“Elitist: one who is an adherent of elitism: one whose attitudes and beliefs are biased in favor of a socially elite class of people.” – Merriam-Webster.
I lived on the East Coast in cities much of life. I got kicked out of two colleges; I worked for the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and CBS News, among the pinnacles of “Fake News.” My daughter went to Yale.
I’m not into labels, but everyone else is, so I guess you could call me an elitist.
And this is the problem with labels – left, right, elitist, bigot – it’s so easy to forget that there is a person behind the label, we can just hate the label. Isn’t that the other virus tearing the country apart?
For the past 15 years, I’ve lived in rural communities in upstate New York. My understanding of the Donald Trump phenomenon has changed.
Ever since President Trump was elected, I began asking my neighbors and friends why they voted for him. And almost all of them voted for him.
Almost everyone I ever knew in the other world has asked me why Donald Trump’s followers love him so much, and how can they stand him?
When I lived in Montclair, N.J., everyone hated George Bush. When I moved to Washington County, N.Y., everyone hated Barack Obama.
Where I live now, everyone loves Trump (almost), and back where I came from, everyone hates him. Personally, I prefer a more nuanced way of looking at things.
I am neck-deep in Trump country, and happy here, I am treated better than ever.
I like most of the people who share my community very much and admire them. They are at least as smart as I am, and most often much wiser. They are honest, hard-working, family, and country loving.
Until a generation or so ago, they were the heart and soul of the American Experience, they were the foundation upon which America was built. Today, their world is in shambles.
“Whether our politicians and we know it or not,” wrote Wendell Berry, “Nature is a party to all our deals and decisions, and she has more votes, a longer memory, and a sterner sense of justice than we do.”
Now, the people who live in rural America are mostly hanging on by their fingertips, sicker than anyone, poorer than anyone, addicted more than anyone, out of work more than anyone, dependent on Wal-Mart more than anyone, dying younger than anyone.
They are not bigots; they are not dumb.
I have been thinking hard about this boiling volcano for a while, and now and then writing about it. And here’s why it’s so important. The President I see raging on television every day, pronouncing himself a Ceasar, lying and dodging and pointing fingers in desperation is self-destructing.
But the nightmare he spawned will never go away as long as the part of the country we call rural America is in ruins.
I will offer this, It would be much more productive for people to stop hating Donald Trump so much and instead take some time to figure out why he is upon us, and so much more loved than any of us will ever be.
Yet, here is the real mystery:
Donald Trump is not loved much by anyone, even those who vote for him and defend him and are eager to vote for him again.
They are not stupid. They are not blind. They know what he is. They apologize for him all the time.
So what is it, then?
They just hate what we are, what I am, and what we have done to them and their families and communities for generations now.
They don’t love Donald Trump because of Fox News, which is mostly watched by cranky old 65-year-old white men and hysterical reporters, or even because of windbags like Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity, skilled entertainers and propagandists both.
They love him because of me. And perhaps, because of you. I suppose it is the nature of elitists to be hated, because so many of us have a tendency to feel superior to other people.
We did it to ourselves, and if anyone is going to fix it, we will, or nobody will.
___
Sometimes it feels like Donald Trump hates me, that he is out to upset and worry me, that he is determined to dismantle every good thing I believe has been done in recent years in our country.
There seems to be nothing I care about that he doesn’t hate, or ridicule, and that is awful for anybody to see, day after day. I don’t understand this elitism stuff. My family was poor, I worked every day in my life for everything I have, and as it happens, I don’t have much. I think I make a poor elitist.
President Trump seems determined to undo almost everything I believe in, and in the cruelest, most arrogant and destructive way. It’s unsettling for me to have a President who hates me. I always counted on them to take care of me.
I’m not being narcissistic, I’m sure that President Trump has never heard of me and cares nothing about me.
But his hatred of the things I love seems personal, even vindictive. In his drive to thumb his nose at me (I’m afraid I don’t know how to label myself, but I think I know how he would label me) and people who are like me, the question comes up again and again: why do people put up with him, and forgive him so much?
I know that many people hate Donald Trump, they wake up stewing about him, they see him in their dreams (or nightmares), they believe he is a liar, a misogynist, and if he can pull it off, a dictatorial tyrant.
They believe he is cruel, offensive, divisive, and racist. Much of that is true.
I live on the cusps of two worlds – the elitist and the rural. I feel for both sides.
Almost everyone I know here voted for Trump. When I sit in Jean’s Place munching on my excellent egg sandwich, I am surrounded by Trump followers – everyone in the restaurant loves him and can’t wait to vote for him again.
They could not be nicer to me or make me feel more welcome.
I decided several years ago to not and waste my time hating Donald Trump, I’d instead try to understand where he came from and why he is still around. And I’d rather do good than fight about it.
If you spend any time in rural America and step back and look, you will find a once vibrant, once wealthy, once vital heartland now in ruins, riddled with addiction, and poverty, forgotten, hollowed out.
The downtowns are empty, the storefronts sealed up, the bridges are falling apart, the farms are dying, young people kill themselves all the time, the jobs and factories gone, the children forced to the cities, working for people they hate and who care nothing for them.
