland. Really. It's a thing, city slicker.

This is just gross.

[hueymahl]

45. Agreed

And the condescending attitude of the poster you responded to? Exactly the kind of BS that those "dumb rural voters" can smell a country-mile away.

[Goblinmonger]

48. Yeah, I expect better on DU

but am too often disappointed.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

62. As Roosevelt himself said, "If those country bumpkins want electricity, they can move to the city."

Uh, maybe not:

Rural Electrification Act

The Rural Electrification Act of 1936, enacted on May 20, 1936, provided federal loans for the installation of electrical distribution systems to serve isolated rural areas of the United States.

The funding was channeled through cooperative electric power companies, most of which still exist today. These member-owned cooperatives purchased power on a wholesale basis and distributed it using their own network of transmission and distribution lines. The Rural Electrification Act was also an attempt made by FDR's New Deal to deal with high unemployment.

History

On May 11, 1935, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt issued Executive Order 7037, which created the Rural Electrification Administration. In 1936, the Congress endorsed Roosevelt's action by passing the Rural Electrification Act. At the time the Rural Electrification Act was passed, electricity was commonplace in cities but largely unavailable in farms, ranches, and other rural places. Representative John E. Rankin and Senator George William Norris were supporters of the Rural Electrification Act, which was signed into law by Roosevelt on May 20, 1936.

I almost hate to bring this up, as now member-owned utility cooperatives will be in the crosshairs. They're Kenyan in origin, I'm pretty sure.

[frazzled]

49. What's elitist about factual demographics?

I did say, after all, that liberals live in rural areas, but are outnumbered.

And excuse me if I suggested that nowhere outside of urban areas has amenities. My scorn was not aimed at rural areas (though I was speaking of truly agrarian areas, not the outskirts of college towns): it was aimed at the (mostly urban) armchair analysts who think that simply getting the message right is the answer to winning red areas. It is not (unless we want to wave guns, sneer at minorities, and denounce abortion).

But you can't say I'm being elitist for saying that most liberals/progressives have congregated together in the large and medium-sized urban areas. It's an uncontested fact.

[hollowdweller]

44. Disagree

Around here people changed their registrations or just voted republican.

Where I live used to be a solid democratic area.

I think the major reason for rural areas going GOP are

The impression that democrats do not like gun owners.

The impression that democrats are for minorities only.

The decline of unions and the failure of unions to deliver anything other than more concessions to employers.

Dem support for free trade.

The democratic party here used to be seen as the party of the working man. Now it's seen as the party of the scolding upper class liberals.

I'm 56 and my rural area has gone from nearly 100% democrat to 100% republican, and it really started after Clinton and his gun control and free trade. Hillary with her line about putting coal miners out of work screwed herself here. Even democratic coal miners I knew who voted for Obama voted against her.

[hueymahl]

46. Yep.

We get so caught up in our own little progressive bubble, that we won't even listen to alternative viewpoints. Guns is as good an example as any. Regulations that might be appropriate for the city are mostly horseshit for the country.

Abandoning blue collar union members to the altar of free trade, however, may be the biggest thing killing the modern Democratic party.

[Hoyt]

111. Jesus, the Democrats you live turned GOPer because they felt "Democrats are for minorities only."

That factor sounds like petty racism to me.

Similarly, they got mad because Clinton told coal miners the truth, that they really should have recognized decades ago. Same with "free trade," which as Krugman put it one time -- intelligent people, who should know better, blame trade agreements for things caused by other factors (like technology).

In most rural ares, the "working man" doesn't include women or minorities.

I'm sorry, if rural people selected Trump over Clinton, they have a serious problem that cannot be explained without offending them.

[geek tragedy]

56. They are outnumbered but we need their votes

And we can't afford to lose 80-20 in those areas. 60/40 we win, 80/20 we lose.

[PotatoChip]

110. My rural congressional district has voted D for 28 years.

And would have voted D again if... if things had been different.

Since we split electoral votes, Trump got 1 out of the 4. First time the split has ever happened.

[Orsino]

32. So they say now that they saw the electoral disaster coming...

...and it was someone else's fault. No word on what they did about it.

Yeah, they're Dems, all right. Our party is more unified than I thought.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

33. If they didn't vote, voted for Trump

or if they didn't encourage their fellow rural Democrats to vote for Hillary IF FOR NO OTHER REASON than to stop Trump, they are part of the problem.

[Goblinmonger]

41. Yes, just keep doing the same thing

and then be surprised when we lose another presidential election. Nothing is Clinton's fault. Move along here.

