Why Liberal Elites Need to Make Things Easier for Rural Liberals
There are valiant people in battleground states who need more support
Hello Friends,
Sometimes you get an attack comment that reveals more than the author might have intended. I recently wrote a story about what it was like to grow up as a liberal in an extremely conservative rural area.
“There's nothing more pathetic than a rural liberal,” somebody wrote. “No matter what you do, the city will always smell the rube on you. Try as you might, you'll never fit in. Both sides will reject you. There's no pathway to success.”
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My initial response was to reject the comment and hit the block button. After all, I've managed to carve out my place in a liberal space. Haven't I?
However, the words hung around long after I’d shut off my computer and I found myself reflecting on them.
Although it's true that I did manage to go to college and get a degree, it was a constant struggle for me. My first attempt was an absolute disaster. I only managed to stay at school for about two weeks before going home with my tail between my legs.
Back at my small rural town, everybody was so understanding. “Don't worry, we all knew you would fail. We tried to tell you, but now you know. This is where you’re supposed to be.”
I took work as a dump truck driver and did that for a year. That was the hardest year of my life. It felt like I had no future. It felt like everything I believed about myself was a lie.
I'd always been one of the top students. I'd been able to master complex ideas that my classmates struggled to understand. I often helped them. I always assumed that once I went to college, I'd find my place.
But when I went to college, the words of the person deriding the aspirations of a rural liberal rang true.
I did feel like a rube.
I did feel like I didn't fit in.
Every single day at college was a day I had to fight down a sense that I shouldn’t be there. I wasn’t welcome. I didn’t belong. I only managed to graduate because I'd spent a year driving a dump truck and the misery of that experience had been worse than the daily terror of school.
But it shouldn't be like this.
Learning should be an act of celebration. It shouldn’t be another obstacle you’re forced to overcome.
Today, I understand that the liberals support all the programs that help the working class. Like many of you, I haven't been able to comprehend how conservatives can claim the working class has been “abandoned,” even as conservatives seem to pass new and more vindictive legislation every day.
But then I read that comment about the plight of rural liberals, and something clicked. In that moment, I, too, felt a sense of resentment against the liberal elite. I, too, felt as if they hadn't even tried to help me.
This is significant. I finally understood the mechanism of deceit that allows that piece of conservative propaganda to flourish.
Liberal elites have to listen and implement a counter-measure.
When you grow up in a red rural community, conservatives make their presence known. They muscle their way into local government, church, and law enforcement. Eventually, they also make their way into the schools.
They're such a presence that the superintendent has to treat them with respect even though they constantly vote to erode school funding. That's something you're not even allowed to talk about in rural areas. The conversation simply never happens.
I'm a naturally inquisitive person. I have a hard time disregarding contradictions. Even as a grade school student, I could see that many of the basic beliefs of conservative ideology simply didn't add up.
But there was no representation for the alternative viewpoint.
Rather than be rewarded for finding a logical flaw, you were punished. You were told to be quiet.
I didn’t listen, but others did.
If you grow up in a red rural area, you are bombarded with conservative ideology to the point where many people adopt it out of simple exhaustion.
Today, I've got a well-rounded education. My degree is in English, I have a minor in Physics. I moved to Peru and I learned how to speak Spanish.
I also know how to weld. I know how to hunt, though that's not something I enjoy. I know how to handle a rifle. I can keep a car running that has 200,000 miles on it. I know how to prep and shingle a roof.
I know how to drive a dump truck.
I also know what it feels like to walk into a college classroom and be regarded by thirty students who laugh at the way you're dressed. They laugh at your demeanor. They laugh at your country accent. They can tell you've been indoctrinated with conservative ideology.
You’re rejected before you even say a word.
What we need is outreach to help the people in rural areas who are dissatisfied with the political ideology they're born into and help them understand that there is another way. We have to let them know there’s an alternative path they can follow.
What mechanism for that exists?
There are plenty of rich liberal elites who could take it upon themselves to adopt the rural liberals living in red counties.
