Rural America: You won't change their minds.

[Comatose Sphagetti]

I live here, in deepest, darkest red rural Indiana. I can look out my window at night and not see a light in any direction. It is beautiful here... quiet, peaceful, nature galore. And that's why I stay.

But the majority of people that surround me...

They are not free thinkers. Jesus rules. Intellectuals are suspect/resented. They are tribal/insular. They fear outsiders. They are well armed in the event "outsiders" (city people, blacks, hispanics, Muslims, etc.) invade their territory. Liberal means baby killer, weak, lazy. They do not know what cognitive dissonance is. They are not highly educated. Addiction is not a disease process, but a moral failing. Racism is rampant. They are not well traveled. They are, in a word, terrified of the outside world and the change it represents.

And you will not change any of this, ever, with reason and logic.

[Skittles]

1. which is why I say, to hell with the willfully ignorant

time to focus on people who fail to vote

[Warpy]

4. I don't. I know where my food comes from.

I had to learn how to cope with defensive rural people when I was a nurse and I've carried that over into other things.

[JimBeard]

10. Not too much farmland in New Mexico

Some on the Eastern Plains, The valley, and the Navajos.

[Warpy]

13. There's more than you think

along with ranches running sheep and/or cattle on the desert scrub. It takes more acreage to support them out here, but land is pretty cheap away from the towns. There is farmland bordering much of the length of the Rio Grande and it gets downright lush as the land flattens out south of Elephant Butte and the big reservoir there.

[JimBeard]

19. Thats what I meant by "the valley". Once you leave San Antonio and go south all the

road signs state The Valley and have an arrow pointing south to the Rio Grande.

Sold some hay to a guy that had a family ranch north of Socorro and he told me the drought was so bad a few years ago that he could walk across the Pecos and not get wet. More water in the Rio Grande and New Mexico State University. I can still tell you that farmers on the Eastern Plains vote republican.

[kcr]

58. That's fine, but we're talking about politics and how you get them to vote.

How you deal with people like that in day to day life is different from how they vote. I think people often conflate the two, and that's a mistake.

[Warpy]

70. First, you stop writing them off completely

The problem with the DNC honchos is that they've all bought in to the fiction that party dollars must be spent only in states where they know they can win. In two years, Dr. Dean proved hem 100% wrong Once he was out of office, they went back to their losing strategy.

I love my fellow Democrats, but damn, those conservative jerks in the halls of party power make it damned difficult.

[Hangingon]

68. Pretty much why we lost "rural" America.

Call them names. Tell them they are stupid. Ignore them during the campaign. Great game plan.

[resistance2016]

71. They're called racist because THEY ARE racist. THEY ARE stupid.

Fuck them, fuck them now, fuck them yesterday, and fuck them tomorrow. They DON'T care about YOU, they don't even care about their own goddamn kids! You're NOT going to reach them, EVER. They would gladly kill you, me, and everyone else who posts here if they could get away with it.

But, by all means, keep reaching out to them. See what it gets you. If you're the wrong color, it'll get you killed.

[philosslayer]

73. Where do you get your food?

The supermarket i'm guessing?

These are the people the OP is talking. They're from Indiana no less.

Uneducated hicks. We'd be better off without them, right?

[Kilgore]

81. And we will gladly accept your money

For food, paper, wood, energy and just about anything else you consume.

greetings from Rural America.

[WestSeattle2]

2. I don't think we have to. Remember, if only 100,000 votes in three upper Midwest states had

voted D instead of R, Trump would be an asterisk by now. If rural America wants to live in the past, more power to them. But the rest of America will not be joining them, nor losing any sleep over the fact that they choose to live like delicate little buttercups, cowering in fear of the outside world. There is no reason that rational, educated Americans need to kowtow to the crazy loons who scream "Jeebus!" while grabbing their AR-15, every time they see their shadow.

[LonePirate]

3. Agreed. Democrats are wasting time even listening to much of rural America.

We have tried to improve the lives of rural Americans by helping them obtain health care and by improving their educational systems at all levels. They have been ungrateful, selfish and indignant the entire time.

Our time and energy would be better spent helping those in rural America who want a better life away from their bigoted, ignorant and unappreciative neighbors. I refuse to suck up to rural America because, as a whole, they have fucked us over too many times. There are some good, honest people in rural America who deserve our attention. The vast majority of them are beyond salvage, though. It's time to let them live in the repressive and dystopic America they prefer.

