"How do we get rural America to accept the fact we're insufferable assholes?"

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

Voter outreach.

Recursion (50,358 posts)

So: What do we do about the fact that small-town and rural Americans are so out of touch

with ordinary Americans?

What do they need to do to reach out to the huge majority of us who are tired of supporting their way of life, and think they need to stop whining? What should they do to address the bubble that has led the 20% of Americans who live in small towns to think they are somehow normative? How can they bridge that gap?

The Velveteen Ocelot (47,177 posts)

1. Since when are small-town and rural people not "ordinary Americans"?

Urban people live in their own bubbles, and are just as clueless about living in small towns and farms as rural people are about what life is like in a big city. Rather than sneering and taking a divisive view of things, why not try to figure out what rural and urban people have in common?

Recursion (50,358 posts)

3. They're about 20% of the country. That's not "ordinary"

Also, the other 4/5ths of us subsidize them pretty heavily, and we're kind of getting sick of it.

The Velveteen Ocelot (47,177 posts)

11. Agriculture in those areas provides cheap food for the rest of us.

You might find it enlightening to actually visit a farm and find out how they operate, what very hard work it is, and how minuscule the profit margin for family farms has become. The people who grow the corn and the wheat and the other agricultural products that we rely on for food have legitimate concerns that deserve attention, too. If that 20% ditched their farms and moved to the city, what would you eat, and how much would it cost?

treestar (65,774 posts)

76. With illegal immigrant labor

And subsidies

spin (16,876 posts)

61. I hope you are not saying that because you live in a large urban center you are ...

superior to and better educated than people who chose to live in a small town or a rural setting.

When have you arrogant ****s ever said anything different?

Horse with no Name (31,570 posts)

8. the only way you will get rural America is to remove reproductive rights from our platform

that is ALL the women think of....those poor poor babies....

I have lived in rural Texas almost my entire adult life.....I know what I am speaking of.

Maru Kitteh (16,201 posts)

56. By which of course they mean the WHITE babies

Assholes. We've become a nation of crotch-sniffers.

You keep shoving your crotches in our faces and demanding we take a whiff.

FBaggins (15,798 posts)

2. Well... We could start...

... By recognizing that they are ordinary Americans.

Recursion (50,358 posts)

5. Not really. 1 in 5 is pretty unusual

1 in 5 Americans live in a small town or rural area. That's a pretty minor segment of the population. But somehow they have convinced themselves they are "ordinary" and "normal", when in fact they are pretty weird and unusual.

Homosexuals are 2% of the population -- 1/10 of your 1/5

Transexuals are in 1:20000

Muslims are .5%

But, oh how we're supposed to drop everything to accommodate them...even the ones who are actively murdering people.

Recursion (50,358 posts)

31. No, sorry: I'm done with coddling small towns. They are not "ordinary": I am
 
Is that "offensive"? Well I've been putting up with Republicans AND DEMOCRATS saying for 20 years that these dead-end, parasitic small towns that I subsidize are somehow "ordinary" or "normal" or "real" and my life isn't, and I'm done with it. It's time to turn that rhetoric back into the factual realm:

1. Most Americans live in metropolitan areas. About 80% of us in fact.

2. Nearly the entire American GDP happens in those areas.

3. We subsidize the rest of the nation

4. They demonize us

5. And we should cut them off

Yeah.

New York, Chicago, Detroit, LA...

...those are all you.

The Velveteen Ocelot (47,177 posts)

34. "Cut them off"?

I hope you have a good source of food. Better hope your garden grows well, but most cities won't let you keep cattle and hogs in your back yard.

Recursion (50,358 posts)

36. I have a farm bill for that.

It protects the corporations, and also gets my food grown. Funny how that works.

What we're cutting off -- and, by "we", I mean "they", the people these Solons of the Land elected -- is the welfare programs that made their life possible. Medicaid expansion, KYNECT, SNAP, etc. Without those their economy is essentially just meth.

Horse with no Name (31,570 posts)

4. As someone who lives in one of these out-of-touch rural towns

the biggest problem is that there is nothing to do.
So...the social activity is church.
Everybody goes.
Politics are shoveled from the pulpit into the gullet of the gullible.
I got a little nervous prior to the election when I saw people that I couldn't believe would support trump start supporting him. It was about the SCOTUS and "saving the babies from the baby killers"....that was the message from the church promoting voting for trump.
The week before the election I started seeing signs go up and bumper stickers. It made me a little queasy but I knew there wasn't any way trump could win.....

