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Yes, in th South you have a lot of anti-Union Rural people but that tends to disappear as you head North (For example most Coal mining areas are rural and pro-union, through this is less true in the Rocky mountain part of the American West and the American South).
As to the Religious Rural Dwellers, they biggest hero of the 20th Century was Bryan NOT Falwell and transferred that support from Bryan to FDR to Truman and then to Kennedy and Johnson and finally to Carter. It was a deliberate policy of Nixon, Falwell, et al to convert these Fundamentalist from Democrats to Republicans using Race, The Vietnam War, Radical Interpretation of the ERA amendment, Radical interpretation of Environmental Laws, Radical interpretation of occupations Safety and health Administration (OSHA) Laws, etc (And the Democrats after 1968 leaving this group go without a fight afraid of appearing to be to pro-Christian). The Classic case is when under Nixon he had OSHA require Stainless steel guards along meat inspection lines and then had the Department of Agriculture require them to be removed as a health hazard (It was an attempt to make BOTH look bad, when Carter became President he did a lot of Reform of these regulatory agency to make them work effectively and stop such stupid conflicts, but under Reagan he started it up all over again and has increased under Bush jr).
Rural America likes effective Environmental Regulations and know you can NOT have it without effective Government. The GOP has been spending all types of money on propaganda in rural America about what will happen if the Democrats gets in Charge, using every horror story of bad government regulations they can dream up (and often create). DON'T be taken in the the Rights use of such fear tactics, the Rural populations may have problems getting good information but they will find it and follow it. Out Job is to get THAT INFORMATION TO THEM. That is one of the purpose of this site, to have a place people who have NO OTHER PLACE TO GET ACCURATE INFORMATION can get that information without felling like they are being attacked.
If you wish to change someone the first thing DON'T do is attack them, insult them or otherwise put them on the defensive. Rural Northern America does NOT care for Gay rights for example, they will NOT oppose it, but they will NOT support it either (But if it is force on them they will fight it). Thus to bring it up to them is a waste of time. On the other hand solving the problem of the Drop in Income for the majority of people since 1980, solving the drop in Environmental protection, solving the problem of the homeless (There are as many homeless people in Rural America as in Urban America) and the problem high price of Medical Insurance, are things Rural American wants addressed AND THE GOP CAN NOT ADDRESS. With these issue the Democrats can win power and as part of addressing them can also address Gay rights, Abortion Rights etc BECAUSE THE DEMOCRATS ARE IN POWER.
Remember given the GOP straggledhold on the Media, they tendency to cheat to stay in power etc, the Democrats can NOT win with just 50% of the population, the Democrats will need closer to 60% just to win a bare majority in the House and Senate. That is what every election since 1994 has shown, the Democrats can NOT win unless they win big. To win Big we need as many votes as we can get, and to get those votes we MUST present a package that the Democrats will do more for Rural, as while as Urban Americans than will the Republicans.
One last comment. In the US you have roughly three groups of "Rural" Populations. The American South, The Rocky Mountain West and the Rural North West (Which goes from the the Mountians of New York and Pennsylvania through Ohio and the rest of the Mid-West and includes most of the Great Plains, it tends to become the Rocky Mountain West as you get deep into the Mountains of the West. It is this Rural NORTH that is the key. The Rural South is still in its Segregation Mode (Through it has had its liberal stages in the first half of the 20 th Century after Segregation became the law of the land and before Desegregation kicked in). The Rural South, in many ways, still fighting the Civil Rights battles, the rural blacks today vote Democratic, but the Rural Whites vote GOP. It will be hard to convince these Rural Southerns to vote Democratic UNLESS you show them it is in their economic best interest. AS the economy goes bad that is becoming easier and easier but a still a tough road to follow.
