White Rural Trump Supporters Are a Threat to Democracy DEAL WITH IT

[MonarchMom]

What do you see them as?

More the type to hang out with local politicians at the country club

Fair enough, we were just having afternoon coffee with Steve Womack on Friday lol…


But really, my grandmother grew up in rural Arkansas during the depression where wearing shoes was a winter time thing only. She died in her mansion in Beverly Hills, but we still have all the same family/friend connections that go back to the 1800’s around the area. I’ve been to a lot of celebrations that have the lowest possible budget, but they’re filled with smiling faces and you soon notice, that’s all you need.

Great to have positive family connections regardless of finances, but I'm not sure what that has to do with this topic. This thread is about rural populations feeling left out of a changing economy and choosing to follow an anti-democracy candidate who stokes their anger.

[Slimshandy]

More the type to hang out with local politicians at the country club

Fair enough, we were just having afternoon coffee with Steve Womack on Friday lol…


But really, my grandmother grew up in rural Arkansas during the depression where wearing shoes was a winter time thing only. She died in her mansion in Beverly Hills, but we still have all the same family/friend connections that go back to the 1800’s around the area. I’ve been to a lot of celebrations that have the lowest possible budget, but they’re filled with smiling faces and you soon notice, that’s all you need.

Great to have positive family connections regardless of finances, but I'm not sure what that has to do with this topic. This thread is about rural populations feeling left out of a changing economy and choosing to follow an anti-democracy candidate who stokes their anger.

Exactly…


I’m just wondering, if that is the conclusion this writer came to… is he writing this from his New York apartment about people he’s never had meaningful conversations with, or is he writing this as a friend/family of rural republicans?

If this is his opinion, how did he come to it?

[MonarchMom]

Fair enough, we were just having afternoon coffee with Steve Womack on Friday lol…


But really, my grandmother grew up in rural Arkansas during the depression where wearing shoes was a winter time thing only. She died in her mansion in Beverly Hills, but we still have all the same family/friend connections that go back to the 1800’s around the area. I’ve been to a lot of celebrations that have the lowest possible budget, but they’re filled with smiling faces and you soon notice, that’s all you need.

Great to have positive family connections regardless of finances, but I'm not sure what that has to do with this topic. This thread is about rural populations feeling left out of a changing economy and choosing to follow an anti-democracy candidate who stokes their anger.

Exactly…


I’m just wondering, if that is the conclusion this writer came to… is he writing this from his New York apartment about people he’s never had meaningful conversations with, or is he writing this as a friend/family of rural republicans?

If this is his opinion, how did he come to it?

Not a NY resident. Politics of the South seems to be his area of expertise.

Thomas F. Schaller is Professor of Political Science at University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). A weekly political columnist for the Baltimore Sun, he has published commentaries in a variety of publications, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Salon, The American Prospect and The Nation.

He is author of Whistling Past Dixie: How Democrats Can Win Without the South (ISBN 074329016X).[1] He is also the author of The Stronghold: How Republicans Captured Congress but Surrendered the White House (Yale University, 2015) and "Common Enemies: Georgetown Basketball, Miami Football and the Racial Transformation of College Sports"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Schaller

[Slimshandy]

Great to have positive family connections regardless of finances, but I'm not sure what that has to do with this topic. This thread is about rural populations feeling left out of a changing economy and choosing to follow an anti-democracy candidate who stokes their anger.

Exactly…


I’m just wondering, if that is the conclusion this writer came to… is he writing this from his New York apartment about people he’s never had meaningful conversations with, or is he writing this as a friend/family of rural republicans?

If this is his opinion, how did he come to it?

Not a NY resident. Politics of the South seems to be his area of expertise.

Thomas F. Schaller is Professor of Political Science at University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). A weekly political columnist for the Baltimore Sun, he has published commentaries in a variety of publications, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Salon, The American Prospect and The Nation.

He is author of Whistling Past Dixie: How Democrats Can Win Without the South (ISBN 074329016X).[1] He is also the author of The Stronghold: How Republicans Captured Congress but Surrendered the White House (Yale University, 2015) and "Common Enemies: Georgetown Basketball, Miami Football and the Racial Transformation of College Sports"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Schaller

Well… a topic that he believes is his expertise…


He seems to be extremely biased, and I am wondering where that bias comes from… I think he’s misled when it comes to some of his conclusions, and I believe the easiest way to come to those misguided conclusions is a lack of real conversations with the people whose motivations you’re writing about.

