Agree that Democrats need better infrastructure for rural communities. Would also point out that anti-government Republicans rely on Democrats to do the work for both rural and urban America while they bitch about socialism. Rural broadband, healthcare, ag - all fought for primarily by Dems, not Republicans. I had to constantly remind local Republicans in rural MT the services that were being funded by the feds and push them to go ask for more (which they rarely did). Democratic Sen Tester was the only member of the MT delegation to regularly show up and fight for MT’s rural communities. When he succeeded, he rarely got thanks from locals because Republican leaders took credit or criticized him for socialism while right leaning local media went along. In a world of limited “asks” and gerrymandering how can Democrats maintain ongoing responsibility for everyone?
I am with you. I live in rural red Tennessee. The Democrats messed up only catering to cities and a few states. Al Gore didn't need Florida if he had taken his own Tennessee. We must get back to our roots. Thanks for your work.
The poor and uneducated keep voting for the same Republicans who keep them poor , without access to medical care , and underfunded schools. Democrats haven’t campaigned here for years. We are still trying to hold our party together without $$$ , support or anything from the National elites. We cannot run viable candidates without $$$.
While I partly agree, 1994 was the last year the Democrats controlled Tennessee. It took only a little more than one generation to change Tennessee and most Southern States from Blue to Red after LBJ passed the Civil Rights Acts. While they still controlled the State Legislature, the Governor, US congressional Representatives, and Senators were majority Republicans in 1995. Governor Bredesen was the last State-wide elected Democrat, ending in 2010. The State has been majority-red across the Board since 2011.
There are fundamental social and economic differences in approach between Democrats and Republicans. In general, Republicans care much less about people enjoying life, except supposedly for fetuses, and much more about profit for themselves. If they can make you an economic slave, like they did the Black population in the South before Civil Rights got rid of Jim Crow laws, they would have no qualms about it.
They are busy trying to make us all in the middle and lower economic classes economic slaves for their servitude.
Here are some years when rural hospitals closed - many due to States not accepting Obama's Medicaid expansion in 2013.
Edit: Google Search Labs lied to me, which I carried forward. So Sorry. These numbers are national numbers, not only TN numbers.
2020: A record 19 rural hospitals closed.
2013–2017: 64 rural hospitals closed, more than double the number of closures in the previous five years.
2010–present: 138 rural hospitals closed.
Here's a story about TN Hospital closures from Mother Jones mag 2018, with Trump not doing anything about it included: https://shorturl.at/JKGby
When I lived in TN, I voted for Republicans a couple of times.
First was Howard Baker, a wonderful man, artist, and plain speaker, who was running for the US Senate.
Second was when Lamar Alexander was a good guy, running for Governor (I thnk that was it), before he toed the Republican line a few years ago and changed completely. He lost my respect. I loved how he went all over TN in his flannel shirt like a folksy neighbor. I wonder if it was also age getting to him and he felt he needed to represent Trump better.
Jess, YOU are one of the most precious gifts that fell on the lap of national democratic leadership. But they need to NOT act like the 3 monkeys. I wish I could shout from every roof top for the DNC leadership or influential leaders of democratic party to talk to you, listen to you and do the work we need to do.
Sadly, they don't value Jess as much as they should, they only want the money she is able to raise, not listen to the ideas she has. Keep shouting Jess and if we bring the numbers, we cannot be ignored.
Do the work WE need to do? I’m not sure who the WE is.
When I read that more than 7,000,000 Dems sat on their ass and didn’t vote, there is no WE that I’m part of.
When I read Dems saying putting a woman on the ballot, there is no WE that I’m part of.
When my local county Dems just announced their new leadership team which is the same old white guy at the top and two women replaced with white men, there is no we that I’m part of.
When some Dems think Kamala was a mistake; when many Dems apparently think a white man needs to run next time, there is no we I’m part of and I’m a white, older man.
