why does rural America vote Repub?

[pstokely]

many rural areas are poor

is it guns, or social issues or both?

[El Mariachi]

1. This is why

http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2003/07/22_politics.shtml

[DemBones DemBones]

2. Both. But I think you knew that. You seem to start threads

just to get DUers to trash a group of people. You've started several about Southerners and pro-lifers, now it's rural people. Nobody benefits from this sort of exercise because nobody advances their understanding of other people. Why not look for more productive uses of time?

[BiggJawn]

14. Hey, Dembones, let us "Silvan Folk" of Rural Murka speak for ourselves!

He's not "trashing" us. Shit, man, a whole SHITLOAD of my fellow rural hayseeeds and hicks vote ReTHUGlican.

And you wanna know why? 2 reasons:

Chimpy promised NOT to get a blow job,

AND....

Al Gore was gonna take all of our guns away.

Now, with that said, let's try to discover the underlieing reasons for these attitudes.

The Blow job issue, I dunno, seems to me like it shouldn't be anyone's damn business besides the blower and the blow-ee, but a lot of my neighbours think that if you vote for someone, this somehow gives you a ringside seat and a say-so into what goes on in their pants. They "Hold our Leaders to a Higher Standard" or some-such crappola. I think they're hypocrits, but what do I know?

On the gun issue, quit trying to ignore the big farting dog sitting over in the corner. We've shot ourselves in the foot on this one, and we CONTINUE to shoot ourselves in the foot.( no pun intended) Rural People Like Guns, Period. Hell, even *I* like guns, and I don't have the heart/patience to hunt, would probably get killed with my own piece by an intruder, and don't really have the steady hands/good eyes like I did 25 years ago for paper-punching, but I still like 'em. Do I think high school kids ought to be allowed to carry a Glock in their backpack or some of the other stupid damn alienating hyperbolic statements I have seen posted by the more extreme-left denizens of this board? Hell, NO! I'm not STUPID, dammmit! So stop saying that!

The Right takes that "The Democrats wanna take everybody's guns away so it'll be easier when they round you up to go to the Homo Indoctrination Camp" crap to THE BANK! Never heard that one? It was popular back when Poppy lost, mostly amongst the "Survivalist" bunch. The Camps. The dis-armament, the mass round-ups, yeah, all Black Helicopter garbage, but there's people out here who believe it. And the GOP rides to victory on it EVERY time. Why? Think Charlton Heston.

So there you go. Flame away, but I think since I hear more John Deere tractors putting into town than police sirens, I've earned this say.

BTW, thanks for trying to defend my po' hayseed ass, but I think I can do fine on my own, thankee..

[Dob Bole]

3. Every rural area is different...

The concept of "rural America" is something I never heard of before until Edwards said it.

I do think it's both. Since rural areas are poor, people need guns to hunt for food. They may not understand the difference between a moderate and a liberal gun control position.

Social issues are important because rural people are highly religious. Because of the Catholics in the Midwest, Baptists in the SOuth, and Mormons in the West, abortion is always a huge issue.

Not all rural states are Repub though. Kentucky, West Virginia, Georgia, Iowa, and Louisiana are still pretty Dem.

[texastoast]

6. Damn, our schools certainly are lacking . . .

If you have never heard of "rural America." Being from both rural and urban America, the types of generalization you have put forth make absolutely no sense to me.

I would say that poverty has a much tighter grip on certain demographic groups in urban areas, poverty being defined as a lack of funds to the extent that basic human needs cannot be provided for. Being from the South or Southwest (depending on your viewpoint) and knowing lots of hunters, I know none who now hunt for food, just sport. They want guns because they know the government and criminals will always have them so the playing field should be somewhat even (and so do I, having been the victim of a violent crime). And until there is a universal personal and governmental spiritual awakening, that will remain a fact.

Many rural teenage girls have had abortions and they and their mothers are quietly prochoice, Baptists and Catholics included.

Appearances can be deceiving. You would never know by looking that some of the wealthiest, old-family Texans have ever had a dime until you check their balance sheet. They like to mess with people's heads that way.

Assume nothing.

[WildClarySage]

10. WV

is becoming more and more repug all the time. The city I live in is very conservative, and the rest of the state is catching up with us. They're making headway here because of "the gun issue" and because the media (like our local hackrag) keeps spewing neocon lies.

[chimpymustgo]

4. Edwards and Graham are both reaching out to rurals.

And would have a good shot at getting their votes in the General. Edwards in particular is laying out a series of economic policies, such as college for everyone, which will get some of these folks to stop, take a listen, and come aruond to the Dems.

Of course, as the son of a mill worker...

[AmandaRuth]

5. The choice issue

has ALOT to do with it

[not systems]

7. republican welfare

Farm subsidies

Logging in national forests

Mining concession in national forests

Cattle grazing rights in government land

These are all welfare for the red states
and Republican issues

[carolinayellowdog]

8. Protestant, white, rural America that is

I live in a solid Dem congressional district, very rural, but half African-American. Rural South Texas is Dem, Catholic, and Hispanic. It just happens that most of rural America is white and Protestant and more religiously conservative.

[Skittles]

9. you should read the hometown newspapers

unbelievable propaganda from repug reps, and no dissenting viewpoints. For example, in the Whitesboro Texas paper Kay Baily Hutchinson went on and on about how drilling for oil in ANWR would SOLVE ALL OF AMERICA'S ENERGY PROBLEMS except those PESKY DEMOCRATS WON'T LET US.

[Rich Hunt]

12. lack of information

I think being cut out of the information loop has a lot to do with it.

I lived in a (sort-of) rural area for a while, and people would vote Republican on one or two issues - usually guns & taxes, based on misinformation.