"There is no god but The State and thou shalt have no other gods before it."

rwheeler31 (5,957 posts)

12. You are so right about these churches

we need to find exactly how the party pays these preachers. try to suggest an audit of a church and watch the freak out.

Feeling "Inquisitive"?

virginia mountainman (5,014 posts)

9. Interesting..

They just won, and you're calling THEM, out of touch??

ROFLAMO!!! If this keeps up, the midterms will be "interesting", we have a lot of senatorial seats up for re-election.

metroins (1,971 posts)

13. Lies

Apparently we need to lie to them. That's what Trump did for 17 months.

Tumbulu (4,493 posts)

16. We need progressive radio in rural areas

Left wing Christian, anything that will stop normalizing hate "librals" and "Feminazi's". This is a long time problem!!!!!!

Projection.

The people living in a bubble, who cloister themselves behind the dissent-free walls of DU, who actively excommunicate all those who do not sing from the same hymnal...

...believe unquestioningly whenever they are told RWers are easily led drones who simply haven't heard the LW message.

HEY ASSHOLES!

WE'VE BEEN HEARING YOU FOR DECADES AND WE BELIEVE EVERY WORD OUT OF YOUR CONTEMPTUOUS, HATE-FILLED LITTLE MOUTHS!

WE HEAR YOU LOUD AND CLEAR! CAN YOU HEAR US?


**** YOU!

sarisataka (7,404 posts)

25. Insolent peasants!

Why don't they do what their betters tell them to do? We need to keep reminding them what ****ing ignorant racists they are and how we really don't need their backward asses. That will shape them up.

*Although*

this small segment of abnormal lifestyle folks did just decide a Presidential election... How did this small minority group outvote such a huge number of normal people?
 

INSOLENT PEASANTS!!!!

SMC22307 (2,696 posts)

37. Republicans control both chambers in 32 states (17 with veto-proof majorities).

Not enough for you? Attack rural voters some more. Blue collar, too, while we're at it. That'll be a winning strategy going forward...

Recursion (50,358 posts)

38. I think I will. Medicaid cuts and SNAP reductions will resolve this in a few years

I know it's macabre but I'm out of other options at this point.

Let's shutdown the EBT cards for a day and see whose home burns.

Warpy (90,320 posts)

55. 1. Get control of the government

2. Wrest control of major media away from the propagandists.

If we don't do these two things, this country is done. You can't have a democracy with an electorate fed on bullshit.

We have seen that since the 80s.

Only fascism and censorship will save the day!

herding cats (6,952 posts)

59. What we need to do is mobilize voters in urban areas.

That should be our main focus, not pandering to the rural vote. The vast majority aren't reachable, and I know, all too intimately, what I'm speaking about. I worked Democratic outreach in rural areas in a red state. This was the worst election cycle I've ever seen. It was by far worse than 2008 or 2012. They hate us, blindly hate us now. Not because of facts, but fictionalized conspiracies they've accepted. Immigrants are ruining the country and stealing their jobs, and now we're letting in terrorist, women are using abortion as an excuse to be "immoral", Obama has incited a race war, Democrats want to take away gun rights, raising taxes kills job production. They're perfectly happy believing bullshit lies, and on that note, yeah, promise them a rainbow unicorn that craps gold nuggets for their very own. If it comes with higher taxes, they'd just as soon shoot it, field dress it and serve it with pan gravy than accept it from you.

These people are ruled by their church leaders, who are political, and extremely RW. They (the majority I've spoken to) believe progressive thought is a "sin" and that they're going to hell for even entertaining such beliefs. I've watched this progression toward extremism in their religious beliefs since the late 1990's. Even watching it take place in realtime, it shocks me how far they've retreated into their self imposed insular thinking. The religious extremist used to be half, or less, of the population in these areas, now they run (too) many of the small towns. They hold the school board positions, are sitting on the county seats, are the heads of the churches, own the businesses, and are the people who employ and train the youth who don't run screaming at 18.

The ones like these people who didn't vote for Trump, just didn't vote for a president. That was their idea of a moral stand against him. I was told by some it was their pastors suggestion for those who couldn't force themselves to vote for a self admitted sinner.

