I love this. Thank God for people like you, that haven’t given up. I live in Ruby red West Texas, were there is also rarely a Democrat on the ticket. I am in a city, though, so many people don’t realize how much the Republicans are gutting everything. But at least in my neck of the woods, most people do still listen only to Fox News and have no idea what the Democrats are trying to do. It’s discouraging.
I live in rural Maine now, but I grew up in West Texas (San Angelo) so I do understand the rural mindset. It is nice up here though. And I do miss the Mexican food,
I’m a Texas ExPat in Sonoma County CA. There hasn’t been a Dem on the local primary ballot in Aransas County since 2010. I always voted in the Dem primary, just to support the state wide offices. Beto & others are doing the hard work of ground level democracy to counter the harm that Abbott/Patrick/Paxton are causing. I still send money back & I miss my Texas. And I miss cheese enchiladas and HEB.
I do love cheese enchiladas. We just had a new Mexican restaurant move to our small southern Maine town, and their food is as close to Tex Mex as I’ve found. We don’t have the wine you have though! The politics tint bluer up here, and we have a good governor in Janet Mills, but I have fingers crossed for November.
Thanks for your report . . . a few people like the inimitable Jess are doing amazing work on this, but it still mystifies me, that Texas is not a functioning democracy. The occupant of the governor's office received about 1 vote from every 5 eligible voters. 1 in 5 !
The headline was reported as '55%' . . . but that was not the news, it was 46% turnout, of 80% registered.
The headline should have been 'Only 1 in 5 Eligible Voters Voted for [A-----]!'
The big question is, how can this possibly be happening? What are the mechanisms and machinations? We see some of them, but . . . 1 . . . One ??. . . of 5 . . . ?? !!
Louisiana was worse. Not a functioning democracy. In our USA. Fewer than 1 in 6, more like 1 in 7 voted for the rampaging disaster who is now in the governor's office. That office had a Democrat last time. Mike Johnson was not elected. *Not* elected ! He ran unopposed, and he is running unopposed again. Again !
How . . . ? I need to do Missouri, and the other backward states, and California and New York and the rest for benchmarks. We are nowhere near where we should be, universal voting, anywhere.
As someone who recently lived for 20 years in Texas, I can tell you that voter suppression is HUGE. It's so bad that I would be here forever if I tried to list all the ways. We're one of the worst in the nation for all the ways they try to keep people from voting. And it works!
The lack of good journalists is also a big problem. Many smaller town newspapers have folded, so people aren't informed about local races, elections, and what's going wrong. Politicians aren't held to account and people don't know what's possible with good representation.
Yet another big problem (at least in the DFW area) were the mega-churches. They have access to literally thousands of voters and have no problem preaching politics from the pulpit or giving Republicans free access to their facilities. This allows Republicans to reach a large number of people while Democrats struggle to do the same. And, of course, the churches don't get into any trouble over the illegality of their mixing politics with religion.
If Texas were its own country, the UN would probably send election monitors. I wish they'd send them anyway.
Jess, I can always feel your passion when I read your posts.
Once again you have hit the nail on the head. Some years ago, a Democratic campaign manager must have looked at their “board” while allocating resources and thought, “No way we can win Missouri this year. Send the resources to Ohio.”
It is shortsighted decisions like these that have left your beautiful, bucolic State of Missouri in ruins.
My feelings originally were exactly as you described. They made their bed, let them lay in it.
So thanks, Jess, you have enlightened me as to the real issues. It is my pleasure to help you spread those facts far and wide. You see, I’m old enough to remember when Missouri was known as the “Show me State” instead of a bruised and battered Republicon stronghold.
Now we are fighting to unseat Hawley with Lucas Kunce. Claire is only candidate I ever did door to door campaigning as I realised what Hawley would be in office.
Yes money is not limitless but at least help those of us stuck in Missouri by spreading the awareness of a qualified candidate to unseat Hawley.