You’re a physicist. As I have been reading, out of complexity, as the theory goes, one can get emergence of certain properties like possibly time. Well order did not emerge out of the chaos of the Democratic Party and as Will Rogers noted almost 100 years ago, it seems the Dems are really the party of CHAOS where democratic voters are most often in some type of chaotic orbit around a strange attractor of fantasy.
Great comment. I do like to push back on the idea that millions of people sat out the election. We actually don’t know if they sat out the election or their vote just didn’t count for some reason. For instance, voter suppression. I spent a week in North Carolina Prior to the election and found out. They have no ballot boxes there. It is actually quite hard to boat there, you have to wait in line for as long as you have to wait in line. Too bad if it’s cold outside or whatever, you will be waiting in line outside. Maybe your kids have colds and you Can’t. They don’t care. The rules are Byzantine. I live in Washington state where we can vote from the comfort of our own mailbox. It should be that way everywhere but it absolutely is not. So I do urge caution when making assumptions about people just not bothering to vote… Just my two cents. Thanks for the comment.
Lisa, your two cents are a million dollars to my ears. What you are saying is why I get so frustrated that the Dems appear they will meekly turn over the keys to the government instead of investigating all the voter corruption.
Something is happening here
What it is is really clear
There’s a man in red hat over there
Telling me I must beware
We have many Cassandra’s
Ringing loudly alarms
As Apollo’s evil crawls
Laughing at his harms
Strange thought. Apollo was a rapist as was his father. Do you think there are red hats being worn on Mt. Olympus?
I feel your frustration but for the sake of future generations I still need to be a part of "we the people" and fight until I drop dead. I have voted for every office Kamala ran. I still believe she was the best candidate ever to run for Presidency in this country.
Edit: when Dems say putting a woman on the ballot was a mistake…..
I wish this program allowed me to edit right after I see the mistake so as I can efficiently cover the fact that because of impatience I’m a lousy self editor. Oh well.
As someone from a rural place that lives in the 50/50 dot in NE now….. I totally hear you and occasionally the prejudice of academics and city liberals will stun me (I travel a lot for work).
BUT - my rural relatives absolutely think they are special. They think they count more than a person in a city or suburb, they count more than me. To them, land should vote - they will never let go of the electoral college - it protects the special.
The reverse prejudice is hard to overcome. And they don’t want help, they are convinced the local rich guy sucking up tax breaks to build a downtown-crushing Walmart is on their side.
As Jess is doing, find your people and build coalitions. Just as urban "elites" need to learn not all rural folks are bigots, rural folks need to learn not all urban folks are "elites." We need to hear each other's stories!
I also grew up in the middle of Nebraska and moved to Omaha in 1985-86. I lived there for 35 years before moving to another state. (I love the Blue Dot, and wish I still lived there)
Whenever I go back to my hometown people ask how I can stand living in a city. They won’t even go there unless it’s for medical treatment.
If I tell them that I prefer it, it’s a huge insult to them because their way of life is vastly superior in their eyes.
Great commentary, thank you for this. The only thing I would add is that for years it seem to me that the Democratic party has virtually ignored state legislative elections, thus giving Republicans the ability to gerrymander, tailor voter registration laws to their purpose and enact laws seemingly contrary to what the citizens actually want, something you have been able to illustrate frequently with your home state as a prime example. It’s as if the Democrat’s leadership was only interested in the big important national races, occasionally deigning to be interested in gubernatorial or large city mayoral races. The result is that the base of the electorate has been hogtied by far right Republicans and I fear the whole democracy is floundering.
I wholeheartedly agree. I live in Columbia MO, more progressive than most rural MO due to the University. But prior to living here I hailed from the Bay Area and then 10 years in Boston metro area. Mid Missouri was like moving to another country. I want to get active in the progressive movement but it is hard to find outlets.
Come check out our Columbia Unitarian Universalist Church one Sunday. No, you do not have to believe in god or even in religion — trust me, I wouldn’t be there if that was a requirement. Anyway, you won’t find a more progressive group in Columbia. I think we’re your people, and we’d love to meet you. Caveat — I don’t remember names well, so if you already attend, sorry!