[Wellstone ruled]

5. Remember there was a Guy who ran for office

back in 1991who said this,It is the Economy Stupid. Enough said.

[LenaBaby61]

6. Comatose Sphagetti ...

Are you sure of this?

I mean, holding their hands, gentle kissing of their arsses CONTINUALLY and a big, delicious cup of cocoa (with marshmallows) won't change their minds towards "Godless" baby-killing Liberals, women, the blacks, the mexicans, or that so-called liberal media that never existed?

You're being SO mean to your fellow Hoosiers IMHO. I think that with some patience and love, we can help them turn the corner and get a warm and fuzzy feeling inside about their feelings towards even Pres. Obama too ....

[COLGATE4]

34. Don't forget inviting them to sit in a circle

and sing Kumbaya with you. That's sure fire to get them to see things our way.

[JimBeard]

7. I live in the same situation in Texas

I made my money in agriculture and am now retired. My opinion varies with the day on the political leanings of most of the small town people. What you see is full families living there, many unable to leave and find better employment. They stay and listen to the small town doctors and bankers whose opinions are memorized and always agreed on.

Afterall, if they are going to get a loan to fix their car, they need to talk the talk to the small town banker. Curse Obama Care to the doctor you may need to ask for credit. The church gives a "helping hand" when other problems arise. How on earth would they ever survive.

I thought that Food Stamps, WIC and other aids would stop that but people still know.

Lets say they are stuck in low gear and can't shift into 2nd.

[alittlelark]

8. I will not write off a whole segment of AMERICA....

Yes, they are undereducated and underpriviledged,. but I will not not deny them the faith and belief that they can THINK and CHANGE.

[radical noodle]

30. But they don't feel undereducated or underpriviledged

they like things the way they were 50 years ago and want to keep it that way. The last Democrat they claim to have liked was either Bill Clinton (because he could be all folksy and fuzzy) or JFK who they only liked after he was dead. Even if they voted for Obama (because they were pissed about Bush), they didn't necessarily like him or his precious arugula. "For God's sake, why doesn't the man just eat lettuce like the rest of us?"

[COLGATE4]

36. These 'good people, the common clay of the midwest-

you know- Morons' also are in the habit of calling anyone with education beyond High School
an "educated fool".

[radical noodle]

39. Yes, and in many cases they are good people

and their lives revolve around the local high school basketball team, not academics.

[COLGATE4]

40. or HS football ('specially in Texas)

[radical noodle]

42. Football is too expensive

for some of the very small rural schools in Indiana. But yes, whatever sport is popular locally, that's what grabs the attention and also salaries.

[JimBeard]

76. In Texas we don't surrender, we go to 6-man football :)

[resistance2016]

72. Think and change? Underprivileged? You're talking about rural white Americans?

[Humanist_Activist]

75. Rural whites are underprivileged? Since when, they got their guys controlling both houses of...

Congress and the Presidency!

[atreides1]

82. My mom

Felt the same way about my brother, that he could THINK and CHANGE! It wasn't until she was in her last days, dying from cancer that she finally realized that she had been mistaken...she knew that his ability to think about changing, was never going to happen!

You see my brother had served time in prison, beginning when he was 19, he turned a two year sentence into 7, because he escaped twice! And after he got out, he wasn't able to change...even with her support and help!

My mother died in 1992, my brother has been in and out of prison from the age of 19...the last word I got was that he was still in and out of prison.

You know why he didn't change, because it was a life that he was familiar with, one he was comfortable with, one that he understood and no matter how hard others in the family tried to help him...he was just not going to change!

The same applies to that segment of AMERICA, they are comfortable with the familiar, it's a life style that they understand...some of them might change, but not enough to make them more important then those Democrats who either didn't vote or had their right to vote suppressed!

Save those that can be saved...and let those that don't want to be saved go on their merry way!!!

[Comatose Sphagetti]

92. "Save those that can be saved...and let those that don't want to be saved go on their merry way!!!"

Nailed it. Well said!!!

[elleng]

9. POTUS said today:

'What I've said is that I can maybe give some counsel advice to the Democratic Party. And I think the -- the -- the thing we have to spend the most time on -- because it's the thing we have most control over -- is, how do we make sure that we're showing up in places where I think Democratic policies are needed, where they are helping, where they are making a difference, but where people feel as if they're not being heard?

And where Democrats are characterized as coastal, liberal, latte- sipping, you know, politically correct, out-of-touch folks, we have to be in those communities. And I've seen that, when we are in those communities, it makes a difference. That's how I became president. I became a U.S. Senator not just because I had a strong base in Chicago, but because I was driving downstate Illinois and going to fish fries and sitting in V.F.W. Halls and talking to farmers.

