Because we gathered together a variety of polls and studies from many different organizations and scholars, we were careful to note that it’s usually the comparisons that are most important, the places where rural Americans diverge from the rest of the country or make up a disproportionate share of those who hold a particular belief. For instance, Harper quotes the Chicago Project on Security Threats’ director, Robert Pape, who claims we misrepresent findings from CPOST’s study of Americans who express “insurrectionist” attitude profiles. But we correctly stated that according to his research, rural citizens are over-represented in this group: He pegs them at 30 percent of those with insurrectionist attitudes, but rural Americans comprise at most 20 percent of the national population, and rural whites no more than 15 percent.
What’s really going on here? Our critics claim they’re critiquing our methodology, but their real objection is to our message. We anticipated this defense of rural whites and their virtues, knowing that they are routinely described as more “real” than other citizens and therefore deserving of greater deference. In fact, Jacobs reports in The Rural Voter that 80 percent of rural citizens say they’re more likely to encounter the “real” America in rural spaces; so pervasive is this insult to other Americans that even 66 percent of suburban and urban dwellers say the same thing. To his credit, Jacobs agrees with us that no group of Americans is more “real” than any other. If only the conservative politicians and media figures who work so hard to stoke rural resentment concurred.
Our critics also say we “misrepresent” their work. We do not; we’re guilty only of assembling in one place a composite picture of rural white politics that shows worrying strains of opinion. Our critics want to believe—and worse, want others to believe—that sentiments in the places Trump enjoys his most overwhelming following have nothing to do with his racism, xenophobia, authoritarianism, and valorization of violence, despite a growing body of evidence to the contrary. The more charitable view is that our critics failed to pull back the lens to notice that larger picture; the less charitable view is that they’ve seen it but prefer to obscure it from public view.
JeffSpicolisBong on April 11st, 2024 at 17:00 UTC »
I grew up in rural Missouri in the 70s and 80s and I remember the stubborn pride of country people. They prided themselves on ignorance and mistrust of city people. Reminds me of that Hank Williams Jr. song "Country Boy Can Survive" or something along those lines. They resent educated people. I took my east coast wife back to Missouri once and my cousin's husband said to her "I bet you think we're all a bunch of dumb rednecks, don't ya?" It was like, well... those are your words. Republicans weaponized this against them via AM radio and Fox and they have fallen in line to vote against themselves for the last forty years.
Reddit_guard on April 11st, 2024 at 16:46 UTC »
This article is extremely well written. One part stands out:
It's about time that we bluntly message to rural communities that nothing about GOP policy is in line with the true struggles in their communities.
And I agree with the sentiment throughout this piece -- scholarly work in this area needs to stop treating this population with kiddie gloves, because a dangerous storm is brewing if we leave their resentment unaddressed.
TheStinkfoot on April 11st, 2024 at 16:46 UTC »
It's worse than that. Republicans refusing to pass the ACA Medicaid expansion is the reason a lot of those rural hospitals are closing. Republicans shielding big pharma companies is the reason rural communities got pumped full of opiods.
Republicans are actively hurting rural voters, but rural voters keep voting Republican because they care more about culture war bullshit than they do about their own communities.