When I was growing up, there were a small number of us, but we never made our presence known because we couldn't handle the ridicule. We had to live underground. But if some powerful figure had established a presence in my town, it would have been a lifeline.
A single rally might have made all the difference.
Even if it had been a nearby town, they might have roused the people who were inclined to explore a liberal ideology. They could have developed them. They could have ensured that those people had some protections and didn't have to live in fear.
A liberal presence in a red town can provide hope!
Little by little, I expect the population of outspoken liberals would begin to grow. See how that works? See how that's a pathway to political strength?
Yes, I know that liberals are the ones out there fighting for health care. They're the ones out there fighting for higher wages and worker protections.
But they also need to be fighting for young people who live in red rural areas who have to contend with the daily, high-pressure indoctrination of spiteful conservatives.
“Kid, you should never leave the farm. You're never going to succeed. You'll come crawling back on your hands and knees because those big city folk will never accept you.”
This is the motto of rural areas. This might be the most powerful political slogan of all time.
Yes, I managed to overcome my rural conservative indoctrination. But it took me decades. It was a nearly impossible battle, and there were many times I thought I would fail.
My heart goes out to the other kids out there who were like me, but perhaps didn't have the advantages I had. All we have to do is reach out to them. All we have to do is clear a path so that rural liberals know they’ll be welcomed and appreciated by the liberal elite.
We need representation for the alternative perspective not only once every four years when there's an election, but always. We need it not just in swing states, but in the whole country.
It's not enough to say, “Vote for us or else...”
You need to do the work every day. You need to establish a presence. There needs to be outreach in small towns that the big city doesn't seem to care about.
That's what conservatives mean when they say the working class has been abandoned. Liberals have not abandoned the working class. In fact, liberals are the only ones who fight for the working class.
But they need to stand in front of the working class and confront the endless propaganda of conservative lies. That's where liberals are failing. That's why they lose.
We need to make a better effort to reach out to kids like me who suspect there is a better way to live, but who don't see any alternative represented in their area. Rural liberals are on the front line of the war for the soul of America. Instead of derision, let's make sure they have our complete and total support.
Let’s let them know they’re not alone.
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Walter, do you follow Jess Piper? As a rural Democrat, she’s doing exactly what you’re talking about. She organizes, knocks on doors, travels to rural places to speak. She ran for office but didn’t win. She never gives up. She’d be a great person to link up with to determine how we could accomplish this connection between “liberal elites”, and rural progressives.
https://substack.com/@jesspiper?r=ap54k&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=profile
P.S. I find the term “liberal elite” offensive, because it is used by conservatives to demean those who don’t agree with them. How about metro progressives, instead?
Not being pre-socialized for a college environment would be awful. To have to walk in cold. Oof. So glad you persevered & made to this moment, to share a vital insight to an alpha target audience that is being underserved.
I grew up on a farm & poor on the outskirts of rural, but my atheist mom trained me from birth to fit in with the affluent. I was vigorously taught how to dress, speak, do lunch, view art, shop, play violin, behave as a lady in all public spaces. She was Martha Stewart. My dad was the white trash farmer who said “warsh” instead of wash. He only dressed well when mom chose his outfit. I watched the elitist attitude of my mom, a model & artist who spoke French around the house v. my uncultured farmer dad every day. It was Green Acres, except Eddie Albert wasn’t smart, kind or well-groomed. College wasn’t easy (still a poor farm kid & had to work full-time), but I fit in enough to pass. My identity wasn’t attacked. I was accepted. All these fitting-in skills became more important after college, in business.
Your point about welcoming rural kids instead of throwing off shame vibes is incredibly important. How do we prep rural kids to fit in with the affluent & differently cultured while still in high school? And how do we prep the ruralish kids who are raised to fit in (like me) to help their untrained peers once they arrive on campus? Of course, the affluent kids should be doing the heaviest lifting on acceptance; I wonder who could teach those values to them? Their parents?
I wish we were better at training kids to collaborate, be accepting of & nicer to each other. I wonder if other countries have determined successful methods to ease rural kids into college.