We have got to start reaching out to rural voters - here's how

We can do it through straight talk on economic issues - especially trade. It's funny how the FTAA, being pounded our right now, which would basically take NAFTA and extend it all through the Western Hemisphere was rarely brought up.

"After the 2000 presidential election, colored maps showed that while the East and West Coasts and inland metropolitan areas were blue for Gore, the vast majority of the country was red for Bush. In the West, you could walk a line from Mexico to Canada and not set foot in a single county--let alone a single state--carried by Gore. Bush won 59 percent of the rural vote, compared with 46 percent for Republican Bob Dole in 1996 and 40 percent for Bush's father in 1992. 'It should have been a wake-up call for the Democrats,' says National Farmers Union president David Frederickson. 'But they went right into the 2002 campaign and made a lot of the same mistakes.'

Kaptur says that's because the party has been peddling gimmicks rather than populist substance. 'Most of the people who run the Democrat Party, like Terry McAuliffe, they're city people,' she says. 'They think it's just a matter of tinkering with the party's image.' Democratic consultants have created a mini-industry that tells candidates to go 'country' by sponsoring NASCAR teams, joining the NRA or fuzzing positions on abortion or gay rights to mollify social conservatives. Rural folks just laugh. 'You can be ardently pro-choice and support gay rights and still win rural areas if you have an economic message,' says Rhonda Perry, a family farmer who is program director with the Missouri Rural Crisis Center. 'I don't think too many people in rural Missouri sit up nights worrying about gay rights. But they do sit up nights worrying about how they are going to keep the farm or how they are going to get health benefits after the meatpacking plant shuts down.'"

snip

"Democrats must understand that trade is a big rural issue. Just as NAFTA, most-favored-nation trading status for China and other trade deals fail to benefit family farmers, they also have caused deindustrialization that hits rural America particularly hard. Maytag is moving factories to Mexico from Midwestern towns where, for decades, it has been the prime employer. Textile mills, long prime employers in the rural South, can't compete with firms that pay a fraction of their wages; this year's collapse of Pillowtex Corporation closed sixteen plants and eliminated more than 7,500 jobs, mostly in North Carolina and Virginia. 'Farmers used to be able to ride through the rough times by taking a job at the machine shop. Now, in a lot of places, the machine shop is closed,' says Niel Ritchie, head of the League of Rural Voters, a farm-labor coalition that is organizing a November 15 presidential forum in Iowa. 'You can't talk about rural development without talking about trade.'

Ritchie thinks some Democratic candidates are starting to get it. While Joe Lieberman still echoes discredited talk about trade as a cure-all, Kucinich and Dick Gephardt recognize that rural voters see through the claims of free traders. Edwards stumbled on the livestock-monopoly issue, but Kucinich, Gephardt and Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor, champion anti-monopoly measures. And while Dean is often portrayed as the darling of the East and West Coasts, his 'Farmers and Ranchers for Dean' campaign has made progress in states like Iowa and North Dakota. 'Dean's from a rural state and he's gotten through to a lot of people by talking substance on our issues,' says North Dakotan Morrison. 'Substance is the key. Rural voters don't want sympathy, they want something real from Democrats.'"

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20031103&c=3&s=nichols2

Why did we give Terry McAuliffe two tries...

that tax roll backs on the truly wealthy won't hurt them but help them. They need to learn or be reminded that every social service program they receive, including subsidies to farmers and tobacco growers actually originated from Dems. The new deal, the fair deal, unions, worker rights, family-medical leave programs, worker safety programs, Medicare, Social Security, food-stamps, Head-start, aid to women and children, GI Bill of rights, veterns benefits, school grants, loans Pell grants....all originated with Dems and a few socially consciencious Republicans. These people need to be told who they REALLY are and not who they whould HATE.

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It didn't work.

We abandoned the rural voters - now they will be chewed up and spit out by the agribusiness interests. We offered them nothing - hell we more often than not sided with the agribusines interests.

We'll never win on money alone. Will never happen. Or god, guns and gays. You have to respect something else about rural people, something besides religion. If we don't define some kind of dignity in the Democratic Party that rural voters can identify with, they'll never listen to anything else we have to say. It's pride first and everything else after that.

and go back to our party's roots--the people. Democratic stems from the Greek word "demos," which means people. Furthermore, we must not look down at their spirituality or their "quaint country bumkin" ways. These people may not be all "citified" but they carry themselves with a dignity unsurpassed by anyone else. Respect is the order of the day.

that this article has good points. Almost every farmer in VERY REPUBLICAN west Texas (I'm just over the border) voted for Charlie Stenholm in the TX-19 race. They also were hoping Daschle would stay in office because he was such a high-up leader from a farm state.

When they have no jobs and are starving, they just might decide to come to us for help. Until then, screw em.

I'm sure that approach will win them over.

(sarcasm off)

Way to reach out to those who didn't vote for you.

With your attitude, we can expect a few more decades of Republican rule.

2004 is done. Get over it and get going on 2008.

They never did, and they never will.

They want a third party. They wanted one four years ago. They wanted one one year ago.

But after Kerry clinched the nomination, they settled down a bit.

Now, they're back

Strangely enough, Teresa actually has a farm in Pennsylvania, but it probably doesn't look a lot like 'old MacDonalds' place. That fake Texas hay bale the reporters posed beside did wonders.