Rural poverty in America is an emergency, reports the Advocacy Group Save the Children. Poverty in rural America is higher than in urban America. New job growth in rural America is three times lower than urban America.
Disabilities are nearly twice as high in rural America as urban America. Death rates for unintentional injuries such as drug overdoses and motor vehicle accidents are 50 percent higher in rural America than in urban America.
In 2019, health officials reported that suicide rates among adults increased 41 per cent with the most rapid growth occurring in rural areas. Health officials cited underemployment, poverty, and low educational attainment, “especially in rural areas.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture found that 75 per cent of American farmers have been impacted by the opiod crisis. In 2017, 70,237 people, mostly from rural areas, died of drug overdoses. Polls showed most Americans had – have – no idea those numbers were so high.
The military has long viewed the rural poor kids as fodder for its forever wars.
President Trump, the savior of rural America, has done nothing to address any of these issues or problems.(Neither did his predecessors.) He is as or more popular than ever in those communities.
While politicians fought with one another in Washington, the children of rural American took drugs that killed them by the tens of thousands: Berry, the poet of rural life, wrote this about the devastating opioid epidemic:
“People use drugs, legal and illegal because their lives are intolerably painful or dull. They hate their work and find no rest in their leisure. They are estranged from their families and their neighbors. It should tell us something that in healthy societies drug use is celebrative, convivial, and occasional, whereas among us it is lonely, shameful, and addictive. We need drugs because we have lost each other.”
And because the corporations have taken all of the lands too. “We don’t have callings anymore in the country,” one farmer told me, “if we are lucky, we have part-time jobs. I grew up on a farm. I mow lawns now.”
The economists killed the spine of rural life, the family farms, by deeming them too small and inefficient for the global economy. Milk prices haven’t risen since 1980.
The bureaucrats and insurance companies killed off the hospitals and left the heartland without doctors or health care.
The Democrats killed off all of the jobs and sent them to Mexico and China, promising wealth and prosperity for those left behind. They lied.
The political scientists say demagogues show up when the government breaks its promises to people. The trade pacts were a giant whopper.
You don’t need a lot more knowledge than that to understand Trump. The jobs of their fathers and grandfathers, the foundation of their lives, and their villages and towns just dried up almost overnight.
The Republicans, best friends of the Corporate Nation, have been quick to exploit the fear and anger and devastation in rural life by blaming immigrants and their political opponents, especially Democrats.
They pretended to love these people more than anybody else. It’s a lot better than no message at all.
Desperate people will believe almost anything, even that their leader is the solution rather than the problem. No one else has even troubled to lie to them.
Most of big money flowing into political coffers from corporations and cities comes from the city and into Congress, not from dairy farmers.
It is an article of faith in the country that their communities and lives were ruined by the people they – and President Trump – calls the “elitists,” the Ivy League graduates, the entrenched federal bureaucracy, the fake news journalists, CEO’s, bankers, snobs and snooty rich people, the hypocrites who pretend to care about the poor, but only some of the poor, the ones that live close by, the ones they can see.
Trump’s bugaboos are immigrants and socialists; people here tell me all the time they dread socialists taking power in Washington.
“Do you really think Joe Biden is a socialist?,” I asked one woman who says she is terrified of him.
“Isn’t he?” she answered. People up here are not in the national conversation. Reporters do not ever come here. They don’t pay too much attention to the news.
Nobody seems to care about the poor in rural America; nobody ever talks about them much.
Don’t these people know he is lying to them, people ask me?
No, I said, they have already been lied to for many years. All President Trump has to do to be loved is to be is angry and attack the elites and disrupt the system and the people who run it.
That is perhaps as close to victory as they will ever get with him as their leader.
___
Here, envy and grievance and rage are woven into the public consciousness. They don’t hate people; they hate the labels.
The people who live here believe almost all of the money and federal aid and worry are going to minorities and newcomers – many in our country illegally – and rarely to them.
They came to hate the cities that stole their sons and daughters and ruined their callings and wrecked the soil with their mega-corporations and emptied their towns and churches and meeting places and fairs and obliterated their businesses with box stores like Wal-Mart.
The odd thing is that they see Trump is pretty much the way that I do, once you get them talking.
They hate his tweets, his cruelty, his arrogance, his unabashed hypocrisy. Arrogant billionaires are not loved in the country.
But he songs their song, music to their ears.
They just hate us more than they dislike him and deeply.
They believe we see them as stupid and grubby bigots. They think they are often considered “deplorable” by the elitists, one of the most ill-chosen and damaging words in American political history.
President Trump may not have saved them in his first term or even helped them much, but he wasn’t the one who wrecked their lives.
It’s not personal. In the years I’ve worked and lived up here, I have experienced nothing but kindness and generosity. In theory, I should be someone Trump people hate. But they are not haters, not face to face. When I am in trouble, they come running. When I need help, they are there.
Some have become good friends, more than I ever had to live in New York City or Boston or New Jersey.
In their way, they are the most tolerant people I have ever known: what you do on your land is your business. I meet gay people all the time up here who fled to the country years ago to escape prejudice, live in peace, and get out of the cities, where they were so often hated and abused. They say they have never felt harassed or unsafe here.