After the election this has been on my mind, i.e., lack of democratic representation in all of rural America. Living in the city it's hard to wrap my head around how we city folks can help with lack of DNC leadership, or lack thereof in rural areas. I fully comprehend what you are saying, but thoughts and ideas for our involvement would be good. Thanks, Jess, for sheading more light on a big problem.
There are lots of grassroots organizations working in the rural spaces, but they are usually woefully underfunded. I'm in NC and financially support several of them including some lilited to my state:
I discovered the latter two organizations through Movement Voter Project. They don't limit their reach to just swing states. Check out a recording from yesterday's briefing here:
Jess, thank you for another lesson learned today. So much I do not know about our rural folks. That you for your tireless work in educating us all. I only hope that those in the Democratic Party that can effect change see/read your work
Bicoastal elitism is a HUGE problem Democrats need to tackle; honestly, compassionately and promptly. I live on the East Coast and I can attest to the fact that there is a lot of latent prejudice toward the "flyover states," which has a causative effect on the issues you write about here. I think many of us are truly ignorant about rural spaces, and that's one of the reasons I became a subscriber here. I've learned a lot that I never would have known without your perspective, Jess.
I relate to everything Jess writes about because I live in a city in Oklahoma and she talks about the same issues I see here. It’s so frustrating when there aren’t even candidates to run anymore. We already live in an authoritarian state here so why or how would the national democratic party do anything to help. Democrats here are demoralized but we just hang on based purely on hope since there’s no logical reason to think anything will change anytime soon.
Jess, as someone likely considerably older than you, I have fought the rampant liberal trashing of Missouri, my home state, for decades. It’s libs, it’s conservatives, it’s everyone. It’s boring, stupid, ill-advised, and counterproductive but assumptions are so dangerous and ubiquitous. Thanks for a superb column.
I couldn't agree more, Jess. Thank you keep writing about this issue. It is so good to have someone saying this. This week, I especially liked "I get some guff and it’s not from the Nazis or MAGAs…it’s from liberals." I could go on and on about that piece. I can not live in a bubble. Those that voted differently than me are my neighbors, I taught their children, they may be my nurse,I see them at the corner store. Also- I am so grateful we have Anderson Clayton in NC who really gets it.
You also have John Pavlovitz (in Winston-Salem), a pastor, to challenge the thinking of evangelical folks. Democrat leaderehip has dismissed evangelicals - both rural & urban, but especially in the Bible Belt - to their detriment.
I live in rural Michigan. There are many Democrats here, but you're right that they lay low, except of course when it comes to running the local Outreach. Do they get credit? Nope. Some even change parties to take a local government role such as village treasurer. It's sad and I want it to change.
Jess, I hope you're using your new social platform to tout Blue Missouri. That group, along with Blue Ohio and Blue Tennessee, are doing important work in red areas; addressing the " no Democrats running in this election" problem.
Agree! I moved from the suburbs up the road a year ago to a more rural area in my red swing state. Still haven’t seen any Democratic Party evidence anywhere. They don’t even have a website…just a very quiet Facebook page. On the other hand, before the election, at every festival and gathering, there were reps from the GOP handing out yard signs and other stuff. I had a bad feeling …
As a rural Dem who chooses to be an active blue dot in a red sea, rather than a "all I need to do is vote" blue dot in a blue sea, I urge you to be the change.
Agree that Democrats need better infrastructure for rural communities. Would also point out that anti-government Republicans rely on Democrats to do the work for both rural and urban America while they bitch about socialism. Rural broadband, healthcare, ag - all fought for primarily by Dems, not Republicans. I had to constantly remind local Republicans in rural MT the services that were being funded by the feds and push them to go ask for more (which they rarely did). Democratic Sen Tester was the only member of the MT delegation to regularly show up and fight for MT’s rural communities. When he succeeded, he rarely got thanks from locals because Republican leaders took credit or criticized him for socialism while right leaning local media went along. In a world of limited “asks” and gerrymandering how can Democrats maintain ongoing responsibility for everyone?
