Dems struggling among rugged individualists in Fed-dependent rural areas

[babylonsister]

From here:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/
Dem candidates are facing some of their stiffest headwinds among rugged individualist rural voters in states like North Dakota, one of the states that's most dependent on the Federal government.


Democrats Face Skeptics in Rural Areas
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703793804575511894145174012.html?mod=ITP_pageone_2

snip//

North Dakotans, who like to define themselves as rugged individualists, received $1.68 per capita from the federal Treasury for every dollar they paid in—largely through road and agriculture subsidies—according to a 2007 report by the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan research group based in Washington.

By that measure, North Dakota was the sixth most dependent state in the U.S.

"There's a huge contradiction" between voter anger over big government and those numbers, said University of North Dakota economist David Flynn.

[Fumesucker]

1. "Big Government"....

That's basically government that does anything for people who don't look and act just like me, except perhaps put them in jail, I'm down with that.

[Tippy]

2. There are fools then there are dam fools...K&R

[The Magistrate]

3. Strip These Welfare Queens Of Every Dime ,Ma'am: Americans Are Tired Of These Leeches

[EC]

4. Do as they ask and don't give them any Fed $$

and see how they like it...maybe they'll learn something by the exercise...give them what they want...

[Ikonoklast]

5. Let them go it on their own; no fed money then.

After all, that's what these people want.


See how that works for 'em.


I'd give them one growing season.

[cilla4progress]

6. Alaska, as I understand it,

is one of the starkest examples of this! (Receipt of federal $$ vs. "rugged individualist" fakers...!).

[DCKit]

7. Teh Morans.

The same guys (and I'm surrounded by them as I type this) who scream for lower taxes and a larger military with bases in every country across the globe.

[gratuitous]

8. The last thing Democrats should do

Is tweak these folks with their leechery. I'm not sure how to go about doing it, but Democrats should make the case to North Dakotans and others that the federal government really does do a lot for them. If nothing else, put people in charge of government who want to see government work. Putting Republicans in office is a vote for our government and our nation to be weaker and ineffective; one might almost say . . . impotent.