I could say a lot about this, but I guess I'll just keep it simple.
So, for example, anybody who has spent considerable time in field in predominantly-Latino and/or nascent immigrant communities will tell you that you can't just pop in and start generating the kinds of meaningful interactions that'll produce votes. There's an element of community and trust that must be there long-term to generate the kinds of conversations that get beyond the superficial and the groupthink.
The same can definitely be said about rural communities, especially when it's an urban LGBT organizer who's flown in for 4 months to work in hostile territory and who may or may not even know how to effectively communicate with these voters.
Fantastic post!
I’d also add a few points.
1. The suburban vote isn’t the same demographic of voters as it was 30 years ago. The Reagan suburbs aren’t the Clinton suburbs. The urban population is spreading out into the suburbs, increasingly diversifying and incorporating them into a more urban lifestyle. That translates into higher housing prices, more renters, more minorities, and a populace more inclined to liberal and left-wing politics.
2. Rural areas are continuing to get worse economically. Since the Great Recession, job growth has been abysmal in this part of America while it has improved significantly in urban and suburban America. If you think your ability to land a decent, secure, and well paying job is difficult in an urbanized area, it’s way, way harder in rural America. Outside of retail and a few other industries (mostly low wage), steady work doesn’t even exist in many rural areas. And it hasn’t always been this way (which is a significant factor).
3. Rural White voters are often more socially conservative. But, if Democrats and/or other leftwing political organizers have a history or at least a foothold in the community, then these voters aren’t out of reach, even for a candidate with a left-wing social agenda. Some rural communities will require a lot more effort than others to break through to; that’s just a fact. But, most aren’t simply lost causes.
4. In economically struggling areas, whether it’s among minorities in urban areas or Whites in rural areas, liberal social issues simply won’t have the appeal that they do to wealthier people. Nobody cares if an LGBT person is or can be the CEO of some company or about minority news anchors or whether some celebrity had gender reassignment surgery or if somebody said something -phobic. They’re more concerned with their next meal, how they’ll clothe their children, whether they’ll keep the lights on, or if the landlord will jack up the rent at the next lease signing. And that applies to the LGBT, racial/ethnic minorities, and all other groups struggling to keep their heads above water in these communities. Those are issues that transcend identity politics nonsense; if you’re a working class woman, a $15 minimum wage helps you more than whether or not the gender pay gap among CEOs exists or not.
5. It’s not the rural White people who own the private prisons that pay their (largely minority) prison population less than $1 per hour, nor do they own the companies like Whole Foods (owned by Bezos, who also owns Amazon (where workers pee in bottles to avoid punishments for bathroom breaks) and the Washington Post (which helps promote the identity politics agenda)). It’s not the rural White people that own companies or make corporate decisions to shift jobs overseas to benefit investors, exploit child labor and complain that it’ll cost more money if they have to reveal child labor practices in their supply chains (Nestle), nor are they the ones who made it that Millennials are now poorer than their parents at the same time wealth inequality is soaring. It’s also not the rural Whites who’re the police departments in urban areas systematically targeting minorities, nor are they the legislators who’ve written discriminatory laws (like the War on Drugs) or the wealthier folks that hide behind the blue line while encroaching upon and gentrifying poorer neighborhoods.
Stop ing bashing rural White voters for the systemic racism and socioeconomic failures and exploitation being engineered and enacted by the elites that rule over all of us. The folks who push liberal identity politics have far more in common with the reactionary that blames poor immigrants and the breakdown of traditional families for the working class person’s plight than they’d ever want to acknowledge.