I am with you. I live in rural red Tennessee. The Democrats messed up only catering to cities and a few states. Al Gore didn't need Florida if he had taken his own Tennessee. We must get back to our roots. Thanks for your work.
Truer words were never spoken!
The poor and uneducated keep voting for the same Republicans who keep them poor , without access to medical care , and underfunded schools. Democrats haven’t campaigned here for years. We are still trying to hold our party together without $$$ , support or anything from the National elites. We cannot run viable candidates without $$$.
While I partly agree, 1994 was the last year the Democrats controlled Tennessee. It took only a little more than one generation to change Tennessee and most Southern States from Blue to Red after LBJ passed the Civil Rights Acts. While they still controlled the State Legislature, the Governor, US congressional Representatives, and Senators were majority Republicans in 1995. Governor Bredesen was the last State-wide elected Democrat, ending in 2010. The State has been majority-red across the Board since 2011.
There are fundamental social and economic differences in approach between Democrats and Republicans. In general, Republicans care much less about people enjoying life, except supposedly for fetuses, and much more about profit for themselves. If they can make you an economic slave, like they did the Black population in the South before Civil Rights got rid of Jim Crow laws, they would have no qualms about it.
They are busy trying to make us all in the middle and lower economic classes economic slaves for their servitude.
Here are some years when rural hospitals closed - many due to States not accepting Obama's Medicaid expansion in 2013.
Edit: Google Search Labs lied to me, which I carried forward. So Sorry. These numbers are national numbers, not only TN numbers.
2020: A record 19 rural hospitals closed.
2013–2017: 64 rural hospitals closed, more than double the number of closures in the previous five years.
2010–present: 138 rural hospitals closed.
Here's a story about TN Hospital closures from Mother Jones mag 2018, with Trump not doing anything about it included: https://shorturl.at/JKGby
And ?
When I lived in TN, I voted for Republicans a couple of times.
First was Howard Baker, a wonderful man, artist, and plain speaker, who was running for the US Senate.
Second was when Lamar Alexander was a good guy, running for Governor (I thnk that was it), before he toed the Republican line a few years ago and changed completely. He lost my respect. I loved how he went all over TN in his flannel shirt like a folksy neighbor. I wonder if it was also age getting to him and he felt he needed to represent Trump better.
He was a huge disappointment for sure. Drank the Trump cool aid.
Jess, YOU are one of the most precious gifts that fell on the lap of national democratic leadership. But they need to NOT act like the 3 monkeys. I wish I could shout from every roof top for the DNC leadership or influential leaders of democratic party to talk to you, listen to you and do the work we need to do.
Sadly, they don't value Jess as much as they should, they only want the money she is able to raise, not listen to the ideas she has. Keep shouting Jess and if we bring the numbers, we cannot be ignored.
Do the work WE need to do? I’m not sure who the WE is.
When I read that more than 7,000,000 Dems sat on their ass and didn’t vote, there is no WE that I’m part of.
When I read Dems saying putting a woman on the ballot, there is no WE that I’m part of.
When my local county Dems just announced their new leadership team which is the same old white guy at the top and two women replaced with white men, there is no we that I’m part of.
When some Dems think Kamala was a mistake; when many Dems apparently think a white man needs to run next time, there is no we I’m part of and I’m a white, older man.
You’re a physicist. As I have been reading, out of complexity, as the theory goes, one can get emergence of certain properties like possibly time. Well order did not emerge out of the chaos of the Democratic Party and as Will Rogers noted almost 100 years ago, it seems the Dems are really the party of CHAOS where democratic voters are most often in some type of chaotic orbit around a strange attractor of fantasy.