And I didn't win every one of their votes, but they got a sense of what I was talking about, what I cared about, that I was for working people, that I was for the middle class, that the reason I was interested in strengthening unions and raising the minimum wage and rebuilding our infrastructure and making sure that parents had decent childcare and family leave, was because my own family's history wasn't that different from theirs even if I looked a little bit different. Same thing in Iowa.

And so the question is, how do we rebuild that party as a whole, so that there's not a county in any state -- I don't care how red -- where we don't have a presence and we're not making the argument, because I think we have a better argument. But that requires a lot of work. You know, it's been something that I've been able to do successfully in my own campaigns.'

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/12/16/transcript-obamas-end-of-year-news-conference-on-syria-russian-hacking-and-more/?utm_term=.a3f6a252e8bf

[msongs]

24. odd he says this considering the 50 state strategy died the day he was sworn in so to speak nt

[elleng]

26. Not quite.

http://www.fairvote.org/the-real-november-election-showdown-howard-deans-50-state-strategy-vs-rahm-emmanuels-traditional-approach

[LeftInTX]

25. +++++++++++++

[Arazi]

32. +1. Bernie's already doing it

[elleng]

35. Yes and, of course, HAD been.

[uponit7771]

52. Could you point me to Sanders plan on this? thx in advance

[dflprincess]

11. It was rural Minnesota that just handed the state legislature back to the Republicans

supposedly they were feeling ignored and don't like all them big city librul values that are being shoved down their throats (said values being items like same sex marriage).

They don't whine about the Local Government Aid that their towns and counties get - largely financed by taxes collected from the big city liberals.

But, to be fair, I have relatives who live in rural Minnesota but they are all DFLers and they don't understand what's wrong with the people in their areas. My aunt lives in a county where farmers were voting Republican even when it was FDR who was saving their farms from foreclosure.

We're just all thankful that Dayton is still governor or we could wind up like Wisconsin.

[sarisataka]

12. I didn't realize that Democrats are doing so well

that we can write off huge swaths of the country. I thought we just lost an election but apparently we can win the next one by only focusing on the areas we won this time. No need to look for non-voters to come out or try to change a red district blue.

[JimBeard]

17. Huge swath but not that many people. Just shave a little off the sides and thats all we need.

[sarisataka]

23. And that large,

Last edited Sat Dec 17, 2016, 01:40 AM - Edit history (1)

Underpopulated swath represents about 135 Electoral votes we concede without a fight. This strategy puts any Republican candidate half way to the White House never having to lift a finger.

I haven't added up how many House and Senate seat are gifted away as well

[LonePirate]

27. We could write each of them a check for $1M and they would still vote Republican.

Most of rural America will never vote for a Democrat and we will need to stop wasting time and money chasing after them.

[sarisataka]

31. Never know for sure

If we don't even try for the votes. Lots of folks are not voting, who knows who they would support.

No one should gripe, however, about the votes of rural America if we don't campaign in those states and repeatedly profess we don't want their votes. By voting Republican they are simply doing what we are asking them to do

[LonePirate]

33. Rural people are voting. It's the urban and suburban people who are not voting.

We are better off not chasing the rural vote in much of the country because they will never vote for a Democrat. It is a complete waste of our time and money. Let them continue to vote for Republicans who screw them over. Those masochists evidently enjoy torturing themselves that way.

[Nwgirl503]

83. We DO know for sure

All anyone has to do is look at rural America voting patterns historically and see it's red red red since the 50's, with few exceptions. Those areas have been hit by Dems many times in that time frame, and yet they still vote a majority of the time, repub. For pres and for local representation.

Maybe I'm just feeling particularly disheartened today, but I can't see any way to get those votes. And the non-voting numbers in those areas, just like the popular majority vote for pres, won't ultimately matter even if we could find a way to infliltrate or educate.

[JimBeard]

45. Add up the huge amout of farm subsidies that go to a few that

suck the budget without helping others.

[sarisataka]

46. You're right,

We need to slash government benefits to non-productive people.


Sorry I thought I was on a Democratic site. My bad.

[Squinch]

49. Are you intentionally mischaracterizing the post you responded to, or do you just not

understand what the poster was saying?

[sarisataka]

54. I read that post

As an exact parallel to Republican complaints about welfare programs.

