How to Understand and Influence the Red Rural Mind
Don't do the same thing over and over and expect a different result
Hello friends!
I live in the swing state of Wisconsin.
I'm in a red county that borders a blue county.
I grew up in a ruby red rural county.
One of my friends is the local dog walker. He says, “The neighboring county is blue because it has a college, our county is red because it has a jail.”
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That's so true it squeezes the tears from my eyes.
I’ve long been frustrated by the way people in red rural areas think. One of my cousins was a teacher. Around 2010, the Republicans in Wisconsin were working hard to undermine the teacher’s union.
My cousin was so frustrated by the inaction of the Democrats that he retaliated by registering as a Republican. “That will show them!”
Now, if you’re thinking that his behavior defies all reason, I completely agree with you. I didn’t understand it then and I don’t understand it now. But what I’ve come to realize is you don’t have to understand. You just have to recognize that some people think like this.
More importantly, you have to accept that these things happen. You have to accept that Democrats lose voters when they do nothing, even if there’s nothing they can do.
That’s our reality. It doesn’t have to make sense. You don’t have to understand it.
But you do have to accept that’s the way it is.
The difference between Republicans and Democrats is that Republicans always do something even when it’s wrong. You have to accept that the red rural voter prefers action over inaction.
Finally, you can’t just demand people not think like that. I’ve been trying to erase that conditioning for 50 years and traces of it still remain.
In her book Calling In, Loretta Ross discusses how infighting often prevents coalitions from developing among liberal groups. This prevents them from maximizing their impact before they dissolve.
We've seen this again and again. Democrats come to power and then fail to make a lasting impact. The result is that the country remains vulnerable to a convicted felon rising to power. Rather than focus on the immediate need, establishment Democrats spend their time blasting progressives for advocating for universal healthcare and universal education.
“You’re asking for too much, now before we do anything you have to accept that we’re not even going to try to give you what you want.”
Then everyone sits around staring at each other in a huff.
I run into almost as much hostility from centrist Democrats as I do from right-wing extremists. They often say things like, “You're part of the problem.”
Or they say, “We don't have the votes.”
Or they say, “Progress has to be slow.”
Or they say, “We have to pick the lesser of two evils.”
An enormous amount of energy is spent justifying inaction. Imagine if we instead channeled that energy into productive action.
In election after election, I'll scream and yell and pull my hair out and say, “You can win this, all you have to do is X, Y, and Z.”
Then the centrists whirl on me and say, “You’re just an ignorant rube from a red district! Don't you know that we KNOW better than you? We had better schools. We had better programs.”
And I say, “I want access to those things too! That’s why I’m speaking up!”
Then they lose, and I’m the one who gets blamed.
But it’s not my fault that liberal elites don’t know how to communicate with red rural voters. They’ve never even talked to one.
Where I live, that describes two out of every three people I meet. I know what I’m talking about. I’m a resource.
Please use me!
Today, I’m writing this message with hope because I can sense a change on the wind.
Lately, I'm having more conversations with people who want to explore how we can do better. The same is true of me. I'm collaborating more now than I ever have in my life. We're reaching out to each other. We're sharing our perspectives. We're communicating. We're listening. We're making progress.
We are on the cusp of an era of transformation!
People at all levels of our society are starting to understand that you can't do the same thing over and over and expect a different result. That's good.
I've come to realize I'm in the exact place I need to be. I can physically influence the people in my community. Through the internet I can influence thousands of others. We're all working on a strategy to create a better world, and every week I feel like our collective understanding advances in leaps and bounds.
There's one thing I know about the red rural mind that might shock you.
The truth is, they're just as disgusted by liberal infighting as we are.
Our family dysfunction is on display for everyone to see. From the outside looking in, they see one party that has a unified message, and one party that ruthlessly attacks people like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
It doesn't matter to them that the right is unified in destroying the working class. All the red rural voter sees is that one side fights for their agenda, and one side fights itself.
Kind of embarrassing isn't it?
The one thing that the Democrats really need to do in order to win red rural voters is to SHOW SOME DAMN UNITY!
Again, I grew up in a red rural area. Everything is simpler in those places. Life goes by at a slower pace. I grew up on a farm. We didn't sit and fret and worry about the solution to every problem. Instead, we fixed things. Sometimes you fix a tractor with your belt and a piece of wire. You cobble things together. You keep things working. You don't organize yourself into committees and bicker about what course of action to take.
YOU DO SOMETHING!
I'm as progressive minded as anyone, but even now I become agitated when confronted with inaction. That's my red rural upbringing. We want to see something get done.
Here's the other thing you're not going to believe: It doesn't matter if it's the right thing. Just DO SOMETHING!
That's another reason the right appeals to red rural areas. They go stomping forward slashing and burning. People of red rural areas see that and identify with it.
I'm not saying that the Democrats have to start slashing and burning, I'm saying they have to find a commitment to productive action. It can be symbolic action, but it has to be SOMETHING. If they do NOTHING, they drive red rural voters away.
Right now, the Democrats have an unprecedented opportunity to expand their coalition. There's energy in the air. Red rural voters aren't convinced yet, but they're ready to listen. They are looking to the Democrats like innocent toddlers with big wide eyes saying, “Daddy, are you going to stay for a while?”
The Democrats can't disappoint them!
Cory Booker just did a wonderful thing. He stood on the Senate floor and gave us a glimpse of an alternate reality where politicians used the platform of the government to fight for the working class. He gave us a glimpse of what it might look like if we had a compassionate president who was willing to fight for what is right.
Voters of ruby red districts are ready to rally behind him.
They're just waiting to see if the Democrats are willing to do the same.
History might yet show that Chuck Schumer was right to pass the CR, but that's not relevant for the present. Right now, people are irritated. Right now, he could step aside and they could vote for Booker as the new minority leader. If they did that, voters in red rural districts would stand up and cheer.
You've got to do something. You've got to rally behind a fighter. It doesn't matter if the actions you take are performative. The whole dang government is performative. You have to spend the energy showing that you care about the American people.
Don't keep making the same mistakes and thinking that you'll get a different result.
The time is now to make a change. Show the people in red rural areas that you're not so different. Show them that you hate inaction as much as the rest of us. Show them that you, too, are frustrated. Show them that you're ready to act, even if action seems hopeless.
Do it!
We've already tried losing. Let's try winning for a change.
When you come right down to it, saying, “I care” is nothing more than a performative action.
It doesn’t do anything. It doesn’t change anything. It makes no physical impact on the world.
Say it anyway.
Say it so loud and so often that the people can’t hear any other message. That’s how you change the hearts of rural voters from red to blue. That’s how you turn a performative action into reality.
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I have a big problem with Democrats and their "inaction"! I grew up in New York, and you see it here all the time, with so much of the back-and-forth infighting that's prevalent here. Many New Yorkers, especially those in rural areas of New York, are tired because of the Democrats' ineptitude. Western New York is huge and with many small towns and yet they still haven't come around to building an economy out there. And of course, we liberals tend to look down at them because we come from NYC. I think that's wrong to look down on them like that when all they want is a chance to live a good life again. I have driven through some of these towns from time to time, and many of those towns are barely hanging on, sitting near the mountains and plains.
Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome is the definition of insanity. Finding, verifying and shouting the truth is our only course of action. What would Yahweh, Christ, Mohammed, Buddha do?