Great comment. I do like to push back on the idea that millions of people sat out the election. We actually don’t know if they sat out the election or their vote just didn’t count for some reason. For instance, voter suppression. I spent a week in North Carolina Prior to the election and found out. They have no ballot boxes there. It is actually quite hard to boat there, you have to wait in line for as long as you have to wait in line. Too bad if it’s cold outside or whatever, you will be waiting in line outside. Maybe your kids have colds and you Can’t. They don’t care. The rules are Byzantine. I live in Washington state where we can vote from the comfort of our own mailbox. It should be that way everywhere but it absolutely is not. So I do urge caution when making assumptions about people just not bothering to vote… Just my two cents. Thanks for the comment.
OK, it might not be hard to boat there, but it is hard to vote🤣
Lisa, your two cents are a million dollars to my ears. What you are saying is why I get so frustrated that the Dems appear they will meekly turn over the keys to the government instead of investigating all the voter corruption.
Something is happening here
What it is is really clear
There’s a man in red hat over there
Telling me I must beware
We have many Cassandra’s
Ringing loudly alarms
As Apollo’s evil crawls
Laughing at his harms
Strange thought. Apollo was a rapist as was his father. Do you think there are red hats being worn on Mt. Olympus?
I feel your frustration but for the sake of future generations I still need to be a part of "we the people" and fight until I drop dead. I have voted for every office Kamala ran. I still believe she was the best candidate ever to run for Presidency in this country.
And I agree with you.
Edit: when Dems say putting a woman on the ballot was a mistake…..
I wish this program allowed me to edit right after I see the mistake so as I can efficiently cover the fact that because of impatience I’m a lousy self editor. Oh well.
As someone from a rural place that lives in the 50/50 dot in NE now….. I totally hear you and occasionally the prejudice of academics and city liberals will stun me (I travel a lot for work).
BUT - my rural relatives absolutely think they are special. They think they count more than a person in a city or suburb, they count more than me. To them, land should vote - they will never let go of the electoral college - it protects the special.
The reverse prejudice is hard to overcome. And they don’t want help, they are convinced the local rich guy sucking up tax breaks to build a downtown-crushing Walmart is on their side.
I’m not hopeless, but I’m getting close.
As Jess is doing, find your people and build coalitions. Just as urban "elites" need to learn not all rural folks are bigots, rural folks need to learn not all urban folks are "elites." We need to hear each other's stories!
Yes! This! Well said. I wish I could restack this a hundred times!
I also grew up in the middle of Nebraska and moved to Omaha in 1985-86. I lived there for 35 years before moving to another state. (I love the Blue Dot, and wish I still lived there)
Whenever I go back to my hometown people ask how I can stand living in a city. They won’t even go there unless it’s for medical treatment.
If I tell them that I prefer it, it’s a huge insult to them because their way of life is vastly superior in their eyes.
This is an interesting perspective.
Great commentary, thank you for this. The only thing I would add is that for years it seem to me that the Democratic party has virtually ignored state legislative elections, thus giving Republicans the ability to gerrymander, tailor voter registration laws to their purpose and enact laws seemingly contrary to what the citizens actually want, something you have been able to illustrate frequently with your home state as a prime example. It’s as if the Democrat’s leadership was only interested in the big important national races, occasionally deigning to be interested in gubernatorial or large city mayoral races. The result is that the base of the electorate has been hogtied by far right Republicans and I fear the whole democracy is floundering.
Rahm Immanuel destroyed what Howard Dean had built and President Obama was naive. He believed in human decency.
Absolutely true. I’m STILL mad at Rahm 20 years later!
I wholeheartedly agree. I live in Columbia MO, more progressive than most rural MO due to the University. But prior to living here I hailed from the Bay Area and then 10 years in Boston metro area. Mid Missouri was like moving to another country. I want to get active in the progressive movement but it is hard to find outlets.
Come check out our Columbia Unitarian Universalist Church one Sunday. No, you do not have to believe in god or even in religion — trust me, I wouldn’t be there if that was a requirement. Anyway, you won’t find a more progressive group in Columbia. I think we’re your people, and we’d love to meet you. Caveat — I don’t remember names well, so if you already attend, sorry!
