National Review takes on Kentucky's "White Ghetto"

[All Along The Watchtower]

One thing that becomes more relevant in rural areas (or exurban/faux-rural, as is often the case), especially in areas that are dominated by a small number of business interests in the wake of deindustrialization, is the tendency toward the local  business interests, the local political establishments, and what remain of (or what has replaced) the community institutions (for example, right-wing evangelical/fundamentalist churches) all having members and leaders who travel in the same social circles (in some cases, being the same people).

Imagine being from a poor family in some part of rural Kentucky or Tennessee, perhaps, with no college education (most likely) and no means of moving to an area with better prospects. To get a job, social capital is important-and the only place providing it these days is the local Protestant fundamentalist church. Their members are willing to help you out, to get you on your feet and even to help land you a job with whatever local low-wage, non-union business is there. Meanwhile, if you have the inclination to vote at all, you are likely to vote for a Republican candidate, because that's who your friends and co-workers and (most importantly) your boss will want you to vote for. The people who you look up to in the community, the people who have the power to hire and fire, and the people who offer spiritual guidance to you and to others (friends, family)-all of these are part of the right-wing Republican dominance of the local community.

We all are heavily influenced by our social environments, whether we realize it or not. It's better to try to understand why things came to be the way they are, rather than to write a community off as "too dumb to vote for their own best interests."