[WellPreserved]

Great to have positive family connections regardless of finances, but I'm not sure what that has to do with this topic. This thread is about rural populations feeling left out of a changing economy and choosing to follow an anti-democracy candidate who stokes their anger.

Exactly…


I’m just wondering, if that is the conclusion this writer came to… is he writing this from his New York apartment about people he’s never had meaningful conversations with, or is he writing this as a friend/family of rural republicans?

If this is his opinion, how did he come to it?

Not a NY resident. Politics of the South seems to be his area of expertise.

Thomas F. Schaller is Professor of Political Science at University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). A weekly political columnist for the Baltimore Sun, he has published commentaries in a variety of publications, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Salon, The American Prospect and The Nation.

He is author of Whistling Past Dixie: How Democrats Can Win Without the South (ISBN 074329016X).[1] He is also the author of The Stronghold: How Republicans Captured Congress but Surrendered the White House (Yale University, 2015) and "Common Enemies: Georgetown Basketball, Miami Football and the Racial Transformation of College Sports"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Schaller

Not to mention that most people who are 3rd/4th generation American have familial ties to rural America.

Reading the prologue and first 35 pages of the book (I liked above), there are a series of conversations with those who currently live in rural communities.

I think some interesting questions are:
Why do white rural voters currently vote Republican and Black rural voters vote Democrat?
Why did Democrats lose their rural stronghold with the election of Obama?
Why did white rural voters embrace a candidate who was the antithesis of rural?
Why embrace him for a second term when he didn’t deliver anything for rural voters last term?
And why embrace a candidate who intends to take away safety nets that the majority of rural voters rely on?

I think these questions and more are important to ask and answer and it requires conversations with a wide range of rural voters which this book does. More so than a conversation with MeeMaw at Christmas.

[WellPreserved]

Exactly…


I’m just wondering, if that is the conclusion this writer came to… is he writing this from his New York apartment about people he’s never had meaningful conversations with, or is he writing this as a friend/family of rural republicans?

If this is his opinion, how did he come to it?

Not a NY resident. Politics of the South seems to be his area of expertise.

Thomas F. Schaller is Professor of Political Science at University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). A weekly political columnist for the Baltimore Sun, he has published commentaries in a variety of publications, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Salon, The American Prospect and The Nation.

He is author of Whistling Past Dixie: How Democrats Can Win Without the South (ISBN 074329016X).[1] He is also the author of The Stronghold: How Republicans Captured Congress but Surrendered the White House (Yale University, 2015) and "Common Enemies: Georgetown Basketball, Miami Football and the Racial Transformation of College Sports"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Schaller

Well… a topic that he believes is his expertise…


He seems to be extremely biased, and I am wondering where that bias comes from… I think he’s misled when it comes to some of his conclusions, and I believe the easiest way to come to those misguided conclusions is a lack of real conversations with the people whose motivations you’re writing about.

Have you read the book?

[Slimshandy]

Not a NY resident. Politics of the South seems to be his area of expertise.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Schaller

Well… a topic that he believes is his expertise…


He seems to be extremely biased, and I am wondering where that bias comes from… I think he’s misled when it comes to some of his conclusions, and I believe the easiest way to come to those misguided conclusions is a lack of real conversations with the people whose motivations you’re writing about.

Have you read the book?

I’ve read the title, the synopsis, and the questions the book has spawned…

I think there’s a lot of misguidance in all of the above.

[Della]

"With his naked bigotry and xenophobia, his sense of victimization and his resentment toward the elites whom he constantly complains look down on him, Mr. Trump turned out to be a perfect fit for rural whites, even if he can’t tell a combine from a corn dog. He is, as he promises, their “retribution.”

https://www.baltimoresun.com/2024/02/15 ... ican-rage/

[WellPreserved]

Well… a topic that he believes is his expertise…


He seems to be extremely biased, and I am wondering where that bias comes from… I think he’s misled when it comes to some of his conclusions, and I believe the easiest way to come to those misguided conclusions is a lack of real conversations with the people whose motivations you’re writing about.

Have you read the book?

I’ve read the title, the synopsis, and the questions the book has spawned…

I think there’s a lot of misguidance in all of the above.

So you were unaware of the interviews with people who live, work in, and represent rural communities throughout the US?

[SallyMae]

The threat to democracy is a grotesquely unfair economic system, and the Trump movement is why that's a threat. This is what happens when people are cut off.