When I left my first farm in Hebron, a neighbor, an old farmer with a huge tractor, rode by to say goodbye. He shook my hand and wished me well. As I was walking away, he turned to me and said, “Hey, my wife tells me you are a Jew. I don’t know that I ever met a Jew before. (He almost said, “and you are nice!”)
Nothing wrong with that,” he said, leaving me with a fresh-baked Apple pie.
An outlier, I moved to a land of outliers. An outsider, I live in a world of outsiders. There are not many elitists around here.
In the fast few years, my heart has been touched more than once by the relentless collapse of rural life, the drugs, the dying farms, the empty storefronts, the shuttered hospitals, and rotting factories, the lost jobs, the lost children.
It is relentless and heartbreaking. Every other week, I take pictures of a dying dairy farm, and watch a farmer break down and cry as his cows are hauled off to a factory farm in Pennsylvania, where they will never put their hooves on grass again.
I give them the photos; I can’t bear to publish them anymore. They will all vote for President Trump.
They are not haters; really, they love people; they love their dying communities and their friends; they hang onto them for dear life.
I decided in 2016 that I wasn’t going to spend too much time hating President Trump.
It accomplishes nothing except to tie his followers more closely than ever to him and reinforce the idea that elitists out there are out to get him.
Because so many of us think they are bigoted and stupid. A middle-aged man in a bar told me that every time Trump gets attacked by the media, he gets another family in the country to love and support him.
I think Governor Andrew Cuomo has the right idea. If there is a better way than Trump, show it, don’t promise it, do it. Don’t argue about it or belittle the people left behind or disagree. Just do it, at long last. Get something done.
They would love to vote for somebody else, somebody who doesn’t lie, who doesn’t tweet. But not for the people who have been taking their lives apart for generations now and gloating about it.
Will things get better? If we help these people get their lives back, I think they would. If we don’t, it will happen again.
People in cities have no idea what’s happening in the country. I sure didn’t.
We are becoming a country of radically different classes, and not just billionaires and the poor – the wealthy urban class, the poor rural class.
What kind of justice is it for the smartest and wealthiest and best educated and most engaged people to turn their backs on half the country? Why shouldn’t people be angry and hate this system?
Think about this: not a single journalist in Washington, New York, or Los Angeles, not one pundit on the cable channels understood what was happening in 2016, or predicted it, or heard the cry of rage and anger until it was upon them until it was too late.
It will take a long time to unscramble that mess.
How is that possible? Because elitists don’t come to the country to talk to people, they sit at their computers or yell at one other on cable news channels.
As a former journalist, I have to forgive these people for hating them and not believing a word they say. I’m not one to glorify the old days, but I remember a much-admired colleague – David Broder, a Washington Post political writer and inspiration for me – traveling the country for a grueling full year before a presidential election to gauge the mood.
I can guarantee he would have seen Trump coming. He was never once surprised by an election.
Because it was right there to see, had anybody looked or asked. And they are still not looking and asking, even after the Trump revolution.
Wendell Berry asked the elemental question, the one that most explains Donald Trump, in his book “What Are People For?”
“The great question that overs over this issue (the future of rural America), one that we have dealt with mainly by indifference, is the question of what people are for? Is their greatest dignity in unemployment? Is the obsolescence of human beings now our social goal? One would conclude so from our attitude toward work, especially the manual work necessary to the long-term preservation of the land, and from our rush toward mechanization, automation, and computerization.”
Climate change is, blessedly, one of the favored political issues of the elite. But nobody seems to worry much about the destruction of life and land in our heartland, on our farms.
That is the rural experience with journalists and politicians. And their sad history seems to doom them to being abandoned again. For them, nothing will have been lost that isn’t already lost.
Trump does not create anger and grievance; he explores it, he feeds off it; it is his genius. Most of us didn’t even know it was there. You can blame him for eating off the flesh of his followers, but not for destroying their way of life.
The rural economy and culture are dying – dead businesses replaced mostly by abandoned businesses and chain restaurants, and if the town is lucky, a Wal-Mart. A good job is waiting tables at Chile’s.
What I’ve learned is that these are just people, good and bad, just like the rest of us, just like me. They would like to have health care, farms to work, kids who can stay at home, places to shop, futures to aspire to, some money in the bank, a few years in Florida before they die.
In a sense, Donald Trump has nothing to do with their rage. He is just a reflection of it.
Someone needs to help them restore their faith in government. I doubt it will be Donald Trump.
You can’t kick people in the head for years and then wonder why they are angry and want something different. I don’t need to hate Donald Trump. As a veteran elitist and happy ex-employee of Fake News, I know a self-destructive man when I see one.
I’ve always believed that Donald Trump is his own worst enemy, far more dangerous than I could ever be to him by calling him names. I’ll leave him to his work, and me to mine.
“It may be that when we no longer know what to do,
we have come to our real work
and when we no longer know which way to go,
we have begun our real journey.
The mind that is not baffled is not employed.
The impeded stream is the one that sings.”
–Wendell Berry.
