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

[gwheezie]

62. I.live rural, work urban.

By rural I mean we have one traffic light in the county, we have no incorporated city, we have one area that is a collection of houses & some gas stations that are in view of each other that could be called a town. I've been in this county 20 years, I moved from a more populated rural area because it was getting too built up. That being said, I would not live here if I had small children to raise because the place is run by snake handling fundie busy bodies who can't let people be.
For people who claim to be for small government they have a lot to say about the right way to live.
Also several of the neighbors voted for trump to bring jobs back, what jobs? We never had jobs out here, never had manufacturing here. We have farming, logging & sand pits. The farmers want to continue farming the old way that has polluted the creeks & rivers here. The loggers want to be able to clear cut so soil erodes away. And the sand pit just wants to keep digging. And my neighbors as much as they burst into angry rants about where are the jobs would be the 1st ones to stop a company from moving here because it would ruin their way of life.
No manufacturing is going to come out here because nobody wants to raise taxes to widen the roads so you don't have to throw it in reverse and back up to make room for the logging trucks. They don't want to upgrade the phone or electric systems. They don't want to upgrade energy sources so it's mostly propane or wood. They don't want to raise taxes, period. But they blame urban areas for having services not available out here.
There are a lot of wonderful reasons to live here but there are a lot of myths about rural living that are just not true.