[jagguy]

11. we have little to say to them

and, the truth may hurt a little, we appear elitist and condescending.

Glad my boy Edwards is on the case, I figured he would be. Takes an accent to get these folk's attention. Not one from the northeast in case I was unclear.

[maxanne]

13. guns and bad information

they've been told that Democrats are tax and spend liberals for so long, they believe it. The evil liberal media reinforces their belief structure. Democrats are going to raise their taxes and give the money to welfare mothers so they can drive Cadillacs.

They don't get real news. They wouldn't listen anyhow, in many cases. Some vote Repub because their daddy did.

I live in a rural area. During the 2000 election, I was teaching a class of guys who "knew" Al Gore wanted to take their guns away. They couldn't cite a source for that knowlege and they didn't give a damn about any other aspect of anyone's platform. They just knew Al Gore wanted their guns, and that was all they needed to know. :eyes:

[KT2000]

15. Living in a rural area

I have asked myself that question many times. The businesses that employed union workers are gone now. The greatest social influence are the many churches. There are sooo many churches of the far right persuasion and they all support the same right wing candidates.
All candidates now run as "Christians" and they have packed the local legal system. Hate campaigns are utilized against progressive candidates.
NW Washington

[AmandaRuth]

21. up here in NW Washington as well

and its all about abortion.

[Logansquare]

16. You fear what you don't know

I grew up in rural Ohio, and honestly I think lack of exposure to people who aren't white, Christian, and heterosexual leaves a lot of room for ambiguity and potentially, fear. I myself was frightened of being around people speaking something other than English when I first moved to Chicago. A rental agent took me to a predominately Hispanic neighborhood and just being a minority scared me to death. Now I live in a majority Puerto Rican neighborhood, so people can wise up with the right experiences :-)

In white America, the neo-conservatives have bridged the gap between anxiety and fear with hate media and apocalypse-obsessed religion. Some of my Mom's neighbors are just plain raving with fear and paranoia. Therein lies the strength of the Republican party.

[PurityOfEssence]

17. Conservatism is about the self, liberalism is about the whole

If you live in a rural area, you have contact with very few people, largely of a homogeneous group, and with little change. The pace of rural life is much slower and dependent on things being predictable; my job cycle is on a few days to few months turnaround, whereas a farmer's crop cycle is a year.

There's a reason why big coastal cities are more liberal and tolerant: you come in contact with thousands of people, and have fairly intense dealings with those you've just met and will never see again. The cosmopolitanism of a seaport with those of many nations, fringe groups and whatever else all living together points out the simple necessity of making sure that everyone can at least survive. It also takes the mystery out of "them".

The flexibility of urban dwellers is simple necessity, and adaptability is a strength not so necessary in rural areas. Conservatism rules by fear, and those who are less used to constant change can be spooked rather easily. Those inferiors will take your job. Those rich limousine communists don't understand how just a few more dollars of taxes can just destroy us small people, besides, the money's just gonna go to weird people with strange colored skin who want to spend our taxes for sex-change operations.

It's despicable the way conservatives use fear to motivate, but it's a primitive technique, and they're primitives. Rural areas are quite susceptible to being swayed to the Democratic cause by the traditional safey net they promote; above all else, this is what's necessary to people in sparsely populated areas dependent on few vocations.

Edwards is great for many reasons, but his idea of making videophone physicican consultation available is brilliant. (I'm biased, but you probably know that.) Truly, they're a much better base of support for the Dems if done properly. Who knows if we're going to get our act together...

[ellie]

18. Maybe the gun issue?

I went camping in rural Michigan a couple of weeks ago, and met a man who just loves his guns and hunting. He told me so. He also hates Bush with a passion, but said he voted for Bush because Al Gore wanted to take his guns away. I got into a bit of an argument with him about this misinformation.

I remember reading an interview with Al during the 2000 election cycle who said that hunters and the majority of gun owners are one-issue voters. They are good, law-abiding people who aren't political junkies, so they don't know where all the candidates stand on the issues. They receive mailings from the NRA filled with this ridiculous propaganda about how the Democrats want to take away their guns, so of course they will vote Republican. Of course Al said it better than me paraphrasing him.

Anyway, I think it is/was a concerted effort by the NRA to spread this falsehood. Do you remember the NRA gloating about how they were going to have their very own office in the White House if Bush was elected?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

19. Rural areas used to vote Democratic

In fact, parts of the Upper Midwest were quite leftwing in their day. Minnesota had a Socialist governor, North Dakota had a thriving socialist movement, and Wisconsin had the Progressives.

My theory about what happened is that the economic troubles of the late 1970s and early 1980s hit the rural areas really hard. Remember the news stories about foreclosed farms and abandoned small towns? A lot of farms were lost to large banks, which made some rural people, many of whom had never met anyone who wasn't white and Christian, susceptible to the old mythology about "Communist Jewish bankers." This is when we began seeing the militias.

Meanwhile, the Dems in Congress did very little for the farmers and small towns, so they felt abandoned economically.

Rural people have always been more socially conservative than urban people, and here were the Dems, not only failing to help struggling farmers but also advocating social positions that were hard for them to accept. The Dems also seemed concerned entirely with urban problems, which the rural people couldn't or didn't want to relate to. (I lived in a small town in Oregon for seven years, and I was surprised at how many people hated Portland, not because they'd spent much time there, but because they were sure it was dangerous and full of weird people.)

I suppose that many rural people decided that if the Dems weren't going to help them economically, they might as well go with the party that claimed to hate the same "dangerous, weird" people they did.

Sure, the Republican propaganda is strong, and the churches have been infiltrated, but none of this would have been possible if the Dems had given rural voters a positive reason to vote for them.

[LynneSin]

20. Guns

any questions?