[Squinch]

59. So the latter, then.

[sarisataka]

61. I am open to hearing

a different interpretation

[JimBeard]

62. Well, you read wrong. In this day and time the farm welfare is CORPORATE WELFARE

There are very few small farms. Just take a trip to ewg.org and look at the farm subsidy data base.

Look at the large houses they live in as compared to someone that is busting their butt at Walmart.

They also have government subsidized crop insurance. Many just half ass a crop and collect the insurance.

Yes I am a Democrat and I farmed until last April, so I know what I am talking about.

According to you, Donald Trump should get a subsidy because he produces products.

Where you are missing it is that the most government money goes the farmers at the top.

This has been my position from at least 2000. I have even told congressmen to qiut giving money to the big farmers but it is the Republicans insist that it goes to all.

Check out what I am saying at https://farm.ewg.org/

Farm Database

[sarisataka]

66. Then we should

reform the farm subsidy system to continue to support small farms. All farmers I know are family operations and government aid is the only thing keeping them viable. Then could, and likely eventually will, sell out to corporate ops but they are trying to maintain the family business.

The broad based rejection of everything rural simply sells out those small operations so power and profit will continue to concentrate in the hands of the few. Abandoning a traditional Democratic group just pushes them into the Republican camp, whether it is in their best interests or not.

Fighting in those areas we have allowed to turn red will not be easy. We may not get any of those state's Electoral votes for generations. But we just might pick up some House or even Senate seats which would make it all worth it. Even winning at the state level would have benefit.

None of this requires giving up our core positions on social justice.

[rainy]

14. could some of their ignorance be because of Fox News and talk radio?

[elmac]

28. Yes

its called a fox news lobotomy and Obamacare doesn't cover it.

[JimBeard]

15. It is getting worse every year. I see my towns share of Democratic votes shift from 35%

to 18% this year. Not going to get any better.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

16. If government action hits them, such as lost SS benefits...

... they'll come around.

Focusing on the racist/xenophobic behavior, there's also racists who vote for Democrats.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-race-idUSKCN0ZE2SW

About 40 percent of Trump supporters placed whites higher on the "hardworking" scale than blacks, while 25 percent of Clinton supporters did the same. And 44 percent of Trump supporters placed whites as more "well mannered" than blacks, compared with 30 percent of Clinton supporters.

Telling those kinds of Clinton supporters that "we don't want your votes anymore" probably wouldn't be smart. Does that mean Democrats should ever embrace that kind of behavior? No! People have various reasons for voting as they do, though.

[Binkie The Clown]

18. All the traits you mention...

... served to help mankind survive the stone age. The pity of the human race is that it still has the stone age impulses that served us so well in our insular, tribal past, but don't work so well in the modern world.

Another reason why the human race is doomed to bring about its own extinction. We, as a group, can't seem to outgrow the stone age.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

21. I tend to agree. Humans lived FAR longer in small family tribes...

... compared to "civilizations."

There's a professor in Connecticut named Peter Turchin who is fascinated in civilizations throughout history -- i.e., what helped them arise, what made them collapse, etc.

His statistics-based conclusion is that "outside threats" were most responsible for people coming together to form bigger groups among strangers.

Civilizations that fell apart? The two most common reasons according to him:
1. Outside threats indeed conquered them.
2. Inequality of resources when they collapsed from within.

I sometimes envy small, nomadic tribes myself -- like earlier today when the Christmas shopping maniacs were out in force and clogging the roads!

[coolbreeze77]

20. Thank you. We need to work around these people and stop pretending that they listen

to us. Sure it's a nice gesture on our part but you don't see republicans making the same play for young people or people who live in cities. They devote their resources elsewhere they can win. We should too. We already are the majority we just have to figure out a way to get the democratic base out for every election.

[Comatose Sphagetti]

69. This. Work around. (EOM)

[smirkymonkey]

22. K&R

[BeyondGeography]

29. 30 million non-college educated whites sat out in 2012

That's a huge number and Trump obviously motivated more than a few of those to vote for him last month. They put him over the hump, in fact. We need to at least compete for these votes.

[radical noodle]

37. The Party should decide it's values on issues first

then try to get voters to see how those things are valuable to them, not the other way around. For example, take the issues that Hillary had and see how they could be somehow presented to rural voters to make them want to vote for someone with those policies. I'm not sure you can, but maybe there's a way.