[Sunlei]

34. They went for Obama both elections, and then Sanders won. Then they went trump.

[frazzled]

80. Obama lost the rural vote in both elections

He got only 38% of the rural vote in 2012 (41% in 2008). Why the steady decline in Democratic votes in rural areas? Could be a lot of reasons: more people may have left rural areas to move to larger places for jobs, more may not have voted, some may have voted for Trump. Maybe misogyny played a more significant role than we are allowing.

Everybody here is assuming that it's all about ideology, but it's not really. It is historically typical for people to want a change in parties after two terms of one party. It's also typical that the new party loses Congressional seats in the first midterm election. There's an entire, complex nexus of reasons that we won the popular vote by a significant margin but lost the electoral vote. Stupidity and meanness are among those reasons. None alone is sufficient for an answer.

There was an article in today's Times about voters in West Virginia coal country. Donald Trump promised to bring it back. But we all know that coal has been a dying industry for decades, and it shouldn't come back. But was it really just a promise about jobs, which will take a long time to replace, and depend as much on state and local as federal help? No, it was about abortion, and other conservative values:

“I don’t think he can ever fulfill all the promises he made even in four or eight years,” Danny Maynard, 59, said after Bible study at the Chattaroy Missionary Baptist Church. Mr. Maynard lost his job at a coal company last year. “But I think we’re headed in the right direction,” he said. “He wants to make America great again.”

Mr. Trump pummeled Mrs. Clinton in coal country. Here in West Virginia, he won every county and took 69 percent of the vote, a landslide also fueled by his promise to appoint conservative Supreme Court justices who would roll back abortion rights. As Mr. Copley put it, “Coal is secondary to me.”

It is difficult for outsiders to fathom how deeply faith and work are intertwined here, or the economic and psychological depression that sets in when an entire region loses the only livelihood many of its people have ever known. Coal has always been boom and bust; its decline began long before Mr. Obama took office. But in West Virginia alone, 12,000 coal industry jobs have been lost during his tenure.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/28/us/donald-trump-coal-country.html?hpw&rref=us&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

Clinton talked about bringing new kinds of jobs to coal country, even as she acknowledged that new sources of energy would have to continue to replace coal, in the fight for climate change. She spoke eloquently about it, with great compassion, to that man in the red sweater at the Town Hall forum. She understood the issues, was truthful yet compassionate. But she didn't promise to "make America great again" by appointing conservative judges, to overturn Roe v. Wade, and she didn't cater to white fears of being emasculated or overtaken by racial minorities. She did it right. But those other things were the things that at least this part of rural America was listening to: things that are anathema, or should be, to any liberal or progressive.

[Sunlei]

84. It was the 22 states and rustbelt areas I meant. I know the 2 million less than 300k a year "rural f

rural small farms" are typical republicans these days and love trump.

[Egnever]

35. There is a phrase for that

Cutting off your nose to spite your face.

I am sure when they are in even worse shape in 4 years they will still vote for their own destruction to send a message.

Problem is time after time it is never seen as a wake up for the party it is seen as justification for the party that is hell bent on making them peasants.

Fuck this rural Democrat and his bullshit excuse.


I don't like what the Dems did so I will vote for the most despicable candidate possible ....that is the same kind of thought process my two year old uses.

[liquid diamond]

102. 1,000

I refuse to kiss their asses. The GOP can have those traitors. They're peas in a pod.

[Paladin]

104. My sentiments exactly.

If people are determined to vote against their own best interests, if they view their votes as an opportunity for a destructive temper tantrum, then to hell with them.

[uponit7771]

127. 1

[benld74]

38. They get ignored and the Democratic Party suffers the consequences?

That is the most @sinine quote I've heard in quite awhile.

The PARTY doesn't suffer.
The country will suffer

To NOT vote for POTUS at all, allowed what has happened to happen

You think YOU are the ONLY ones the Dems have ignored??

Thanks SO much for such a level headed response.

[get the red out]

51. I am torn on this

I believe the Democratic Party needs to reach out to rural areas with the truth of how they represent their interests better than Republicans ever will. But I am incredibly angry at the many people in these areas who voted for Trump because of racism and misogyny, and Churches telling them they will go to hell if they don't vote Republican.

And a lot of people in rural areas can't stand to hear the truth about industries that aren't coming back. They would rather hear Trump's lies, those might be some people who could eventually be reached with more work on the part of the Democratic Party.