I do suppose i could say this was very well written with a few moments of weakness. I almost found it refreshing that you expanded your thinking beyond one person and one side. Sometimes, when the veteran elitist is so consumed with anger and hatred against Trump they fail to see the truth. Please understand I am not referring only to you because unfortunately there are many that find themselves in this quandary.
Barbara, I don’t believe there is anyone truth, that would seem quite arrogant to me. I don’t see much open-mindness from Donald Trump or many of his supporters. There is plenty of truth to go around, and plenty of arrogance on both sides….I’m not sure what point you are trying to make here, the message sounds a bit smug…
The thing is; as a progressive, I hate the Democratic establishment for the exact same reasons. The Clintons are total anathema to me. My main beef with Obama was his appointment of Tom Vilsack and the subsequent rubber stamping of any of Monsanto’s products. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren both had ideas and plans that would have actually helped rural America more. Sanders opposes NAFTA. Maybe we can run a 3rd party next go around. Unite the left and the right against the corporate leeches in the “middle”
This is the best comment yet. The Third Party.
Do you feel like this is some of the best writing you’ve ever done? I certainly feel like it’s some of the best political commentary I’ve read in the last 40 years. It’s both poetic and enlightening. (Thought provoking, too).
That’s lovely Susan, I am never sure about how good a piece is, not for awhile. I love to write pieces that get me or others thinking. This does feel like something I was meant to do. I’ll see how it goes. I don’t want to be writing about Donald Trump all year but the political stuff is pretty irresistible..thanks for the good words.
I understand where you are coming from but I feel it is the responsibility of rural Americans to look deeper at their government. What has helped them? Medicare, Medicaid, public education, school lunches, Obamacare, food stamps… Im not saying it’s enough but hating East coast elitists is not good enough either. Trump would like to end those programs. Then what? More corporate greed?
I grew up in a rural northern Great Plains state and I assure you the culture there is not the lovely, bucolic benign picture you paint. The 1960’s and 1970’s were the tail end of prosperity in my area, where the economy was based on oil, ranching, and grain farming, as well as money flowing into my hometown from the adjacent large Native American reservation. There was plenty of ugliness and it was not well hidden. Even then, my home town of roughly 5000 people had thirteen bars. Thirteen. Alcoholism was rampant, as was drug use (though less visible). People were at their core as unhappy then as now. There was active disdain for being educated, for being *informed*. My parents were once very well off and their well-being declined with everybody elses’ decline in that area. The oil ran out. Ranching died out. Today the population of that town is roughly 3500, and there is a vanishingly small retail presence. My hometown is essentially a rotting corpse that nobody has yet thought to cover with grave dust.
And y’know what? All along these people were voting for the people implementing policies that impacted them negatively. They were voting for so-called “conservatives” and willingly jumping on board with religious extremists. They were voting for the very people who were enacting policies and legislation making it possible to further prey on them financially and they simply would not listen when this was pointed out. This disaffection is not new and it is not the fault of “everyone else”. Rural America has participated willingly, enthusiastically with its own demise. They are continuing to vote for the destruction of *everybody* which will not help them, either.
However, blame doesn’t help anything, and your point that “we” (non-rural) people need to step up and address this is valid, if only for the sake of pragmatism if not for fully embracing a fair, healthy society. But don’t think to blame this all on liberals and “elites” if you expect to be seen as having a real understanding here.
Where did I write that the rural culture is lovely and bucolic and benign. Did you actually read my piece? Doesn’t seem like it.
And do you think that the folks that voted for Trump are passionate about their vote. You said that you felt they would vote for him again. Why? What is their vision for doing so. I always thought that as a single mom I was middle class. Needless to say I am amongst the working poor. I can live with that, but my farmer brothers and sisters are paying the price and they voted for Mr. Trump too. I worry about their future.
I’m not impressed, Jon. So what do we do now? You don’t offer any suggestions. This is America. If the people you know in rural communities don’t like their lives, why don’t they pitch in an work to make the world a better place. Just trying would make them happier. And voting for Don the Con is making their lives worse.
Dan, I hate to stun you, but life will go on for me if you are not impressed. I don’t really write for your approval. I’m happy with the piece. If you have any suggestions, please offer them rather then running your mouth in left-right fashion.
Jon, your piece suffers from a lack of close proof reading and editing. It could be tightened and have more impact if you would do that. As I read the piece, it seemed your point was to explain why rural Americans are Trump supporters, not to offer solutions, most of which are as elusive today as they were 40 years ago. If anything, one thing I take from your piece is an inkling of what the new progressives are thinking and why Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren got so much support from them. We need to hear more about rural issues and concerns and you’ve made a good start. Just, please, make sure you proof read more deliberately and tighten your narrative. We all have to do it if we want to get our points across.
When they’re kids weren’t strung out on heroin did they show any concern for any of the thousands of black children who were thrown into foster care when crack cocaine tore their families apart & placed their parents in prison? No, they didn’t. Perhaps I’ll feel different when the babies born to their heroin addicted daughters are forever labeled smack babies, when cameras take us into rural pediatric wards to film scrawny white babies shaking & yelling their lungs out as they lay in incubators, and over at the evening news we watch white girls hop from car to car because heroin ain’t cheap. Then, maybe I’ll give a f*ck.
