I learned a lot from Joe Bageant, (though I have lived out in rural areas) about what LR is saying. If we understood the people he is talking about better, we would have a better chance at reaching them and the rest is possible.

Joe passed, but he left a legacy of good writing on the topic. He lived it.

https://www.joebageant.org/

Joe Bageant wrote many newspaper and magazine articles over the years, but with the arrival of the Internet, he began putting his essays online and eventually developed a blog as a way to present his thoughts and communicate with his readers. His online work was greatly facilitated by his friend and webmaster, Ken Smith. From these beginnings, Joe eventually wrote two books: Deer Hunting With Jesus and Rainbow Pie. A third book of his 25 best essays was put together by Ken Smith under the title Waltzing At The Doomsday Ball.

Joe passed away in 2011, but his online presence was preserved by Ken Smith at JoeBageant.net.

In 2016, Ken passed away and the longterm viability of Joe’s website became questionable.

Joe's wit tore through the fog of myth which surrounds the poorest working class people in the US. For Joe, they weren't the lazy, stupid caricatures drawn by the establishment media and politicians. They had a heart, but they had been used up and forgotten by capitalism.

His first book was Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War. This explored the country's "forgotten underclass" —people who worked flat-out for a few measly dollars, and who were kept in ignorance by a chronically underfunded education system.

"It is a class thing. If your high school drop-out daddy busted his ass for small bucks and never read a book and your mama was a waitress, chances are you are not going to grow up to be president of the United States, regardless of what your teacher told you. You are going to be pulling down eight bucks an hour at shift work someplace and praying for overtime to pay the heating bill."

video. I was introduced to Joe late but heard some about his writing and came to appreciate his views and talent.

I am so stealing that line..!

are willing to listen. Those who aren't gun humpers. Those who think for themselves. He could be one of my family members, but I don't think we have any Crowders in our pea patch.

I hope some strategies are implemented regarding what he has to say for the 2020 election cycle..

He's right about thinking rural folks are stupid, and anyone who thinks that is a bigot in their own special way. That said, "small town America" is dying. Opportunities for the kids in those towns are slim. The ones who can, and bring some skills with them will leave.

Republicans have been selling the idea that they're the real Americans to them for going on 2 generations. Everyone wants to believe they are special, and if you don't have anything else, being told that your'e the real American not those sissy city folks is going to be a powerful motivator. The Democratic message is inclusive, if you are playing a zero sum game, that makes those "real Americans" less special.

There is a powerful anti-intellectual theme in many places. It's not just that the father is a highschool dropout and the mother is a waitress, for reasons that I don't understand many of them are terrified that their kids might do better than them.

They are not voting against their own self interest. They know the Democrats can't stop the subsidies to the red states, because then the rural poor really will hate the Democrats. At the same time keeping that extra $30 by voting against the school levy, that may be groceries for a week. They're choices driven by poverty, and stoked by playing on fear.

Look, I was born and raised in the racist, homophobic, misogynistic, anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, anti-education, Bible-thumping, conspiracy-ridden, gun-loving, science-hating cesspool of right-wing insanity called Massachusetts, okay??? I don't live there now, but I can assure you I know a bunch of my fellow Bay Staters that openly look down upon people in states like Tennessee, who tell jokes about them, who have a downright SNOOTY attitude toward them! And the Big Apple-DC-LA-Frisco Media Hive is no better.