Meanwhile my contributions are to local and Democratic statewide candidates.
Like Jess I am a certified educator promoting public schools and longing for the day I have choices on my ballot.
It would be nice to get resources for candidates and maybe some attention. Rural candidates get screwed across the board by the Democratic.Party. I’m one of them. I would love to deliver more votes. A. The population ain’t there. B Neither is the help. But damn, we better haul our butts for other candidates.
No one should expect you to deliver for other candidates.
But it would be nice if you could get folks on a county level, your friends, your neighbors, to vote for some nice conservative Democrat for your state legislatures.
Someone who could keep your states from being gerrymandered to the limits they have been.
Jess, you should be speaking at the DNC. I haven't heard anyone articulate the real rural issues nearly as well as you. I'm a New Yorker, born and raised in Manhattan and now living in the suburbs. I read you because you make me understand things I have no first hand knowledge of. Tim Walz should have first hand knowledge of the issues. I listened to his rally speeches and he does not speak to the rural issues as plainly as you do...and plain speak is what is needed... just like what you wrote here. I hope the Dems who are running in rural areas are speaking as clearly as you, and yes, every seat everywhere needs to be contested. Did you hear Bernie Sanders last night? Get the big money out of politics and have publicly funded campaigns. That's Bernie's pie in the sky, but as The Beach Boys said, Wouldn't it be nice?
I wanted to share this post I just read on MSNBC.com because the author sounds like she could be Jess's sister, cousin, or neighbor - in that she speaks of many of the issues, concerns, and challenges that Jess talks about in her posts. Although she is a bit more positive towards the way Tim Walz presents himself.
Thanks for this link, Eric. It helped me clarify in my own mind what I see as the difference between how Jess speaks and how Walz speaks; Jess speaks more to rural issues and Walz speaks more to rural values. Focusing on values is an attempt to say don't vote for Trump because he is an uncaring bully (which I think most people already know in their hearts), but speaking to the issues better highlights the actual damage the Republican policies have done to rural America. Trump blames everything on the Dems, but shining a light on the root policy causes, I think, can better show that isn't the case. BTW, the article also illustrated that rural folk aren't all that different... I grew up on Miracle Whip in NYC. In fact, I didn't even realize it wasn't actually mayonnaise until I married my husband. Who would have thought someone from Queens would be more urbane than someone from Manhattan? 😂
I noticed that Idaho Dems highlighted last night that they were competing in 100% of districts. Last weekend at the State Fair I had a great conversation with a woman who was running in far Southeast MO for the legislature that had not been recently contested. Your work here in Missouri is planting a lot of hope seeds.
My only hope is that after many years (all the way back to Reagan, where it started) of following a supply-side economic model (in which we lost a significant chunk of our domestic manufacturing capabilities and pretty much abandoned all of the workers in those industries), followed by four years of Trump, and a global economic crash due to the pandemic, that we've been able to take the first steps towards "recovery" under Biden's administration.
Middle America has been hollowed out, and it's going to take a lot to bring even some of that back. I don't see this as being something that will be reversed within the immediate future, but I'm more than happy to let Harris and Walz make sincere efforts at getting the ball moving.
Reagan started the downward spiral with his denigration of government. He dog-whistled government as taking your hard earned money and giving it to “those people” to convince voters to abandon government as a force for good. That way he could pitch his tax cuts and supply-side bs. It was the start of the gross income inequality that IMO is the root of our problems. Rural and urban.
I have to admit I have fallen into the “ not voting in your best interests “ crowd, but after reading your article I am ashamed. I can tell you this, it won’t ever happen again!
I have pulled a Republican ballot every primary for years to vote for least offensive person. This year it was a pleasure to get a Democratic one to vote for Lucas, Christal, Elad, Pam and others.
Your work Jess with Blue Missouri is showing progress.