Teresa, I really don’t care if you give a fuck or not (you can spell it out, we are grownups here). In my idea of a just world, people would care for each other, black or white or yellow. Your message feels hateful to me, although I can certainly see where you’re coming from. Being just like them doesn’t seem noble to me. That’s the politics of grievance, which is just what the President does.
I can relate very closely to this Jon. I live in rural Western Pennsylvania where I am surrounded by good friends, neighbors. and relatives who voted for Trump. They too had their way of life stripped away. You can drive for miles and miles and see once thriving steel mill towns turned into blight, the Rust Belt. And small dairy farmers forced to sell their beautiful hills to developers. On and on the sad stories go. Obama referred to them as “people who hang onto their religion and guns. ” I also try to get into the minds of why they voted for Trump. Now I’m seeing they have just as much conviction to vote the same again. My walks with my dogs take me past new 2020 signs and flags saying “Keep America Great.” I want to understand why. This piece I just read helped to remind me. Sometimes my “elitist” side forgets. Are our politicians trying to do the same Understand and listen? Or is it just the writers? Thanks for this abundance of incite.
This is your second piece I’ve read, and have enjoyed both immensely (and shared them with others). Your expose of Cuomo vs Trump was refreshing, as is this one. I hate Trump, I hate what he is doing to the environment, I hate how he attacks people, etc, etc. You’ve heard it. I can’t understand why anyone supports him. (And I have never hated a politician before…not true, hate Sarah Palin…but as to the rest, I’ve always said, they have a hard job, I will support them, we are all in this together, so this hate thing is very troubling.) Meanwhile, you make a very good argument for not hating him. I am saving this piece and rereading it until I can get over my hate until I can understand why people support him. But I do have a question: If he/they hate elitists, what about all these elitist billionaires/millionaires/corporations that love Trump? Isn’t Trump helping the elitists get richer and more elite? What about the fact that the richer seem to be getting richer, and the poor stay poor? Is it just that no one has stopped that trend, so let’s love the person who is acting out? Is it that the Dems argue a good story, but don’t fix it, and the Reps haven’t fixed it? So let’s follow a person who says f*ck them all? (Yes but, the rich are getting richer, and aren’t they elitist?) I hope my rambling forms some coherent along the way, I’m perplexed by this. I hope to hear your response, and thank you for your time. (Clearly, you got me thinking!!!)
In the midst of a pandemic and a world seemed gone mad, I just want to say a big THANK YOU for sharing your thoughts and observations. After reading your books and blog for awhile, undoubtedly these last weeks have your best writing. I look so forward to opening my email to read what you have written. So thankful that I came upon your book, Going Home in the new book section of our library years ago. I consider that moment a divine invitation to enjoy the talents and gifts you had been given. Thank you for being you and for sharing your thoughts.
What should a Democratic candidate do or say, to try to win your neighbors to the fold….or at least to vote for him? And what kind of programs would help these farmers? I live in the suburbs of Dallas, Texas and as far as I can see health care would be an enormous help to farm families, but they don’t want that…until they get sick.
Enjoying these articles…it has been very interesting the past few weeks to see how our government works, and how it should work…take care!
I think Andrew Cuomo is doing it every day…they just have to be better…not angrier..politics is transactional, people vote for politicians who will do something for them..not just blow gas as the Democrats have been doing for years..
Keep it up, Jon! You have a wide following and you are making us think!!!
Thanks Margo…
Hi Jon: this is a brilliant (for me) piece of writing. I despise Trump. I could never understand what people saw in him and why they voted for him. You’ve given me some new insights, so thank you.
One of the posters above made a very good point and that is, why do people vote against their own best interests? The people you describe aren’t stupid by a long shot, but to me, seem so disinterested in learning about a candidate and their positions. Are they afraid that they will be labeled by their friends as elitist? Is it easier to just go with the flow on the surface and not dig a little deeper?
Stuff to ponder. Thanks again.
Thanks Linda, they believe he has come to save them…if he doesn’t, they will know it, is all I can say..I can’t really speak for them..just try to understand..thanks for the good words…
Thanks so much for your insightful piece. It is well done and most informative about how we got here with Trump.
As someone who spent a career in academia as an historian, I have grappled with the reasons as to why we elected Trump and why so many of his supporters continue to support him in face of his actions as president.
I agree pretty much with your analysis. I live most of the year in the north Georgia mountains and share your experience with the local rural people. For four months, during the winter, I live on St. Simons Island, Georgia where my wife grew up. The surrounding area is very rural and shares much with that in the mountains, but, of course, the island and adjacent Sea Island are clearly affluent.
My question is this. Why do so many well off, secure and educated people also support Trump? I have asked several of my close friends if they have “buyers remorse” about Trump after seeing his performance in office during his first term – to a person they emphatically say no and frequently ask why would they? Some who would be considered rich by many people seem seriously aggrieved despite their success and wonderful lifestyles.
I understand Republican feelings about small government, taxes, regulation and so on but continue to be puzzled by this support.