Here's another thing. Rural Indiana folks don't need to make $15 an hour to make a living wage. They see it as ridiculous. Sure they'd love to get it, but they see people working in fast food who want to make $15 an hour and that's more than a wage they're happy to get at the local machine shop... and that's just a start. In the cities, $15 isn't enough to live on while people in some parts of rural Indiana would like kings on that.

But we also have to fix these major problems like voter suppression, gerrymandering, and fake news. Those are the things that have been killing us. Don't forget to add politicized judges who have no grounding in the constitution or law.

[StevieM]

43. Sometimes the fake news comes to people from the real news media, like the fake email scandal.

People bought it. Just like they bought the Swift Boat Lies.

And remember when Al Gore lost a presidential election because he said he went to Texas with the Director of FEMA when he actually went with the Deputy Director of FEMA?

It is hard to win under those circumstances. And the Republicans will always have another fake scandal ready to come down the pike. You can be sure that if Bernie Sanders or Martin O'Malley had been the nominee we would have heard all about what miserable human beings they were.

[radical noodle]

44. Absolutely

No one running as a Democrat is exempt. No one!

[47of74]

38. Like Thomas Paine said

And that's regardless of where they live. City. Country. Or somewhere in between.

[radical noodle]

41. Indeed! n/t

[C Moon]

47. and which is why, too, we must get rid of the fucking Electoral College!

[Bayard]

48. I've lived in various areas of the country

From South to Midwest to Calif. From totally rural to big city. I've found that bigotry exists everywhere. Its just better hidden in some.

Rural people are not all deplorables. My mom was a life-long, die-hard Democrat from South Carolina. She was about as "rural" as they come (she actually had to pull a plow when she was a kid because my grandparents couldn't afford a mule). I'm the same way, finally back in po-dunk Kentucky. Hated city living. My younger brother turned into a Rethug, and we have spirited debates. I think he was assimilated because of his in-laws influence, and the places he's worked in southern Indiana. At first he was gung-ho Trump. Now he at least says, "Well, they're some things I don't agree with him". That tells me there's still hope, and the next few years will be quite eye opening for him.

What I hear from my brother, and tons of other rural people, is fear of change. Then Trump comes along and tells them they need to be even more afraid. They feel like they are in a fight for survival.

[JimBeard]

64. I helped my 91 year old mother vote for Hillary.

She remembers as a young girl seeing the REA bringing electricity to their farm and house. My brother and I both were farmers and still vote Democratic, my sisters are Republican (one is a deplorable and the other is married to a doctor).

[DemocraticWing]

50. We certainly won't win any over if we don't try.

There's way too many places where Democrats don't even put up a fight. A bunch of Republicans who don't even have opponents. Counties without official Democratic Party structures. We don't even have people making ANY argument.

Making that argument is the difference between getting 20% of the vote in a county and getting 40% of the vote in a county. Sure we won't win, but that's the difference that caused Trump to win the Midwest.

[JimBeard]

74. I know how you feel because I have felt the same for years.

I have thought of everything I can to win people over in my little county but it gets worse every year.

In Texas, people have given up. Who wants to go into debt and then be shut off of any money from the DNC. It cost money for advertising to be humiliated losing 80 to 20.

When you figure out how to do this, let me know. I will darn sure do it.

[Quixote1818]

85. Agree 100%. The OP's message is a recipe for disaster

Bush courted the Hispanic vote and got 44%. Trump got around 29% which is a difference of 15% when courted than when not. Not trying to get rural voters could be costing us 15% and perhaps some states we never though we could compete in.

[Lostnote]

51. I understand your observation...

.... however why do you stay?... Surely there is something that keeps you tethered to your rural outpost?... The link may be that you share more in common with them than they fully realize.... Keep reminding them(slyly) that the monetized facts of their lives are disproportionate to their well being while under GOP leadership... Best Wishes and btw I'm from KY so I do fully appreciate your dilemma....

[many a good man]

53. Don't have to change ALL their minds

Just enough to win some elections. Obviously many are unreachable but many do switch between parties, at least at the national level.

To many people reason alone can not counter decades of effective right wing propaganda that has completely blurred reality. Liberals need to sustain better messaging and marketing techniques backed by solid achievements to cut through it. It will require a major effort from politicians and artists - writers, TV and movie producers, songwriters, etc.

Liberal democracies throughout the western world are under siege, abetted by sophisticated social media propaganda, fake news, and other cyber operations. We need to mount a spectacular response to avert the future hell that awaits us all.

[Baitball Blogger]

55. Yup. That's what we're fighting against.

[milestogo]

56. And they truly believe that they were "raised better" than everyone else.

Its a virtue to say exactly what you think, even if it harms others.