Yes! Having choices in Missouri was a thing of beauty! Although people in a neighboring district were still debating on supporting Crystal Quade in the primary or pulling a Republican card to vote the lesser of two evils for state rep (there is a Dem candidate running! Yay!) Unfortunately, the extreme Republican won.
This tracks. I'm in East Texas - Louie Gohmert country. I've only lived here 11 years, but whenever there's a Democrat on the ballot, there's no chance for them to be elected. But, there is a movement of us here, nevertheless. My brother in law (hubby's brother) just won the Democratic nomination for MO state rep for district 150 (Columbia). It's a city, so he will likely win and keep that seat blue. My extended family is in the Ozarks. My grandparents always voted Democrat and were heavily involved in the party (Grandpa was union) but all of the kids (my parents, aunts, uncles) and grandkids (except me) are Republican - mostly due to their churches and digging into Fox News and conservative Christian radio. They are unwilling to even have a conversation without rolling their eyes and acting like whatever I say has no credence. I've lost my family.
Thank you. I lived on a farm while I was in high school. It's really hard work and requires toughness and tenacity. The authors of the anti-farm people have no idea what they are talking about just by being observers (if that. Haven't read the book) and not participants I now live in dark red UT. A special session of the legislature opened today to write a new law after the state supreme court ruled that the people have the right to pass new initiatives and that the legislature can't ignore and overrule them. Sorry, but I don't know all that it's about it or what happened, but the legislature wants to be able to overturn new ballot measures that the people have passed if they don't like the new measures, thereby completely ignoring the wishes of the people. 90% white LDS males rule this state. I wish you well. The amount of time you put into your passion and activism is astounding.
Thank you for never giving up! I live in a very red rural area of Michigan. I, too, can only vote for maybe 3 people on a ballot, but only 15 minutes away (where my business is) is beautiful blue. Despite all our militias, we have a kickass Governor, SS, & AG, & I wish I wasn’t so nonstop busy (restaurant owner), I’d run in a heartbeat.
More to consider. I live in a small village in a red county next to a blue county and progressive mountain town in Colorado. I moved here from the front range in Colorado where the population has exploded as well as the property values, extending to most of the state near any sort of mountain range. What I’ve noticed is that the rural population has to grow and shift to cause any change in the old guard politically and if it happens fast enough, there are too many new varieties of people coming from too many different places for the old ways to stick. Change happens. The internet makes it possible for people to work remotely now so people aren’t dependent on the local job market to make a living. I am one of those people who earn my money from outside of the community I live in and spend most of my money within the community. This is one way the whole equation shifts. I grew up on a farm but there is no way I would be able to make a living that way. I wouldn’t be able to support myself with any local job in this rural area either. Perhaps this scenario can play out in other rural areas where more people can move from cities and live in the country, bringing their education, skillsets and varied backgrounds and earn their living remotely. Kind of a reverse exodus.
Honestly I wanted to do the same but I was really concerned about Eigel so voted R ballot. Don't worry though, she will get my vote in November, along with Kunce and every D running.
And that is why I am a paid subscriber to The View from Rural Missouri by Jess Piper.
I watched my wife’s family go through all of what Jess talks to. The one that remains a farmer leases his property out to others and barely gets by. And no one left can afford to buy enough land to try farming again. Something has got to give before the 4 conglomerates that own almost all US farm products begin dictating what part of our country they want to control next.
I think we've missed the point that you are making here. Our politics have been captured, well before any of us were born, by antidemocratic, capitalistic forces. Big money is made in the pursuit of herding us sheep. As you are doing, the only way we recapture our politics, and country, is from the bottom up. Grassroot movements work, like everything, with patience and love ❤️
Totally agree about bottom-up. I was raised in the Chicago suburbs but ended up in Des Moines Iowa and have been here almost 40 years. I have never lived in a rural area. I am a member of a state wide community activist organization that has been organizing in rural Iowa since the late 70's. I have learned A LOT about rural issues and how all of us suffer when our state government treats our rural areas as a commodity to exploit for profit. We are fighting against CAFOs and CO2 pipelines and school vouchers. We are fighting for clean water and air, fully funded public schools, racial and economic justice. It all connects. The monied interests want to depopulate rural Iowa. Forget about expecting to Democratic Party to save us. We need to bring them along. Join a People's Action affiliate in your state and get in solidarity with your rural neighbors!