Robert
First off, I found this to be a well written piece. I have many thoughts and am still processing some of what I read. One thing I think you may have overlooked are the very real political differences between the vast majority of rural folks and what we refer to as “elitists.” Many, many rural folks, myself included, do not vote overwhelmingly for republicans merely because they are nicer to us than democrats. Rather, it is because we, well, I, as I should probably only speak for myself, are in support of free trade, open markets, lower taxes, etc. Fair or not, earned or not, the perception is that the democrats, particularly the wing of the party that supports Bernie Sanders are diametrically opposed to not only all of those economic principles, but all the social ones as well. Gun rights, religion, the pro life position, etc. And for as long as this perception of the democratic party being outright hostile to everything rural America believes in holds, I don’t see how the democrats will make much headway in rural America.
Matt,
I too have a lot to process from Jon’s post, as one of those rural daughters “stolen by the city”, and I think that you are right about some fundamental political differences. As Jefferson, the agrarian, did with Hamilton, the financial architect. But I want to ask you how much we disagree on your political issues. You mention guns first- I grew up with guns in the house, took an NRA safety course, and understand that in my small, rural town in Upstate NY guns were essential tools. OK. But here in an urban area with density of people, and scarcity of coyotes to defend ourselves from, guns are not obtained as tools. I believe that it is reasonable to have smart triggers, and thorough universal background checks. Can you tell me how that would infringe upon you, or your neighbor? I don’t know what you mean about the Democratic party being “outright hostile” to religion. We do not want Muslims attacked, or synagogues, or Methodist church members shot at a bible study. I, personally, strongly do support the idea of separation of church and state, and appreciate my faith, or non-faith, being as important and relevant and protected as yours.
You support free trade and open markets, and I appreciate that, but unfettered capitalism results in the inequality of resources that rural America is suffering from. Large dairy companies are able to buy small farms, until small farmers cannot survive; small hospitals are bought and closed by large corporations; a small company invented a portable ventilator at 1/5 the cost, and was “freely” purchased by a company (Covidian, you cant make that up) which then shut down the new product to avoid the competition. Corporations are making decisions without caring what either you or I want or need, unless we happen to be their stockholder.
In the 1970’s Lewis Powell discussed the fact that the nation’s policies and court rulings were “too hard” on corporations; Nixon appointed him to the Supreme Court and decisions to favor corporate money over people have increased ever since. The recent Trump tax cut to the corporate rate was plowed back into stock buy-backs, and companies are STILL able to hide profits in overseas tax havens. How do those policies, or lack thereof, help you or any of your neighbors?
I think the underlying philosophical difference that conservatives and liberals have is in the notion of accountability and the greater good versus personal independence. “Don’t tell me how to run my house/farm/company” and everybody gets that. It is only when you step back and look at the larger picture-if company x doesn’t put their waste there, it runs into river y and town z, for example- that dreaded regulations can be seen as being done for all of us.
I am not sure that there IS a way to cross that philosophical divide, but I agree that the “elites” need to listen, and respond clearly with a message of what is being given to all, and not taken from some.
Best to you, and thanks to Jon for provoking thought, and hopefully conversation as well.
On the guns issue, I understand that urban areas require different levels of governance than rural areas do. You may require more stringent gun control in cities. However, I live in rural Kansas, where the nearest neighbor is 3 miles away. The sorts of regulations that are necessary in the city don’t make as much sense here.
I think you may be mistaking the standard conservative for a hardcore Randian libertarian. I don’t know of any conservative who doesn’t recognize the need to regulate externalities, such as poisoning the river and the like.
I only bring up religion because we have polling data which show that religious affiliation is strongest on the right. I personally am more of a deist than anything else.
Apologies for the abbreviated response, I have a million things going on, but I wanted to take a minute to respond to your thoughtful reply.
I also believe, in some ways, you are giving us too much credit. I appreciate that you went out of your way to say that we farm dwelling, rock-ribbed republican folk aren’t actually stupid or bigoted. Indeed, most aren’t. But plenty are. I can’t hang out with my friends around a summer bonfire without hearing off color (no pun intended) jokes about minorities, gay folks, etc. And at least twice a day I scroll through Facebook and see someone, usually an older person, share some obviously false story from http://www.defend45magaforever.com or some such thing about Nancy Pelosi stealing your SS check and giving it to illegals. These are problems I don’t really know how to solve, but I’m afraid so-called “elites” won’t be of much use. They simply won’t listen to you.
As a long time, although occasional reader of yours, I know you have been making this point , briefly, and occasionally for years. I have tried making the same point in Facebook discussions and get no where. I have lived in rural areas most of my life, but like you grew up in metropolitan New York. I like people, Trump supporters or not, as people. Like you, I have no answers in terms of how we as a society can effectively address the problems of rural life that you have so eloquently described at length in this post. I believe the way to start is much clearer. The beginning of a solution Must Come from seeing others as people, not labels. People in blue collar, or service jobs tend to be at least as hard working as people in more “professional” occupations. Kindness, generosity of spirit, and helpfulness are found in people of all types, not merely in individuals sharing our preferred political or occupational labels.
