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In reply to the discussion: Rural America Is Desperate. It Is Also Part of the Democratic Base. Don't Abandon Them. [View all]gratuitous
(82,849 posts)We offered rural folks universal health care, but had to settle for keeping insurance companies in the mix. Instead of tweaking the program, Republicans tried to kill it over and over again, in Congress and the courts, even going so far as to ask that the entire ACA be invalidated because of one ambiguous passage. Our rural friends watched quietly as their Republican governors refused to take the Medicare expansion money, and then blamed the Democrats when that ACA didn't work in their states.
We tried to raise the minimum wage so they could have more money. But they were convinced that they didn't want more money if it meant that other people might get more money. Or that the price of a Big Mac might go up a nickel. What did we get for our efforts? A lot of yammering about mythical small businesses that would all have to shutter their shops if they had to pay their employees a decent wage, and who couldn't possibly make their business model work without uncompensated labor.
Republicans swept into power in 2010 on grandiose promises of jobs. More than six years later, America is still waiting on the first jobs bill out of the Republican-controlled Congress. When will our rural brothers and sisters hold Republicans accountable for their broken promises and corruption? Are they too fucking stupid to figure it out for themselves without someone holding their hand and intoning, "There, there"?
Are they upset? Yeah, probably. Join the club. Are they upset with the people wielding the whip on them? No. Do they have an inkling who's behind their plight, and that it didn't happen by accident, but by design? Not that I can tell. Folks in Oklahoma are enjoying an average annual tax break of $56, but their state budget is more than $800 million short. For that extra $1.04 a week in tax breaks, someone in Oklahoma is doing fabulously well. Are the crumbling schools, decaying roads, and other missing amenities worth it? If they can't figure this out, and they resent being told, what are we supposed to do? These people are incredibly stubborn about staying stupid. Why aren't they trying to convince us about how swell their politics are?