This is a valuable piece that makes perfect sense to me. I live in a red part of a blue state and nearly all my local offices are decided during the primary, which always puts me in a bad spot.
Me too!! I am 67 years old have worked for the Carter campaign when in college and around my rural hometown in Ohio. But now it’s Trump country. Why?? He NEVER thinks about rural people. Where does he think his food comes from? I’m so hoping Kamala and Tim can pull this out to save our country!
I love this. Thank God for people like you, that haven’t given up. I live in Ruby red West Texas, were there is also rarely a Democrat on the ticket. I am in a city, though, so many people don’t realize how much the Republicans are gutting everything. But at least in my neck of the woods, most people do still listen only to Fox News and have no idea what the Democrats are trying to do. It’s discouraging.
I live in rural Maine now, but I grew up in West Texas (San Angelo) so I do understand the rural mindset. It is nice up here though. And I do miss the Mexican food,
I’m a Texas ExPat in Sonoma County CA. There hasn’t been a Dem on the local primary ballot in Aransas County since 2010. I always voted in the Dem primary, just to support the state wide offices. Beto & others are doing the hard work of ground level democracy to counter the harm that Abbott/Patrick/Paxton are causing. I still send money back & I miss my Texas. And I miss cheese enchiladas and HEB.
I do love cheese enchiladas. We just had a new Mexican restaurant move to our small southern Maine town, and their food is as close to Tex Mex as I’ve found. We don’t have the wine you have though! The politics tint bluer up here, and we have a good governor in Janet Mills, but I have fingers crossed for November.
I moved to Maine from Texas as well!
But you have haddock sandwiches. I live in California.
Thanks for your report . . . a few people like the inimitable Jess are doing amazing work on this, but it still mystifies me, that Texas is not a functioning democracy. The occupant of the governor's office received about 1 vote from every 5 eligible voters. 1 in 5 !
The headline was reported as '55%' . . . but that was not the news, it was 46% turnout, of 80% registered.
The headline should have been 'Only 1 in 5 Eligible Voters Voted for [A-----]!'
The big question is, how can this possibly be happening? What are the mechanisms and machinations? We see some of them, but . . . 1 . . . One ??. . . of 5 . . . ?? !!
Louisiana was worse. Not a functioning democracy. In our USA. Fewer than 1 in 6, more like 1 in 7 voted for the rampaging disaster who is now in the governor's office. That office had a Democrat last time. Mike Johnson was not elected. *Not* elected ! He ran unopposed, and he is running unopposed again. Again !
How . . . ? I need to do Missouri, and the other backward states, and California and New York and the rest for benchmarks. We are nowhere near where we should be, universal voting, anywhere.
keep working on it all, best luck -- b.rad
Beto is working very hard to register more folks in Texas and his army of volunteers are doing the door knocking, phone calls, and mailings!
As someone who recently lived for 20 years in Texas, I can tell you that voter suppression is HUGE. It's so bad that I would be here forever if I tried to list all the ways. We're one of the worst in the nation for all the ways they try to keep people from voting. And it works!
The lack of good journalists is also a big problem. Many smaller town newspapers have folded, so people aren't informed about local races, elections, and what's going wrong. Politicians aren't held to account and people don't know what's possible with good representation.
Yet another big problem (at least in the DFW area) were the mega-churches. They have access to literally thousands of voters and have no problem preaching politics from the pulpit or giving Republicans free access to their facilities. This allows Republicans to reach a large number of people while Democrats struggle to do the same. And, of course, the churches don't get into any trouble over the illegality of their mixing politics with religion.