I am an elitist thanks to the Army. My mother grew up in poverty (Arkansas), my father worked on the GE assembly line. After the war, the Army gave him an education, then a professional career. They entered the middle class, and I was among the first of my ilk (and gender) to go to Yale. Now I am a retired attorney, part of the 1% during this pandemic, with a comfortable house, yard, spouse, music, books, cable., and financial resources. Could this economic ascent happen now, in two generations? Military service is not the answer for rural America, but the end of a shared service obligation has contributed to our divide.
Thank you for this wonderful food for thought. I have wondered about this very thing many times. Can you please add me to your distribution list? Thank you.
Well it sounds like on many counts, they’re just incorrect about the source of their misery. The big corporations that have squeezed out small farmers? Owned by republicans and supported with republican policies. Wal-Mart? Remind me of all the liberals who extol the virtues of that corporation. Immigrants? Hired by republicans, and anyway, net migration from Mexico went negative during the Obama administration. And concern about how cities seem to be getting all the federal aid? Look at donor states for recipient states. You say they’re not stupid, but at the very least, woefully misinformed.
I grew up in Trump country and let me tell you, while not “stupid” many folks were not terribly curious or deep thinkers. The ones who were all left for greener pastures. As someone who fled a homophobic midwestern town (please don’t try to tell me the homophobia I experienced wasn’t real) and built a good career for myself in cities, this really sounds like resentment towards folks who took the initiative to adapt to a changing culture and economy. So we all get to relive middle school again, except at a nationwide scale.
And it’s not hard to draw a straight line from those attitudes towards nerds, gays, and immigrants to the choice of tech firms (where all those groups are highly represented) to locate in cities.
Also, many of the folks I knew back home had huge chips on their shoulders. I had a cousin burst into tears when I mentioned that there existed dozens of cities in the world with over a million people, as though I were somehow implying that they were better then his small town.
Also, so sick of hearing how no one saw trump coming. I have yet to see any evidence that this reflects blindness or apathy among city-dwellers rather than – a much simpler explanation – mere regard for nation- and statewide polling leading up to the election.
Jon, The main problem as I see it is we are continuing to put our Country in unrepayable debt! Nobody seems to be focusing on that! We are on the road to bankruptcy!! It seems to me that somebody, such as yourself, needs to put a group of smart people together to work out a plan for righting the ship. Then you smart non-politicos should run together promising to implement your plan. It seem to be the only way we will be able to survive before China will own us!!!!! Keep up the good work!!!
Jon, once again you’ve made many thought-provoking observations. Elitism is definitely an issue in terms of liberal credibility with many conservatives. But I believed Matt Wickstrom “nailed it” when he outlined the other issues in his thoughtful comment.
I find it very interesting that few people ever actually bother to ask why we conservatives support and appreciate Trump (which I unapologetically do). Many liberals (and in fairness, I am speaking in generalities here) seem to assume they know our demographic, hence the elitism Jon so perceptively intuits. Whenever I confide my political views, there is always great surprise–I guess because I am a middle-aged female, extensively educated, socially moderate, professionally successful in both rural/urban environments and pursuits, and come from a long line of newspaper editors and publishers. I also educate myself thoroughly on current events; while I abandoned the NY Times 10 years before Trump’s political political debut because it had become abundantly clear that editorial content was not longer confined to the opinion pages, I still read the Wall Street Journal daily because it is one of the last media resources whose journalistic objectivity and ethic I can respect. I make a practice of finding and watching extended interviews and briefings of political figures directly, be they Republican or Democrat, because I have on so many occasions–especially since Trump was elected, but also long before that–observed that the media interpretations expanded through multiple outlets and presented to audiences as “fact” frequently have thin (if any) research behind them and are often at direct odds in terms of context and accuracy with what I observe myself from the primary data. (And for just one example of the many reasons I do appreciate Trump: if Obama had at any time, for any reason, offered the consistent, real-time and unprecedented availability of the hours upon hours of posted and unedited meetings, briefings, and gubernatorial conference calls that Trump has daily made daily available to his constituency throughout this pandemic crisis, he would have been hailed by most media as a paragon of transparency; Trump just gets more sound-bytes quoted out of context, yet he does it anyway.)
I am aware of many others who share similar views, including a surprising number of Gen-Xers and Millennials. Unfortunately, the reason so many liberals don’t accurately know who “we” are or don’t correctly perceive what has alienated us from the progressive agenda is that most of us no longer reveal our political leanings because we are so tired of being vilified whenever we offer a countering viewpoint. So we tend to just listen quietly . . . and then go to the polls.
One of the (many) things I always appreciate about my friend Jon is that he has diligently promoted the importance of civil discourse through years of blog posts, and recognizes that polarity is damaging to all of us and that it is critically important we try to learn from one another. I think I can safely say that Jon and I have respected each others’ opinions through many (virtual) conversations discussing alternative viewpoints over the years. I have learned much from those wonderful opportunities and hope I have offered some small measure of insight in return.
I appreciate what I learn from those I agree with and even more from those whom I do not, because brain aerobics are good stuff in and of themselves. And I also concur with Jon 100% that doing good is still always better than arguing about what good is.
