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Dec. 4th, 2016 08:57 pmI am getting sick of the whole "identity politics vs rural america" narrative
Let me talk about my area. I live a quarter mile away from two different cornfields. I drive past four different cow pastures on my way to work, and I don't know how many farms. My area does not have a Starbucks - according to google the nearest is an hour away. My town does not have a /Walmart/.
Do you know what /else/ we don't have? Public transportation. Voter's advocacy groups. Planned Parenthood offices (the nearest place that does in house abortions is at least two hours away, and may be up to five hours away.) Veteran's Affairs offices. An economy based on more than coal and farming. In some places, reliable internet and phone services.
There are actual infrastructure problems in rural America. But you will note that /none/ of the things I mentioned are fixed by "well maybe if we talked less about brown people". Because trust me, there are brown people here too. There are four latinix families on my street and I frankly am /terrified/ for their sake because you know what? We don't have any immigrant advocacy groups here either.
If you wanna talk heartland politics, /that/ is the shit you need to be addressing. Not any of this "let's pretend to be conservative so that white people will vote for us" bullshit.
Let me talk about my area. I live a quarter mile away from two different cornfields. I drive past four different cow pastures on my way to work, and I don't know how many farms. My area does not have a Starbucks - according to google the nearest is an hour away. My town does not have a /Walmart/.
Do you know what /else/ we don't have? Public transportation. Voter's advocacy groups. Planned Parenthood offices (the nearest place that does in house abortions is at least two hours away, and may be up to five hours away.) Veteran's Affairs offices. An economy based on more than coal and farming. In some places, reliable internet and phone services.
There are actual infrastructure problems in rural America. But you will note that /none/ of the things I mentioned are fixed by "well maybe if we talked less about brown people". Because trust me, there are brown people here too. There are four latinix families on my street and I frankly am /terrified/ for their sake because you know what? We don't have any immigrant advocacy groups here either.
If you wanna talk heartland politics, /that/ is the shit you need to be addressing. Not any of this "let's pretend to be conservative so that white people will vote for us" bullshit.
