Speaking to Working and Rural Folks

I hope someone is listening...

I once heard a story about a rural Missouri politician who carried his electric bill in his front shirt pocket. His community had been brutalized by a spike in utility prices and when he knocked doors or spoke at events, he pulled his bill out of his pocket to speak on monopolies and how the utility companies had lobbyists down in Jeff City to speak on their behalf and how his community had no one to listen to them.

People stopped in their tracks when he pulled that bill out of his pocket.

They all had that same electric bill, and every one of them had to budget differently because the bill had spiked. He spoke directly on a problem that they all had. It was universal.

I don’t remember if he won or not, but the point of the story is that folks listened. That electric bill was tangible and everyone across the political spectrum felt the pain each month. There was no denying that little scrap of paper, and he spoke directly to it.

I do live in the Show-Me state. Let’s show the folks.

Speak and listen to the people. Bring tangible examples of what you’re talking about and how communities have been hurt by folks who lied to them for decades and used and abused them by acting in bad faith. How politicians used that faith to beat them over the head — to trick them into voting against their self-interest.

I have recently read several accounts of Trump voters who have been fired from their Federal positions. One was documented by the Kansas City Star.

The woman is from St. Joseph, not far from me. Her name is Kelli McGlothin and she had worked at McDonald’s for 24 years. She finally landed a job with the IRS in Kansas City. That’s quite a drive. She woke up each morning at 3am to be at work on time — she said it was worth it.

She was in the last few weeks of her probationary period and she was fired with a hundred others two weeks ago. She said the firing made her feel like a piece of trash.

She voted for Trump.

You can imagine her frustration and heartbreak and you may think she blames Trump for her lost wages and hurt pride. You would be wrong.

She was hired for the job under the Biden administration and fired under the Trump administration, but she doesn’t blame Trump. She blames Elon Musk.

She said:

Trump is not the issue. I think Elon Musk is puppeteering a lot of it. If he’d stay out of stuff, I think we would be fine. I mean, Trump was fine before. I didn’t have any problems before, but all of the sudden, he’s acting like he’s being a puppet to this man that’s not even from the United States.

That’s a key piece of information gleaned from a Trump voter and I am seeing it everywhere. Trump is not taking the fall for the pain and misery he is spreading and you may be surprised to know that most aren’t blaming Joe Biden. It’s Musk. He’s the scapegoat.

We need to tie Elon and his billionaire ilk to Trump.

Speaking to a voter in Gentry County, MO.

No one elected Elon, and we need to remind working folks of that and the fact that Trump put him in power. Make Trump and Elon one in the same.

Elon is Trump. DOGE is Trump. Layoffs are Trump. Higher grocery prices are Trump. Tariffs are Trump. Misery is Trump. All of this is Trump.

And then bring something tangible to working folks and remind them they were lied to. Trump and Republicans elected in the states lied to them.

They said they would bring down the price of groceries on day one. They said tariffs would make corporations build more factories in America and there would be more jobs and prices on everything would come down. They said Republicans are better with the economy and they would decrease the national debt. They said they would not touch Medicare or Medicaid. They said they stood with veterans.

They lied about everything.

I’m going to tell you how Democrats can talk to working people and rural folks, but first understand, you have to come back to these people. Do what Bernie is doing. Go to the people. You have to physically show up.

My tiny rural town has been decimated over the decades. My town is not an outlier. My community, and most rural communities across the state, voted for Trump and Republicans down the ballot. There are issues that transcend political stripe though:

Schools. Roads. Hospitals. Utility prices.

Over 30% of Missouri schools are four-days a week and they are usually in rural Missouri. The rural schools that are able to stay open five days rely on taxes paid by wind farms in this part of the state. Trump and his Republicans are taking aim at green energy. Remind folks that without green energy, their schools won’t be able to keep the lights on. And, Trump’s idea of dismantling the Dept of Education would take even more funding from cash-strapped schools.

In rural parts, the roads tend to be in disrepair. In Missouri, we pay for car maintenance because of bad roads. A massive pothole bent my tire rim and I had to buy a new wheel. I have my car aligned more often. We don’t have shoulders on the road which is very dangerous during planting and harvest times — you don’t want to meet a combine or sprayer on a road without a shoulder.

Missouri has lost almost 20 hospitals in the last two decades of a GOP supermajority — most in rural areas. Most folks in my area will drive half an hour to get an antibiotic or stitches, but they’ll likely drive over an hour to deliver a baby. A couple of hours for specialized care. This may not seem like such a big deal, but I have heard of rural people who are hospitalized and have family members sleeping in their cars so they can be in the area in case something happens. Great-grandma is sleeping in her car.

My community just suffered a nearly 100% jump in water prices. My bill was so high, I called a plumber because I just knew I had a leak. I didn’t. The water department said that we were due a price hike and that a mix-up at city hall didn’t apply that hike for over a year. The city caught us up with a few massive water bills. I have the scraps of paper to prove it. It hurt me, and I can only imagine what it did to my neighbors on a fixed income.

I could go on, but in the interest of time and space, I’ll leave it there.

These are just four ways of talking to working people — this is hard work and that may be why I have to keep saying it over and over again to Democrats and strategists.

Not that either have asked my opinion. And even when someone reaches out to ask what I see and hear at all of the events and rallies and protests I attend, my words usually go in one ear and out the other.

Everyone wants a quick fix, but that’s not how this works. It looks like overalls, not a tuxedo. It’s manual labor, not a desk job.

Republicans spent decades working to pull the wool over the eyes of working and rural folks. And the people they couldn’t reach were often exploited through evangelical churches.

It’s going to take us some time too.

If we want to reach these people, we go where they are. We meet them and we talk to them and we listen to them. We bring tangible evidence. We tie Trump and the Republicans to their pain. We make inroads with the willing.

We won’t get them all, and that’s not the point. Show them that Elon is DOGE and DOGE is Trump and Trump is high prices and layoffs.

Pull that water bill out of your pocket.

Show them.

~Jess