Anne from Montana
I have read other pieces that reflect on the attraction of Trump among rural communities, emphasizing that it doesn’t come from hate for the “other” but from a sense of abandonment or being forgotten. I don’t disbelieve this and I certainly know that there is a genuine neighborliness in many rural communities. But I’m left wondering if the “we” should understand “them” is ultimately helpful. I think that “we” (all of us) have been losing a sense of solidarity, that we are in this together. The “us” and “them” divide (in all kinds of ways) is felt by many and it has become the most significant tool of those who are promoting the darkest perspectives in politics. So, I want to ask you this. It seems that you really experience yourself as one of “them” who has moved into a community and become part of “us” and now understand the experiences of people who have felt left out. But there are lots of people who are neither “elitist” nor “rural” folks. They are living in between labels. I actually think that’s most people. They have multiple identities, some that change over time, some that are permanent. It seems like talking about these multiple identities is a good way to begin conversations about the divide. I’m really not saying you’re wrong about what you write, I guess I’m just saying that I feel there’s a real need to see how our experiences and identities are shared much more than we might realize.
So enjoy reading you blog and the respectful way you handle those scraping to go mano a man .
One comment perspective that has been over looked in why you neighbors voted as they do and probably will again is – What was their alternative? They value and respect their right to vote – for real not as a protest! They want to vote for their community not a party who distains their traditions, beliefs and their country.
I had to leave NYC and move to rural NY a few years after the recession. I was
shocked at the level of poverty and lack of resources given to the upstate counties to fight it – and I had entered poverty myself for awhile so I experienced what that felt like. I blamed and still blame Albany, much as I like Cuomo’s toughness during this pandemic. And I think unregulated capitalism and rampant globalization has created very real problems for rural folk – look at the unemployment situation at this minute. It’s horrific.
But, when I listen to rurals despair of ever getting back the prosperity they had, and learn that they voted for Trump, I wonder why they didn’t vote for Bernie Sanders? I’m not a Bernie supporter but he really did address their concerns. Yet they preferred a bigoted, no nothing who they only know from The Apprentice. An economist said the problem liberals have is we think people who vote against their economic interest are being led blindly in that direction when that may not be what they most value. What they value is what Trump champions, even if they don’t like him – the resentment that created intolerance, racism, bigotry, cruelty, anti-science and knowledge of all kinds. It may not be an elistist backlash at all but simply an assertion of the values they really espouse. I think a return to economic sell-being for them would help but the issue is still there.
I had to leave NYC and move to rural NY a few years after the recession. I was
shocked at the level of poverty and lack of resources given to the upstate counties to fight it – and I had entered poverty myself for awhile so I experienced what that felt like. I blamed and still blame Albany, much as I like Cuomo’s toughness during this pandemic. And I think unregulated capitalism and rampant globalization has created very real problems for rural folk – look at the unemployment situation all over the country at this minute. It’s horrific.
But, when I listen to rurals despair of ever getting back the prosperity they had, and learn that they voted for Trump, I wonder why they didn’t vote for Bernie Sanders? I’m not a Bernie supporter but he really did address their concerns. Yet they preferred a bigoted, no nothing who they only know from The Apprentice. An economist said the problem liberals have is we think people who vote against their economic interest are being led blindly in that direction when their economic well-being may not be what they most value. What they value is what Trump champions, even if they don’t like him – the resentment that created intolerance, racism, bigotry, cruelty, anti-science and knowledge of all kinds. Yes the love family and the flag nuts it’s a very small circle of love. So, it may not be an elistist backlash at all but simply an assertion of the values they really espouse. I think a return to economic well-being for them would help but the issue is still there.
Thank you for the important and informative piece. I’m learning a lot from the comments too, and hope this thread continues. I’m struggling with “hate” toward Trump, but primarily confusion and frustration with his supporters. I don’t understand how his crass and egotistical personality continues to be tolerated by so many, and why he is viewed as an advocate for blue-collar/working-class/rural citizens instead of a wealthy, out of touch “elite”. I’ve distanced myself from political debate years ago, when the divisiveness began during Obama’s campaign (I should say, when my exposure to such political divisiveness began), when any possibility of civil discussion gave way to mudslinging, and facts held no weight against closed minds. I appreciate everyone’s contribution; each comment has added to my understanding.
Very interesting reading. I am 81 years old. I was raised in small towns in Oklahoma and Texas. They all seemed to be fairly prosperous. 2 drug stores, 2 or 3 movie shows, usually a J C penny and a C R Anthony department stores and numerous other stores lined the both sides of the main drag for 2 or 3 blocks. Every house I lived in (until I left home to join the Air Force) never had a lock on the front or back doors. Crime was non existent. Now, that is all just about kaput in all of those towns. Trump probably got a big majority of their votes.
Everyone went to church and obscene language would get your mouth washed with soap or worse.
Now society is crap. People can not say more than 3 words without saying fuck. I am so glad in am retired and do not have to put up with anyone I don’t have to.
Enjoyed reading your essay but I dunno. There are some well off farmers. I know some. Trump is explained by the popularity of that TV show he did. Did you ever watch it? I tried to watch it once. Actually, I just tried to watch it again and could not. It’s something like pro-wrestling, where they throw chairs. People like to watch that too.