[Garrett78]

65. Agreed, and the article is putting forth a much different argument than...

...many on DU have been putting forth regarding "working class whites" and rural voters. See my post below (#63).

[ffr]

58. Does not apply to Nevada. Both candidates ignored rurals and HRC won.

Same for California, which has the Central Valley is strongly R. Same for Oregon. Same for Washington.

Nevada, home of the Bundy family, would have to be considered the state with the angriest rural white supremacist voters of them all. If another state could make a claim to unseat Nevada, that would be extremely difficult to imagine.

And yet, the two major urban centers, Washoe and Clark County were won by HRC & Catherine Cortez-Masto. All other counties, all rural, went for Donald. No different than in 2012.

So unless there's something really special about "rust belt" racist rurals that makes them even more angry and enthusiastic about general elections, I don't get the underlying message being reported.

One major difference between Nevada and Pennsylvania, Nevada's elections include an audit trail. Nevada's ballot machines include a printed paper record of computer totals, which can be easily audited for accuracy.

[Ohioblue22]

61. I was speaking to a co-worker who said he voted for trump

Because he felt he was getting nothing from the Democratic party and wanted someone who wasn't a career politician.

[Garrett78]

63. That article makes more sense than DU's popular "working class whites" narrative.

The Nancy Larson quote is silly (as if urbanites and suburbanites aren't "ordinary people&quot , but Roarty's article makes sense. After the election, Obama made the point that he visited a lot of rural towns so as to not lose those towns as badly as he would have if he hadn't visited them (minimizing losses and maximizing gains are both important). The OP is essentially saying the same thing, along with pointing out 2 common sense ideas:

1) that rural Dems are more likely to vote if the Dems do outreach in their communities (do some advertising and, if not sending the candidate there, at least send some surrogates who have rural experience--Bill Clinton, for instance)

2) campaign in part on bringing broadband Internet to rural communities (a specific, sensible proposal)

The DU narrative suggests that Clinton didn't speak enough about economic issues, such as addressing jobs or the rising costs of health insurance. And that's bullshit. Her website, her speeches and her debate performances all addressed those issues at length and with great substance (to a *much* greater extent than Trump did). Plus, that narrative implies that working class POC don't care about economic issues, which is absurd. And there really is no excuse for supporting Trump.

For tens of millions of Americans, racism, sexism, xenophobia, heterosexism, Christian supremacy and single issues (like abortion) take precedence over everything else. Throughout US history, there's been a white backlash to racial progress (such as the election of Obama and his executive action that produced DACA). There isn't a whole lot Dems can do about that--a sizable portion of the electorate (35+ percent) is simply not reachable, and that's always been the case.

And tens of millions subscribe to patently false beliefs.

People are going to believe what they're going to believe.

Also, the exact same message could win in 2020 so long as the messenger isn't Clinton. Let's face it, she was victimized by decades of hate (much of it totally irrational and rooted in sexism and misogyny).

And we can't overlook voter suppression (Shelby County v. Holder decision was devastating) or FBI interference. Or the deadful media. And when it comes to House races, we can't overlook gerrymandering as a huge factor.

But, yes, Dems should do more outreach to rural communities, particularly where there are POC. The crux of the message doesn't have to change much. Dems just need to show up.

[marybourg]

92. I think you've summed up the whole

thing extremely well. So well, in fact, that there's not much more to say.

Can we all consider moving on to the trashing of the drumphenfuhrer and letting the blame thing go?

[Garrett78]

99. Thanks. There's some conflation going on here, so...

I started a separate thread to address it.

[treestar]

64. So they shoot themselves in the foot as revenge

for "being ignored."

[ismnotwasm]

67. Yeah I saw the big ass "Loggers for Trump" on the Olympic Pennensula.

Right next to a town called "Forks"--of Twilight fame. Quite a number of church-going White folk there sure have unkind things to say about Mexicans. And Native Americans. And Gay people. And Muslims. Hell they don't even like each other the seventh-day Aventists can't stand the Catholics for instance. Oh, and Hillary--I believe the exact quote I heard was that "she should be shot"

I'm sure I left a few out.

I just wasn't sure where to start reaching out, as the Forks town leaders themselves decided to limit growth, to keep that small town feeling, apparently, waiting for the clear cut trees to grow back, still complaining about the Spotted Owl ruling.

