So: What do we do about the fact that small-town and rural Americans are so out of touch

[herding cats]

59. What we need to do is mobilize voters in urban areas.

That should be our main focus, not pandering to the rural vote. The vast majority aren't reachable, and I know, all too intimately, what I'm speaking about. I worked Democratic outreach in rural areas in a red state. This was the worst election cycle I've ever seen. It was by far worse than 2008 or 2012. They hate us, blindly hate us now. Not because of facts, but fictionalized conspiracies they've accepted. Immigrants are ruining the country and stealing their jobs, and now we're letting in terrorist, women are using abortion as an excuse to be "immoral", Obama has incited a race war, Democrats want to take away gun rights, raising taxes kills job production. They're perfectly happy believing bullshit lies, and on that note, yeah, promise them a rainbow unicorn that craps gold nuggets for their very own. If it comes with higher taxes, they'd just as soon shoot it, field dress it and serve it with pan gravy than accept it from you.

These people are ruled by their church leaders, who are political, and extremely RW. They (the majority I've spoken to) believe progressive thought is a "sin" and that they're going to hell for even entertaining such beliefs. I've watched this progression toward extremism in their religious beliefs since the late 1990's. Even watching it take place in realtime, it shocks me how far they've retreated into their self imposed insular thinking. The religious extremist used to be half, or less, of the population in these areas, now they run (too) many of the small towns. They hold the school board positions, are sitting on the county seats, are the heads of the churches, own the businesses, and are the people who employ and train the youth who don't run screaming at 18.

The ones like these people who didn't vote for Trump, just didn't vote for a president. That was their idea of a moral stand against him. I was told by some it was their pastors suggestion for those who couldn't force themselves to vote for a self admitted sinner.

They are about limiting women's rights to birth control, and little to no gun control. They hate taxes (see above: even on the wealthy) and paying for social services (which they use freely, but that's different in their eyes). They're extremely gullible when it comes to believing what they want to believe and they simply ignore what they don't want to believe. And, this isn't because they're all poor and/or under educated. I had a conversation with a well educated retired woman, from a upper class family (father was an attorney for Exxon, and her husband was an accountant for ExxonMobil), before the election who went full Alex Jones CT on me about the Clinton's in her explanation of why she early voted for Trump.

Yes, there's maybe 20%-35% of the population that's possibly still reachable at this time, but many won't come out of the closet and be vocal Democrats in true deep rural areas now. It's a death sentence for their businesses/incomes.


Off the top of my head I think we need to focus on Democratic voter access to the polls, and urban outreach. We need to get people registered to vote, in all regions/states, who fit our demographics. We need to work (actually work, not internet work) our asses off to get people to the polls this midterm election, and the next. Do not sit back and rely on Trump being 'so bad they'll learn their lesson', because they won't. I know people won't believe me, but they won't learn from this. They're living a completely different reality than you and I.

If you're talking about people in the Rust Belt, we need to explain the difference to them between NAFTA and CAFTA, and how the latter was under Bush. That's the big one I ran into talking to people there. Oh, and maybe explain China isn't in North America to them? That was another sore spot a lot of people didn't understand, how trade with China wasn't due to NAFTA.