After the election this has been on my mind, i.e., lack of democratic representation in all of rural America. Living in the city it's hard to wrap my head around how we city folks can help with lack of DNC leadership, or lack thereof in rural areas. I fully comprehend what you are saying, but thoughts and ideas for our involvement would be good. Thanks, Jess, for sheading more light on a big problem.
There are lots of grassroots organizations working in the rural spaces, but they are usually woefully underfunded. I'm in NC and financially support several of them including some lilited to my state:
https://www.centerforcommonground.org/ (nonpartisan)
https://www.newruralproject.org/ (nonpartisan)
https://forgottendemocrats.org/
https://downhomenc.org/
https://carolinafederation.org/
I discovered the latter two organizations through Movement Voter Project. They don't limit their reach to just swing states. Check out a recording from yesterday's briefing here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LI2dnlsUC6g&t=2078s
Thanks for the links! I’m in NC too.
THIS is why I take time to read through the comments! TY
Jess, thank you for another lesson learned today. So much I do not know about our rural folks. That you for your tireless work in educating us all. I only hope that those in the Democratic Party that can effect change see/read your work
Bicoastal elitism is a HUGE problem Democrats need to tackle; honestly, compassionately and promptly. I live on the East Coast and I can attest to the fact that there is a lot of latent prejudice toward the "flyover states," which has a causative effect on the issues you write about here. I think many of us are truly ignorant about rural spaces, and that's one of the reasons I became a subscriber here. I've learned a lot that I never would have known without your perspective, Jess.
I relate to everything Jess writes about because I live in a city in Oklahoma and she talks about the same issues I see here. It’s so frustrating when there aren’t even candidates to run anymore. We already live in an authoritarian state here so why or how would the national democratic party do anything to help. Democrats here are demoralized but we just hang on based purely on hope since there’s no logical reason to think anything will change anytime soon.
Jess, as someone likely considerably older than you, I have fought the rampant liberal trashing of Missouri, my home state, for decades. It’s libs, it’s conservatives, it’s everyone. It’s boring, stupid, ill-advised, and counterproductive but assumptions are so dangerous and ubiquitous. Thanks for a superb column.
I couldn't agree more, Jess. Thank you keep writing about this issue. It is so good to have someone saying this. This week, I especially liked "I get some guff and it’s not from the Nazis or MAGAs…it’s from liberals." I could go on and on about that piece. I can not live in a bubble. Those that voted differently than me are my neighbors, I taught their children, they may be my nurse,I see them at the corner store. Also- I am so grateful we have Anderson Clayton in NC who really gets it.
You also have John Pavlovitz (in Winston-Salem), a pastor, to challenge the thinking of evangelical folks. Democrat leaderehip has dismissed evangelicals - both rural & urban, but especially in the Bible Belt - to their detriment.
Well said. Totally agree with you.
I live in rural Michigan. There are many Democrats here, but you're right that they lay low, except of course when it comes to running the local Outreach. Do they get credit? Nope. Some even change parties to take a local government role such as village treasurer. It's sad and I want it to change.
Work for the night is coming …
Hear, hear! And there, there! Rural folks are the back bone (and the bread-basket) of this country: ignore 'em at your peril.
Jess, I hope you're using your new social platform to tout Blue Missouri. That group, along with Blue Ohio and Blue Tennessee, are doing important work in red areas; addressing the " no Democrats running in this election" problem.
Your efforts are so worthy. Thanks
Agree! I moved from the suburbs up the road a year ago to a more rural area in my red swing state. Still haven’t seen any Democratic Party evidence anywhere. They don’t even have a website…just a very quiet Facebook page. On the other hand, before the election, at every festival and gathering, there were reps from the GOP handing out yard signs and other stuff. I had a bad feeling …
As a rural Dem who chooses to be an active blue dot in a red sea, rather than a "all I need to do is vote" blue dot in a blue sea, I urge you to be the change.