They are about limiting women's rights to birth control, and little to no gun control. They hate taxes (see above: even on the wealthy) and paying for social services (which they use freely, but that's different in their eyes). They're extremely gullible when it comes to believing what they want to believe and they simply ignore what they don't want to believe. And, this isn't because they're all poor and/or under educated. I had a conversation with a well educated retired woman, from a upper class family (father was an attorney for Exxon, and her husband was an accountant for ExxonMobil), before the election who went full Alex Jones CT on me about the Clinton's in her explanation of why she early voted for Trump.

Yes, there's maybe 20%-35% of the population that's possibly still reachable at this time, but many won't come out of the closet and be vocal Democrats in true deep rural areas now. It's a death sentence for their businesses/incomes.


Off the top of my head I think we need to focus on Democratic voter access to the polls, and urban outreach. We need to get people registered to vote, in all regions/states, who fit our demographics. We need to work (actually work, not internet work) our asses off to get people to the polls this midterm election, and the next. Do not sit back and rely on Trump being 'so bad they'll learn their lesson', because they won't. I know people won't believe me, but they won't learn from this. They're living a completely different reality than you and I.

If you're talking about people in the Rust Belt, we need to explain the difference to them between NAFTA and CAFTA, and how the latter was under Bush. That's the big one I ran into talking to people there. Oh, and maybe explain China isn't in North America to them? That was another sore spot a lot of people didn't understand, how trade with China wasn't due to NAFTA.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10028317215

[Carl]

I read through that and from past posting history am pretty sure that the DUmp OP is poking the hive and indeed some took the bait. 

[Karin]

I can't decide if he's serious or not.  I'm leaning "is."  What an asshole!  Extraordinary thread. 

[Gina]

Horse with no Name (31,570 posts)

8. the only way you will get rural America is to remove reproductive rights from our platform

that is ALL the women think of....those poor poor babies....

I have lived in rural Texas almost my entire adult life.....I know what I am speaking of.

I just don't understand how they don't see a child as a child.  They act like a child in the womb is just some annoying  bubble gum stuck to their shoe.  They are disgusting and pathetic and very out of touch with ordinary Americans.

[franksolich]

Now wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.

Unless the recursive primitive's moved and hasn't announced it on Skins's island, the primitive's an American citizen living in Calcutta or Bombay or whatever, India; an expatriate like Attila Marc the Hun in Germany.

Recursion (50,358 posts)

31. No, sorry: I'm done with coddling small towns. They are not "ordinary": I am.

<<<doubts the recursive primitive's "ordinary."

[franksolich]

I just don't understand how they don't see a child as a child.  They act like a child in the womb is just some annoying  bubble gum stuck to their shoe.  They are disgusting and pathetic and very out of touch with ordinary Americans.

That's just Ms Ed, the unappellated eohippus, being Ms Ed.

She's the High Priestess of Moloch to the primitives, and celebrates, rejoices in, wallows in, ecstasizes over, abortion.

Really.  She does.  She has for years now, publicly on Skins's island.  She makes the bitter old Vermontese cali primitive look pro-life in comparison.  I kid you not.  She's got a problem.

[Carl]

I can't decide if he's serious or not.  I'm leaning "is."  What an asshole!  Extraordinary thread.

Recursion has in the past posted numerous threads about such things as free healthcare to try to get the primitives to actually grasp how much free costs.
This is a bit over the top for him but still think he is proving the point of how smug and arrogant the left is.
Btw,in the past the OP has indicated that they do not live in this country but now claims to.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1018877361

Response to Recursion (Original post)

Mon Jun 27, 2016, 01:37 AM

Star Member pinboy3niner (51,552 posts)
1. I think SCE's LOLcats would make great posters



Thanks for the interesting and informative inside look at your current environs. But you're getting pretty short now, aren't you? Preparing to return to the U.S. soon?

Response to pinboy3niner (Reply #1)

Mon Jun 27, 2016, 02:03 AM

Star Member Recursion (50,358 posts)
2. Two days and a wake-up

I'm shorter than Danny DeVito.

He had been in India for at least 3 years at that point.

[franksolich]

Recursion has in the past posted numerous threads about such things as free healthcare to try to get the primitives to actually grasp how much free costs.
This is a bit over the top for him but still think he is proving the point of how smug and arrogant the left is.
Btw,in the past the OP has indicated that they do not live in this country but now claims to.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1018877361

He had been in India for at least 3 years at that point.