If Texas were its own country, the UN would probably send election monitors. I wish they'd send them anyway.
Great report, thanks. There is despair when I see the numbers, but there is enormous opportunity because of the enormous gap.
Your point about local journalism is powerful too.
Kamala’s speech was electric tonight,
onward! — b.rad
Thanks for the links! you are absolutely right!
Jess, I can always feel your passion when I read your posts.
Once again you have hit the nail on the head. Some years ago, a Democratic campaign manager must have looked at their “board” while allocating resources and thought, “No way we can win Missouri this year. Send the resources to Ohio.”
It is shortsighted decisions like these that have left your beautiful, bucolic State of Missouri in ruins.
My feelings originally were exactly as you described. They made their bed, let them lay in it.
So thanks, Jess, you have enlightened me as to the real issues. It is my pleasure to help you spread those facts far and wide. You see, I’m old enough to remember when Missouri was known as the “Show me State” instead of a bruised and battered Republicon stronghold.
Trust me, we of the Jim Jordan’s and JD Vance, never got any money from the DNC. Unfortunately we’ve been heavily gerrymandered for decades.
That’s about to end. We got an anti gerrymandering amendment on the ballot and fingers crossed it will pass.
We, in this backwater state, are sick of republicans and their lies and hypocrisy.
That’s great to read, Lynn. This movement is gaining momentum. The facts are becoming clear to more people every day. Stay vigilant!
We still got stuck in Copland, but the Voters not Politicians proposal is law in Michigan. Does it help? Ohh yess. Good luck
GOPland not Copland though as a musician I wouldn’t mind living in Copland.
Awesome!
It's not short sighted.
It's realistic.
If you have a limited number of dollars do you spread it everywhere and lose everywhere or do you make a big investment and win where you can?
I don't disagree with Jess but the flip side is Missouri picked Josh Hawley over Claire McCaskill. Montana picked Greg Gianforte over Mike Cooney.
South Carolina picked Lindsay Graham over Jaime Harrison and you can't say that race didn't get enough outside money.
In many ways, rural voters and progressive voters have the same problem.
(A problem I think Jess is fixing for rural voters.)
You don't deliver the votes on election day.
Now we are fighting to unseat Hawley with Lucas Kunce. Claire is only candidate I ever did door to door campaigning as I realised what Hawley would be in office.
Yes money is not limitless but at least help those of us stuck in Missouri by spreading the awareness of a qualified candidate to unseat Hawley.
Meanwhile my contributions are to local and Democratic statewide candidates.
Like Jess I am a certified educator promoting public schools and longing for the day I have choices on my ballot.
It would be nice to get resources for candidates and maybe some attention. Rural candidates get screwed across the board by the Democratic.Party. I’m one of them. I would love to deliver more votes. A. The population ain’t there. B Neither is the help. But damn, we better haul our butts for other candidates.
No one should expect you to deliver for other candidates.
But it would be nice if you could get folks on a county level, your friends, your neighbors, to vote for some nice conservative Democrat for your state legislatures.
Someone who could keep your states from being gerrymandered to the limits they have been.
I can remember too i grew up here and it breaks my heart
Jess, you should be speaking at the DNC. I haven't heard anyone articulate the real rural issues nearly as well as you. I'm a New Yorker, born and raised in Manhattan and now living in the suburbs. I read you because you make me understand things I have no first hand knowledge of. Tim Walz should have first hand knowledge of the issues. I listened to his rally speeches and he does not speak to the rural issues as plainly as you do...and plain speak is what is needed... just like what you wrote here. I hope the Dems who are running in rural areas are speaking as clearly as you, and yes, every seat everywhere needs to be contested. Did you hear Bernie Sanders last night? Get the big money out of politics and have publicly funded campaigns. That's Bernie's pie in the sky, but as The Beach Boys said, Wouldn't it be nice?