Pity that

[stopbush]

75. Wha, wha wha. Fucking whiny rubes.

You ignored us, so we voted against our own best interests! Trump promised us a load of bullshit. We knew it was bullshit, but we wanted to stick our thumbs in the eyes of all those urban voters. We hold Ds to an entirely different standard than Rs, so there.

BTW - there are no "simple" fixes to attracting these people.

[Dr. Mullion Blasto]

82. Couldn't agree more.

No one in the campaign came to my town yet I voted straight Dem as I believe in the tenets of the Party. I don't have to have someone in my backyard or holding my hand to know how to vote.

I don't get this whining crap at all - no one paid attention to ME, no one helped ME get a job, no one cares about ME,etc.

Boo Hoo You lose your job? Get a new one.

My dad lost his job at age 50, an immigrant with not even a h.s. education. Did he whine about the gov needed to get his old job back for him? No. He went to the library and took out books and studied himself into a new job where, after many weeks of studying, he took the licensing exam and passed and got into a new field.

[Kentonio]

81. It fills me with so much fury reading the responses to this op.

How have supposedly politically literate people managed to forget the most basic principle of politics? YOU EARN YOUR VOTES! If you're not wooing the demographics you need to win, if you're not convincing people that your party offers the best hope for them and their families future, if you're not trying with everything you've got to make people believe in you and believe that you stand for them, then you may as well just pack up and go home.

So sick of reading these endless posts about how this loss was the voters fault, and how we should write off entire swathes of the population because they're not ideologically pure enough for us. Have people misunderstood the meaning of the word party? This isn't some exclusive get together where we only invite the nicest people, this is a coalition of beliefs that work to try and improve the lives of hundreds of millions of people!

For christs sake, knock it off with this elitist, snobbish bullshit.

[melman]

103. plus 1,000

It's disgusting.

[PotatoChip]

112. Thank You. (nt)

[NoGoodNamesLeft]

122. Thank You!

I wish more people recognized it!

[uponit7771]

128. and many are sick of the post that justify rural area cutting off their noses to spite their faces..

... as if the rural area people have no fuckin common sense.

They do... they saw DPutin... a non mammal... and decided to vote for his stupid ass cause they didn't "like" Hillary?!

REALLY?!

Naw, fuck that... speak to rural area people like they're adults not children who can't handle the truth.

She lost the EC by 100,000... yes, please go talk to the rural areas of America, put time into explaining a progressive economic plan after DPutin increases the UE rate to 8 or something, but expecting them to flip... no... no...

Not at all

There's a racist reason why 85% of rural America is white and it has a lot to do with the USDA ... not because rural America is racist

[ms liberty]

130. This. n/t

[wisteria]

96. Well, in my rual area Dems are really Republicans.

They haven't been Dems since the 90's and when the steel industry collapsed. They are just too lazy to change their registrations.

[RonniePudding]

139. +1, which is why it's a fool's errand to chase these clods

[liquid diamond]

98. I will

laugh at their suffering over the next four years. Stupid, fucking, racist Caucasians.

[GeorgeGist]

105. And Trump's appeal to rural America:

[font size =4] BIGOTRY.

[duffyduff]

114. Oh, b.s. We never had the rural vote.

Few people live in these states, and they have been GOP for years.

The ONLY way these people will come around is if dipshit Ryan takes Medicare and SS away from them.

THEN is when they will be receptive to Democrats.

[jfern]

119. Chuck Schumer said that for every vote they lost in rural Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Wisconsin

they'd make it up with Republicans in the suburbs. And after his strategy destroyed the Democrats, they elected him Senate leader. The Democrats are stuck on stupid. If they had half a clue, 2014 would have been a wake up call, but they're really really dumb, so it looks like 2016 won't be either.

[DeminPennswoods]

120. former PA Dem chair was a rural guy

There was a recent story in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about Jim Burn, the former chair of the state Democratic Party, and a favorite son of western/nw western Pa, challenging current Dem governor Tom Wolf in the 2018 primary. When Wolf won, he backed Katy McGinty for Dem party chair, but Burn wouldn't step aside. Wolf then appointed her as his own chief of staff. Finally Burn could see the writing on the wall and did step down in favor of Marcel Groen.

But I wonder now how many western/rural/small county Dems held a grudge over Burn's ouster and took it out on Clinton by either not turning out, not voting for president or voting 3rd party.

[lovemydog]

129. Well worth reading.

As is this thread, both for those who are begging for people to listen to them and for those who refuse to listen and would rather spin everything on their own limited & condescending terms.

[joshcryer]

132. Yeah, OK.

See what happens next. Idiots.