Thanks for the update; so he's back.

It'd probably been better for humanity if he'd just slipped and fallen into that black hole there in Calcutta, though.

[Carl]

Thanks for the update; so he's back.

It'd probably been better for humanity if he'd just slipped and fallen into that black hole there in Calcutta, though.

It sounds as if he married rather well so am surmising he has quite a dowry form his in laws.

[USA4ME]

Whether pulling their leg or not, I find it funny how the primitives act as if the primitive has any power to do anything they say they'd like to do. Like when someone suggest he "Attack rural voters some more, that'll work', he relies "I think I will. Medicaid cuts and SNAP reductions will resolve this in a few years. I know it's macabre but I'm out of other options at this point," as if he can snap his fingers and it be done. This is not the first time I've noticed they'll do that and the other primitives will provide "No, you can't do that to us!" or "Yes, when can we expect it?" type responses.

.

[DumbAss Tanker]

So much clueless.  They don't even realize that 'Urban' and 'Metropolitan' aren't the same thing, or that there is a whole spectrum of variations between Manhattan and a ranch in Montana.  I'm about that 'Cut off the SNAP and Medicaid' stuff, their own street people would burn down their precious urban strongholds from within long before it worked any hardship among the despised muzhiks.

[SVPete]

Wow! How does VO get away with posting so much common sense in a place where it's all but a banning offense?

I'll believe DU folks' sincerity when they boycott the food they eat, the cotton, wool and leather they wear, and the lumber used to build houses and apartments.

The upside is that these DU-folk are demonstrating the >2 centuries old wisdom of the FFs, specifically their foresight that an urban sub-class would arise who would desire and try to use their numbers to exploit and oppress rural people.

[Skul]

It seems to me that rural/small town America is a bit more analytical than the DUmplings realize.
The OP and comments perfectly illustrate why the proggies will never capture the ordinary American vote.
I doubt the left ads will figure it out. They're sense of superiority, ego and entitlement severely limit their
views of reality. Too bad for the proggies. 

I am curious about one thing.
Where did the idiots come up with rural/smalltown Americans drawing a disportionate amount of government cheese?
Probably where they get a lot of their numbers. 

[Carl]

Response to Marr (Reply #116)

Wed Nov 30, 2016, 10:20 AM

Star Member Recursion (50,361 posts)
120. No, we won the working class by pretty high margins

we won people making less than $50K by 8 points, and people making less than $30K by 10 points. We're doing fine with the poorer half of the country.

Response to Recursion (Reply #120)

Wed Nov 30, 2016, 10:30 AM

Marr (20,301 posts)
123. You're using national numbers to make a regional argument.

The party has a lock on black voters and people in the cities, not working class voters generically. We've just heard almost a months' worth of talk about the 'white working class', and you're telling me the working class is all in for the Democratic Party?

Response to Marr (Reply #123)

Wed Nov 30, 2016, 11:19 AM

Star Member Recursion (50,361 posts)
134. Clearly it is: 10 points is a landslide among that demographic

Working class voters vote for us, pretty overwhelmingly. it's the richer half of the country that we lost among.

Then a mask slips.

Response to Recursion (Reply #134)

Wed Nov 30, 2016, 11:32 AM

Marr (20,301 posts)
135. Again, the party has a lead-- nationally-- with people living in poverty.

That's mostly because it's got a lock on the black vote.

But as this election just clearly showed, it cannot claim to have the working class behind it.

Response to Recursion (Original post)

Wed Nov 30, 2016, 11:10 AM

Star Member ileus (14,839 posts)
133. We work to make sure their votes don't matter.

Getting rid of the electoral college should be job one.


Then they can huff and puff all they want and we can tell them to go pound sand.

 

[98ZJUSMC]

So much clueless.  They don't even realize that 'Urban' and 'Metropolitan' aren't the same thing, or that there is a whole spectrum of variations between Manhattan and a ranch in Montana. 

   ..and this 1 in 5 BS?!?! 

I'm about that 'Cut off the SNAP and Medicaid' stuff, their own street people would burn down their precious urban strongholds from within long before it worked any hardship among the despised muzhiks.

Exactly.

[Ralph Wiggum]

I can't decide if he's serious or not.  I'm leaning "is."  What an asshole!  Extraordinary thread.

