We say very clearly that rural America is hurting. But we refuse to justify attitudes that some scholars try to underplay.
Something remarkable happened among rural whites between the 2016 and 2020 elections: According to the Pew Research CenterāsĀ validated voter study, as the rest of the country moved away from Donald Trump, rural whites lurched toward him by nine points, from 62 percent to 71 percent support. And among the 100 counties where Trump performed best in 2016, almost all of them small and rural, he got a higher percentage of the vote in 91 of them in 2020. Yet Trumpās extraordinary rural white supportāthe most important story in rural politics in decadesāis something many scholars and commentators are reluctant to explore in an honest way.
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What isnāt said enough is that rural whites are being told to blame all the wrong people for their very real problems. As we argue in the book, Hollywood liberals didnāt destroy the family farm, college professors didnāt move manufacturing jobs overseas, immigrants didnāt pour opioids into rural communities, and critical race theory didnāt close hundreds of rural hospitals. When Republican politicians and the conservative media tell rural whites to aim their anger at those targets, itās so they wonāt ask why the people they keep electing havenāt done anything to improve life in their communities.
Digital nomads moving into these places and driving up the cost of living are a big complaint in rural areas. Theyāve been complaining about the influx of Californians in Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana for the last few decades now, but it has really accelerated since the pandemic.
But if thereās no industry and no-one moves there, how does the town survive?
They commute to other places to work. They also donāt typically make enough money to actually move and be closer to better jobs.
Youāre missing my point. If thereās no industry, and they donāt allow anyone to move in, then the town will slowly die. They basically donāt want anything to change while at the same time they demand everything get better. It just doesnāt work that way.
Reminds me of the meme of a dog with a ball in its mouth: āThrow ballā
āNo give, just throw ballā