I agree. Jess should be speaking in larger venues. She could debate JD Vance!
I wanted to share this post I just read on MSNBC.com because the author sounds like she could be Jess's sister, cousin, or neighbor - in that she speaks of many of the issues, concerns, and challenges that Jess talks about in her posts. Although she is a bit more positive towards the way Tim Walz presents himself.
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/celebrate-tim-walz-midwestern-dad-memes-rcna167422
Thanks for this link, Eric. It helped me clarify in my own mind what I see as the difference between how Jess speaks and how Walz speaks; Jess speaks more to rural issues and Walz speaks more to rural values. Focusing on values is an attempt to say don't vote for Trump because he is an uncaring bully (which I think most people already know in their hearts), but speaking to the issues better highlights the actual damage the Republican policies have done to rural America. Trump blames everything on the Dems, but shining a light on the root policy causes, I think, can better show that isn't the case. BTW, the article also illustrated that rural folk aren't all that different... I grew up on Miracle Whip in NYC. In fact, I didn't even realize it wasn't actually mayonnaise until I married my husband. Who would have thought someone from Queens would be more urbane than someone from Manhattan? 😂
Please don't take my comments as negative toward Tim Walz. That wasn't my intention.
I noticed that Idaho Dems highlighted last night that they were competing in 100% of districts. Last weekend at the State Fair I had a great conversation with a woman who was running in far Southeast MO for the legislature that had not been recently contested. Your work here in Missouri is planting a lot of hope seeds.
That was who it was! I forgot what red state was doing this.
My only hope is that after many years (all the way back to Reagan, where it started) of following a supply-side economic model (in which we lost a significant chunk of our domestic manufacturing capabilities and pretty much abandoned all of the workers in those industries), followed by four years of Trump, and a global economic crash due to the pandemic, that we've been able to take the first steps towards "recovery" under Biden's administration.
Middle America has been hollowed out, and it's going to take a lot to bring even some of that back. I don't see this as being something that will be reversed within the immediate future, but I'm more than happy to let Harris and Walz make sincere efforts at getting the ball moving.
Reagan started the downward spiral with his denigration of government. He dog-whistled government as taking your hard earned money and giving it to “those people” to convince voters to abandon government as a force for good. That way he could pitch his tax cuts and supply-side bs. It was the start of the gross income inequality that IMO is the root of our problems. Rural and urban.
I have to admit I have fallen into the “ not voting in your best interests “ crowd, but after reading your article I am ashamed. I can tell you this, it won’t ever happen again!
Don’t be ashamed! Who would know better…thank you for following along!
I have pulled a Republican ballot every primary for years to vote for least offensive person. This year it was a pleasure to get a Democratic one to vote for Lucas, Christal, Elad, Pam and others.
Your work Jess with Blue Missouri is showing progress.
Yes! Having choices in Missouri was a thing of beauty! Although people in a neighboring district were still debating on supporting Crystal Quade in the primary or pulling a Republican card to vote the lesser of two evils for state rep (there is a Dem candidate running! Yay!) Unfortunately, the extreme Republican won.
This tracks. I'm in East Texas - Louie Gohmert country. I've only lived here 11 years, but whenever there's a Democrat on the ballot, there's no chance for them to be elected. But, there is a movement of us here, nevertheless. My brother in law (hubby's brother) just won the Democratic nomination for MO state rep for district 150 (Columbia). It's a city, so he will likely win and keep that seat blue. My extended family is in the Ozarks. My grandparents always voted Democrat and were heavily involved in the party (Grandpa was union) but all of the kids (my parents, aunts, uncles) and grandkids (except me) are Republican - mostly due to their churches and digging into Fox News and conservative Christian radio. They are unwilling to even have a conversation without rolling their eyes and acting like whatever I say has no credence. I've lost my family.
Sorry for your situation..., determined by their wants/ways.
