Support For President Obama In Rural America....

[PennsylvaniaMatt]

I just came back from a church spaghetti dinner and I noticed a group of older folks that I know from church sitting in a group, so I went over to them to say hello. They were asking about where I was going to go to college and I started talking to the one man in particular, who I just found out is on the board of Cambria County, PA Democrats. When I mentioned that, the guy next to him said, "Yeah, he voted for Obama" as if it was a terrible thing, and I responded "I would have too if I was 18 in time for the election"....

There was disbelief among the rest of the group....You would have thought I just told them I committed a crime!

Rural DUers, what is your experience with being Democrats and Obama supporters in areas of the country where you are outnumbered? The only consolation for me is that my county elects a lot of local Democrats, from the school board to the State House and State Senate, yet there is not a lot of support for President Obama as of late (he won the county in 2008, but lost to Romney by 18% in 2012).

[RobertEarl]

1. They got theirs

And they think Obama is coming for it. Which is what the m$m claims.

Too, Obama is a lame duck. Start thinking about tomorrow and let the old folks go away in peace.

[bluestate10]

2. Republicans have done a better job of spreading their message, however bare and corrupt.

Democrats have largely been too civil. What you should have done is challenge those people at that table about whether say, a Corbin would do a better job. Hit them with facts and don't back down.

[Rstrstx]

3. They can't stand him

You listen to them speak and it's an echo chamber of accusations Rush et al have been throwing at him ever since he took office: he was nothing more than a community organizer, he doesn't know how business works, he was born in Kenya, he is narcissistic and aloof, he wants to ruin the country, he's ultraliberal yadda yadda yadda blah blah blah. I've never heard them say it's because he's black but the inference is there, it need not be spoken. Never EVER do I hear them bring up Bush, but I do hear plenty of National Enquirer type gossip (he dissed Clinton once at the WH, Michelle cruelly dangled some pastries in front of Oprah without offering her any, trash like that). Note that these are among rural white people in Central Texas, but I have heard it here every now and again here among the white rednecks in South Texas (all three of them).

[Douglas Carpenter]

4. I grew up in a little town called Corry, PA on the edge of Erie County

Erie County itself went for Obama in both 2008 and 2012. That is because the population of Erie itself is fairly consistently Democratic like most cities around the U.S. are. But in this little town of Corry, PA which I actually moved away from some 40 years ago - but have recently reconnected via Facebook - it seems that the politics are all about Guns and Jesus. And otherwise sensible people will believe the craziest things - like seriously believe that Obama is a Communist and a Muslim who is going to take away their guns, force abortion and gay marriage down their throats while imposing Sharia law. Of course there are a handful of Democrats even some unabashedly liberal Democrats in such places - but most of the rest of the population seems to believe really crazy stuff - and give the impression that they have never heard of another point of view. When I have gotten into it with them on internet discussions - I start explaining why I am not completely happy with Obama too - and this just throws them off. It's like they have heard that Obama is so extreme in his radically left-wing policies - they cannot imagine someone pointing out that on most economic issue Obama and most leading Democrats of today are well to the right of what moderate Republicans were a few decades ago. This of course tends to make them go quite - because they just didn't know it was possible to be more extreme than Obama and when they hear that old style Republicans were at least on economic matters well to the left of Obama - they cannot argue with the facts - but they just don't know what to say.

[cali]

5. well, i don't suppose my experience is the norm

I live in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom, the most rural part of the state in a hardscrabble town that still went for President Obama as did all the towns and villages in the state except for two.

[PennsylvaniaMatt]

6. You're right...

Unfortunately, I wish towns in the rest of rural America were as forward thinking and open to the facts as rural towns in New England!

[Stargazer09]

7. An old guy down the street

Has a minivan covered with anti-progressive (anti-reality) bumper stickers. "Birther on Board," etc.

It can be scary here.