The Rural Rocky Mountain West is a different Animal, it is a descendant from the Rural North, but tied in with an economy where the Government owes most of the land (and the land is to dry for conventional farming). Thus they are more dependent on the Federal Government than anyone else in the Country. These people actually believe they are paying more in Taxes then they are receiving (This claim also goes for the American South but NOT the American North) when both the South and West are Receiving more then they are paying in Taxes. The Rural West complain of how the Government interferes with their lifestyle whenever the Government imposes restrictions on GOVERNMENT LAND in their area, and then objects the the Federal Government is NOT doing enough to get water into their Desert Area.
Both the Rural South and Rural West are going to be tough nuts for the Democrats to crack. Both have been brought off by the GOP (and brought off cheaply). The real issue is the Rural North (Which reaches into the South and the West including into North West). This area believes Government should do things AND ARE WILLING TO PAY TAXES TO GET THOSE THINGS DONE. They want better Education, better access to medical Care, a better country. These are the people the Democrats MUST Recruit. These have been Republicans since the Civil War, but Rockefeller (i.e. Liberal) Republicans. They are religious, but more mainline Protestant not Fundamentalist. They do support welfare and acknowledge the need to help the poor in their area. This is the population the Democrats need to get. They will month the GOP lines for their access to news is limited. They rarely have local newspapers (and if they do most buy it for local farm report and then a copy of the nearest big city newspaper). In my area of West Central Pennsylvania you see not only the local papers but the Pittsburgh Post Gazette (Which you see all over the Western 1/2 of Pennsylvania). Toward the Middle of the State you start to see the Harrisburg Newspaper instead of the Post-Gazette. They is some overlap, for example Johnstown tends to be as far west as the Harrisburg Newspaper gets, while the Post Gazette can be obtain evening Lewistown as you near Harrisburg.
My point here is the RURAL NORTH IS ABOUT TO SWITCH. Its basic economic beliefs follow the Democratic party and has so for at least 20 years. The GOP Fears this so have run a Guns, Gays and Blacks Campaign for almost as long. It is wearing thin, and as things economical goes from bad to worse economic issues are coming to the head and the Guns, Gays and Blacks issues is just NOT working as while as it has in the past (Thus the push to add immigration to the mix).
Now many rural areas have been Republican Controls for Decades and fear change and will fight Change, but once change kicks in I suspect it will be like Pittsburgh in the 1920s and 1930s. Prior to 1920 Pittsburgh, like most Cities, was a solid Republican City, unlike Philadelphia (Which was surrounded by a Republican part of the State), Pittsburgh was surrounded by a Solidly Democratic Region of Pennsylvania and thus when the stresses of the 1920s and 1930s hit the Country, Pittsburgh went Democratic overwhelming, to the extend we have NOT had a Republican City Councilman since 1934 (The last GOP Mayor was voted out in 1928 long after the Democrats had obtain a majority on City Council). During this transformation many former GOP ward leaders switch parties (I remember reading about them in the 1970s as the young ones in the 1920s died of old age in the 1970s). The old dishonest ones never made the switch, but the young (20-30 years old) honest ones did. In many ways Mellon never forgive the City for going Democratic (But Accepted it by the 1950s when Mayor Lawrence talked Mellon to help the city do its Renaissance).
This is what I see happening in the Rural North (such as Ohio), the younger and older Honest Ward Leaders switching to the Democrats as the corruption of the GOP becomes to much for them or the people to stomach. A slow change (But within a ten year time period) as the GOP is found to be to corrupt for people to vote for and the honest Rural politic ans switch from the GOP to the Democrats to follow the people. I just do not see the GOP reforming itself, it is to tied in with big money to do so. People are getting sick of it and sooner or later the people will accept the fact that the problem is the GOP itself not just the individuals within the party. When that happens (tied in with serious Economic Problems) you will see a rapid switch, like how the old Soviet Union Collapsed.
The democratic Party has to be prepared to accept these new Democrats AND ADDRESS THEIR POLITICAL NEEDS. By doing so you will make them good Democrats for the next 40 years, which is enough time to get the reforms economic (and maybe even the Social) reforms this country needs.
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