Thank you. I lived on a farm while I was in high school. It's really hard work and requires toughness and tenacity. The authors of the anti-farm people have no idea what they are talking about just by being observers (if that. Haven't read the book) and not participants I now live in dark red UT. A special session of the legislature opened today to write a new law after the state supreme court ruled that the people have the right to pass new initiatives and that the legislature can't ignore and overrule them. Sorry, but I don't know all that it's about it or what happened, but the legislature wants to be able to overturn new ballot measures that the people have passed if they don't like the new measures, thereby completely ignoring the wishes of the people. 90% white LDS males rule this state. I wish you well. The amount of time you put into your passion and activism is astounding.
Best to you always.🌺🪷
Thank you for never giving up! I live in a very red rural area of Michigan. I, too, can only vote for maybe 3 people on a ballot, but only 15 minutes away (where my business is) is beautiful blue. Despite all our militias, we have a kickass Governor, SS, & AG, & I wish I wasn’t so nonstop busy (restaurant owner), I’d run in a heartbeat.
More to consider. I live in a small village in a red county next to a blue county and progressive mountain town in Colorado. I moved here from the front range in Colorado where the population has exploded as well as the property values, extending to most of the state near any sort of mountain range. What I’ve noticed is that the rural population has to grow and shift to cause any change in the old guard politically and if it happens fast enough, there are too many new varieties of people coming from too many different places for the old ways to stick. Change happens. The internet makes it possible for people to work remotely now so people aren’t dependent on the local job market to make a living. I am one of those people who earn my money from outside of the community I live in and spend most of my money within the community. This is one way the whole equation shifts. I grew up on a farm but there is no way I would be able to make a living that way. I wouldn’t be able to support myself with any local job in this rural area either. Perhaps this scenario can play out in other rural areas where more people can move from cities and live in the country, bringing their education, skillsets and varied backgrounds and earn their living remotely. Kind of a reverse exodus.
Honestly I wanted to do the same but I was really concerned about Eigel so voted R ballot. Don't worry though, she will get my vote in November, along with Kunce and every D running.
And that is why I am a paid subscriber to The View from Rural Missouri by Jess Piper.
I watched my wife’s family go through all of what Jess talks to. The one that remains a farmer leases his property out to others and barely gets by. And no one left can afford to buy enough land to try farming again. Something has got to give before the 4 conglomerates that own almost all US farm products begin dictating what part of our country they want to control next.
Thank you!
I think we've missed the point that you are making here. Our politics have been captured, well before any of us were born, by antidemocratic, capitalistic forces. Big money is made in the pursuit of herding us sheep. As you are doing, the only way we recapture our politics, and country, is from the bottom up. Grassroot movements work, like everything, with patience and love ❤️
Totally agree about bottom-up. I was raised in the Chicago suburbs but ended up in Des Moines Iowa and have been here almost 40 years. I have never lived in a rural area. I am a member of a state wide community activist organization that has been organizing in rural Iowa since the late 70's. I have learned A LOT about rural issues and how all of us suffer when our state government treats our rural areas as a commodity to exploit for profit. We are fighting against CAFOs and CO2 pipelines and school vouchers. We are fighting for clean water and air, fully funded public schools, racial and economic justice. It all connects. The monied interests want to depopulate rural Iowa. Forget about expecting to Democratic Party to save us. We need to bring them along. Join a People's Action affiliate in your state and get in solidarity with your rural neighbors!
This is a valuable piece that makes perfect sense to me. I live in a red part of a blue state and nearly all my local offices are decided during the primary, which always puts me in a bad spot.
Rural Ohio here. I see you.
Me too!! I am 67 years old have worked for the Carter campaign when in college and around my rural hometown in Ohio. But now it’s Trump country. Why?? He NEVER thinks about rural people. Where does he think his food comes from? I’m so hoping Kamala and Tim can pull this out to save our country!
Maybe there should be a "Write in any good Democrat" campaign for every race without a Democrat running.
👍👍