[sarisataka]

63. Funny thing is

those criticizing rural folks (and not just the Trump voters) truly believe that they were "raised better". Yet they do not level anywhere near as harsh of criticism on urban Trump voters as they do on all rural people.

[milestogo]

65. Urban Trump voters are generally filthy rich and they do get a lot of criticism.

I think there is animosity between urban and rural voters - I guess what I was pointing out is the implied superiority of talking about how you were raised as if it is better in a rural area than a non-rural area.

I rarely hear non-rural people talk about how they were raised. There's an assumption that people choose their own values, they don't assume those of their parents.

[etherealtruth]

57. Unfortunately, rural America's votes carry much more weight than the "rest of us"

it rears its ugly head during election years but rural states (and rural populations) are significantly over-valued in congress.

Wyoming's three member congressional delegation represent a total of 586, 107 people (for simplicity sake there is one congressional meme br for every 195, 369 people/ 1 house member for every 586,107 people) ... in juxtaposition to California's 55 member congressional delegation which represent 38.8 million people (again for simplicity one congress member for every 705, 455 people/ 1 house member for every 732,075 people).

When discussing this we should at least be honest and acknowledge that rural voices (votes) are given disproportionate power ... it is built into our system. Our government frequently does not represent the majority of the citizens of the US. It is unfortunate, but once again it is built into our system.

[Emilybemily]

60. When the economy crashes and we are at war

They might wake up. But they may be too fucking stupid to get it even then.

[hollowdweller]

67. I wonder when we block illegals and countries ban US agricultural imports how they will feel

Oh and China who imports US coal declares and embargo. How will they feel then?

[Skittles]

80. the word 'illegal' is an ADJECTIVE

NOT A NOUN

http://keller.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/13/llegals/?_r=0

[RKP5637]

77. Alex Jones territory? n/t

[JimBeard]

78. I think we are really mis understanding the vote problem. It isn't

rural areas but towns up to 100,000. You could call Midland, Texas a city or rural but almost every city that size voted republican. It isn't the very small but the medium size.

[Quixote1818]

79. This is a stereotype. Many are and many are not this way.

We don't have to win over 100% of the rural vote, just reach out and get perhaps 3% more than we normally get if not more. Remember, even the rural areas are purple, not red. In many rural areas Dems get 40 or even 50% of the vote already. We just need to cushion those numbers. Not trying is insane.

[guillaumeb]

84. You will definitely not change their minds by dismissing all of their concerns while insulting

their behavior and intelligence.

Born in a very small rural town.

[Quixote1818]

86. Thank you. nt

[guillaumeb]

87. Thank you for your excellent response also. eom

[JimBeard]

90. I have lived in small towns other than my University years all my life.

The words we always heard from our congressman was the big city people are the ones getting all the money or preventing such and such. They have been pissed about Food Stamps for years but have to be reminded that they are funded from the same funds that subsidies are in the Department of Agriculture.

Strange I am remembering some of these things.

[guillaumeb]

91. True. My family is from a very small town of under 1000 people when I was born.

And yes, some people think that benefits are only what other people receive.

[Humanist_Activist]

88. The problem is that their concerns are either social issues...

or economic issues that they approach from the most backwards way possible.

They vote based on God, Guns and Gays, add in being pretty much still segregationist, white supremacist, and voraciously anti-choice, and there's little to nothing the Democratic party can offer them without compromising its closely held values.

[guillaumeb]

89. Assuming that each and every one indeed is exactly as you describe them,

but given that many of them voted for President Obama, I disagree.

[Humanist_Activist]

93. How many of those people really switched from Obama to Trump in this election...

And did it for actual economic reasons?

[guillaumeb]

95. If they initially voted for President Obama,

we can possibly discount race as a deciding factor.

Could misogyny have been another factor? Of course.

Could the generally stagnant economy have been still another factor?

[Different Drummer]

94. ...

They are not free thinkers. Jesus rules. Intellectuals are suspect/resented. They are tribal/insular. They fear outsiders. They are well armed in the event "outsiders" (city people, blacks, hispanics, Muslims, etc.) invade their territory. Liberal means baby killer, weak, lazy. They do not know what cognitive dissonance is. They are not highly educated. Addiction is not a disease process, but a moral failing. Racism is rampant. They are not well traveled. They are, in a word, terrified of the outside world and the change it represents.

And you will not change any of this, ever, with reason and logic.

You just described the part of Georgia where I live, so you are not alone.