Same here.  Lean that it was what he/she/it really feels.  But what an elitist condescending asshole.

[franksolich]

So much clueless.  They don't even realize that 'Urban' and 'Metropolitan' aren't the same thing, or that there is a whole spectrum of variations between Manhattan and a ranch in Montana.  I'm about that 'Cut off the SNAP and Medicaid' stuff, their own street people would burn down their precious urban strongholds from within long before it worked any hardship among the despised muzhiks.

I'm not fond of this primitive propensity to yammer-yammer about demographics, as if they know what they're talking about.  Such as when they've insisted that the more old white men die off, the more likely it is the country's going to turn left.

Demographics constantly shift--not only the numbers, but the composition of such numbers.

I'm reminded of Nikita Khrushchev's comment, made to reassure members of the Party worried about the influence of religion on Soviet Life; that they were all old women and soon to die anyway, after which God and religion would inevitably die too.

Yeah, right, that's what happened.

franksolich's First Rule of Everything is: anything can happen, and usually does.

franksolich's Second Rule of Everything is: things are rarely as they seem to be.

[98ZJUSMC]

Demographics constantly shift--not only the numbers, but the composition of such numbers.

All that blab about Demographic dominance and they left out (or more likely completely disregarded) the fact that, their beloved Lah-teen-oh birthrate is declining to white numbers. 

So..... import more!

[Carl]

Response to Recursion (Original post)

Wed Nov 30, 2016, 11:10 AM

Star Member ileus (14,839 posts)
133. We work to make sure their votes don't matter.

Getting rid of the electoral college should be job one.


Then they can huff and puff all they want and we can tell them to go pound sand.

Response to ileus (Reply #133)

Wed Nov 30, 2016, 02:20 PM

Star Member liquid diamond (1,425 posts)
155. Great idea

We need to work around not with those people.

[SVPete]

 

Wed Nov 30, 2016, 11:10 AM

Star Member ileus (14,839 posts)
133. We work to make sure their votes don't matter.

Getting rid of the electoral college should be job one.

Then they can huff and puff all they want and we can tell them to go pound sand.

Response to ileus (Reply #133)

Wed Nov 30, 2016, 02:20 PM

Star Member liquid diamond (1,425 posts)
155. Great idea

We need to work around not with those people.

Go for it dudes! Let me give you a script outline of how your brilliant ideas will play out. Farmers will understand immediately what you've done and Go Galt. They'll revert to subsistence farming and trade among themselves. You'll go hungry. If you summon the courage to raid their lands for food, they've got plenty of guns, ammo, and expertise. Starvation or eat buckshot: your choice, morons!

[MoshMasterD]

All they have to do is become Jim David Adkisson.

[DUmpstruck]

Dear lurking DUmmies,

I know this will come as a shock, but us rural country bumkins don't really give a furry rat's ass what you elitist snobs think.  The 2016 Election results are a reaffirmation that the majority of American citizens that do not live in your crime ridden debt laden decaying cities find your attitude and way of life one that we choose not to impose on ourselves.

You think we are all illiterate, white, racist, Bible banging Jimmy Joe Bobs.  You would be surprised to learn that in my little rural community we have blacks, Asians, Muslims and every other ethnicity, race, color, creed and orientation that has also escaped the putrid wretch of your cities.  And we live together peacefully without your need of safe spaces and identity politics.  You don't know about that largely because we don't want you to know about it.  You will come out to our areas and bring the vomitous cesspool you call a way of life with you.

So revel in your self deluding righteousness and keep thinking of us as you do.  In the end, it really doesn't matter to us because

We won you losers!  Suck on that for the next 4 years.

Have a nice day.

[ChuckJ]

Recursion (50,358 posts)

So: What do we do about the fact that small-town and rural Americans are so out of touch

with ordinary Americans?

What do they need to do to reach out to the huge majority of us who are tired of supporting their way of life, and think they need to stop whining? What should they do to address the bubble that has led the 20% of Americans who live in small towns to think they are somehow normative? How can they bridge that gap?

Your question actually displays one of your biggest problems. You don't view small-town and rural Americans as ordinary Americans. You view them as being beneath you and out of touch. When you add that to your screaming about people "voting against their best interests" any time you don't get a pony is not really a blueprint to victory. To be blunt...you piss normal people off.