"Rural Democrats: Party Ignored Us, Suffered the Consequences" - Rollcall

[lumberjack_jeff]

Democrats in rural America have a blunt message for the rest of their party: We saw the electoral disaster coming — and it’s your fault.

Strategists and party officials say their warnings about the party’s lackluster outreach to rural voters went unheeded by Democratic leaders for years, culminating in this month’s shock defeat to Donald Trump. A presidential candidate who actually performed poorly in many cities and suburbs nonetheless scored an upset victory because of a surge in support from small towns and rural areas.

To these old Democratic political hands — many of whom hail from well outside the cities where most party professionals live — the outcome would have been preventable if the party had developed and sustained an effort to win over these voters. Instead, they say a Democratic Party that focused on only the urban and suburban vote either ignored rural America entirely or badly mishandled the outreach it did undertake.
“The Democratic Party ceded rural America to the Republicans quite some time ago,” said Vickie Rock, a member of the Nevada State Democratic Central Committee from rural Humboldt County. “They invested nothing, they built no bench. They don’t even send out signs anymore, which is a staple of rural politics.

“All Trump had to do was peel off a small percentage of urban votes, and he was going to win,” Rock said. “Because he already had, in his back pocket, rural America.”
...
“When they do show up, it’s 22-year-old kids from the Ivy League,” Sadler said. “And they’re telling you what do, as opposed to stopping and listening.”

To these strategists, the Democratic Party has become captive by a set of city-dwelling political professionals who personally don’t understand the important differences of urban versus rural campaigns. It’s a blindness that led them to dismiss the results of successive midterm elections, electoral wipeouts that many Democrats believed was mostly a consequence of the party’s urban base failing to turn out.

“The brilliant ones at top know better,” said Nancy Larson, a member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. “And they come down and say, ‘This is what you do, this is what you say, this is what you have your candidates do, and don’t stray from this.’”

Larson added: “They talk about the messages that worked in very urban areas, where you have a million people or more. But they don’t know how to talk about ordinary people.”

- See more at: http://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/rural-democrats-ignored-suffer-consequences#sthash.KfkOCH8w.mXqb27cT.dpuf

[LenaBaby61]

1. Do those folks there know that they'll be suffering ...

the consequences themselves? NO health insurance, Reduction in Social Security and maybe losing Medicare and Social Security, and on top of that, they won't be getting all those "fantastic" jobs their president promised THEM.

But then again, some of those same folks who voted for tRump want to punish others even if it means that they themselves will be suffering.

SMDH.

[pennylane100]

2. I have not read the article at the link but the headline tells only half the story.

If the democratic party paid a price for ignoring rural democrats (which is hard to believe), those democrats who did not vote for their party because they felt ignored will suffer an even bigger price. Four years of a Trump government will be a disaster for them. Sadly, they along with the rest of the country, will pay dearly for electing a psychopath as our leader.

[lumberjack_jeff]

5. Government services aren't designed to serve rural populations

Nonprofits which deliver services for people with disabilities, victims of violence, the homeless etc, are primarily located at urban centers.

The risk of Republicans repealing Obamacare and defunding medicare is kind of academic when their "local" (only 50 miles away) hospital just closed.

I often wish that some of the US organizations dedicated to helping people abroad, consider directing some of that assistance closer to home.

[DonCoquixote]

6. so taking them away from cities

will give them to rural folk? That does not sound very consistent. And as if the GOP would want to expand any of them for anyone, rural or urban. The GOP likes rural America as it is, poor and weak, and blaming women or minorities will not help you.

[LakeArenal]

8. I don't know who once said this...

When we give aid overseas it's humanitarian..
when we give aid here it's a handout....

[elleng]

3. 'Thanks,' Jeff.

Another article, to see some of the Dem ptb 'thinking' that's occurred:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-hubris-of-the-clinton-ground-game_us_5831cebce4b099512f835e78

[murielm99]

4. I am a rural Democrat.

I am tired of being vivisected by writers, pundits and other know-nothings. I am tired of being blamed, too. My husband and I worked damned hard to elect Democrats, as we always do. We have enough divisions in our country right now. We don't need a bunch of asshole pundits creating false or exaggerated ones within our ranks.

While there may be some differences between us and our urban counterparts, I know the people all want the same things. They want security, jobs, health care, education, housing, dignity. This cuts across race, gender, creed and whatever else you can mention.

I know my neighbors. I know who will vote, who will sign my petitions, who can possibly be turned for certain elections and votes. I work on those people and with those people at every opportunity. Can all my urban counterparts make the same claim?

Fuck the stereotypes. And that goes for DU members who are dumping on us, too.

[DonCoquixote]

7. I am not dumping on you

as I am in Tampa, a city , but one very close to the rural areas. I know many worked hard to get Hillary in. The problem comes in when people (who I cannot name since the os forbids it) come on as self -appointed spokespeople for rural america and say a message that is "those women and minorities are to blame,." This is usually followed by something mealy-mouthed, like "ya better do what we tell ya to do or else you will lose." I know many rural people would laugh at these self -appointed spokespeople, but when those folks get the megaphone, it pours salt into wounds.

You cannot have civil right without economic rights, and vice versa, while some seem to want one and screw the other.

[Tumbulu]

9. I disagree

It was the 25+ years of hate am radio and later Faux News that became standard thinking for rural people. The endless attack on Feminazi's ie Hillary made it impossible for her to make any headway.

The misogyny and hatred of all things liberal is utterly normalized in rural areas. I know, I have spent my adult life working in the rural US.

[world wide wally]

10. Just wait to see what you get now.