Good article, but if fear the farmers were indeed duped by the phony farm in Crawford.

would this have helped us yesterday?

All we needed was Ohio or Florida. If we had won Montana, Kansas or the California Central Valley, what good would it have done?

Maybe I'm taking too narrow a view, but most of the states we might put into play with this strategy are not going to help that much. Of course, if we didn't give away all those square states we might not be left with all our eggs in the Ohio basket. And every state has two Senators.

If you looked at the county by county break down of Ohio it's a microcosm of the country - a sea of red with some isolated blue spots around the cities.

Besides that: connecting with rural voters on an economic level is the right thing to do. Our party leaders have to often sided with the agribusiness interests.

Go down one level. The divide exists within each state.

Get your heads out of your butts and think!

Screw Montana, Idaho, South Dakota, Wyoming, Nevada and Utah. They're just "square".

Just ignore 'em, they'll go away. Let me tell you, I have been there. Not everyone there is a raving lunatic.

I think there is a more positive way to deal with the rural-urban chasm in this country.

We have to stop writing off the South and rural Western states. We have to. Really. It's time to start talking.

voc training in the public schools. I have often thought this would work in the rural areas. Actually, maybe they do, i only know about my area, where it is not.

People need honest media.
any message you try to sell them gets trumped by right wing media and the echo chamber.
Our fair wink wink media does such great reporting they took a single smear add that less then 100 grand spent on advertising and replayed it for months giving it free advertising desguised as journalism even though they new it was bullshit.
People know what they are told and retold informed and reinformed even if its missinformed.People live off of sound bites.
No amount of truth or soulsearching can get through to these people only piped in media and repitition..I dont think even air america could get to these people.
We are taking a knife to a gun fight.
how can you trump cnn msnbc fox radio right wing print

"The function of propaganda does not lie in the scientific training of the individual, but in calling the masses' attention to certain facts, processes, necessities, etc., whose significance is thus for the first time place within their field of vision. All propaganda must be popular and its intellectual level must be adjusted to the most limited intelligence among those it is addressed to.
Consequently, the greater the mass it is intended to reach, the lower its purely intellectual level will have to be. But if, as in propaganda for sticking out a war, the aim is to influence a whole people, we must avoid excessive intellectual demands on our public, and too much caution cannot be extended in this direction."
Adolf Hitler on Propaganda - From chapter 6 of Mein Kampf

Media and a smarter strategy.

voting for Bush was an act of religious faith that overrode their own self-interests . . . that's what they believe, and no logic is going to dissuade them . . .

there are rural voters who aren't fundies, however - others are fundies because there's not much else hopeful in their life right now - they'll get their gay marriage bans and they'll wake up and their lives will be the same - and the economic noose will continue to tighten around their communites...

We will be able to win a number of them over - just as Clinton did in 1992 - of course then Clinton signed NAFTA, as is, and supported much of the agribusiness agenda. From 1996 on we have been bleeding rural support.

Just what we need - a blue Jihad. We have to figure out how to connect with people.

Divide and conquer is one of the oldest strategies in the world. We need to divide the red states. Seperate the fundies from the normal people.

I also think that even some of the fundies are persuadeable.

seems like the same thing but it's not intirely the same. Evangelical Fundamentalist take the bible wording as literal, but still function in society. Fundamental extremist believe birth control pills and medical care is a lack of religious faith or a sin. And try avoid people that don't believe as they do. Most of the Southern and mid-western states seem to fall under the first, Evangelical. This is where they get their ideals for their religious beliefs and they are very strong in rural America. We can't ignore them and we can't cave into them..

We need their vote and they do put their own economic hardships aside if their religious leaders remind them "Gods" work is more important.
They are taught "God will make a way for his faithful."

I think possibly our persuation should be in making them see that by mixing the powers, we leave our Government open to religious extremist or even what they fear most..the Anti-Christ.

The entire central valley is like a trip to Oklahoma or Missouri.

Look at the county by county map. The urban areas along the coast are blue the more rural counties are red.

It is the divide of our times - and it is one that I believe our party can bridge.

and you'll capture the suburban swing vote as well.

This is a culture war and as long as we think its a fight between red states/ blue states or 55 million nazi fundamentalist and normal people we are lost, we'll be marginalized and you'll see blue states going red at the speed of light.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, farmers were really suffering from high interest rates. Since growers have only one money-making opportunity per year, they take out loans to finance the next year's crops and buy new equipment. In fact, banks were urging them to take out loans.

Then they were hit by the double whammy of exorbitant interest rates (up to the worst credit card levels) and falling prices for ag products. They began to lose farms that had been in their families for generations and to be forced out of a way of life that they loved.

Even though the Dems controlled Congress, they did nothing, despite the pleas of some ag state members. Nothing. If they had been smart, they would have offered a federally supported means of refinancing those incredibly burdensome loans down to reasonable interest rates. But they were too busy being bi-partisan and not resisting Reagan's firing of the air traffic controllers and supporting the Contras and Reagan's military buildup.

It was around this time that we first heard of the right wing militias in the Midwest. You get someone ignorant who feels that he's backed into a corner, and there's no telling what he might do. (One particularly crazy group in Wisconsin told reporters that they were against personal computers because the floppy disks were made from the brains of aborted fetuses.)

When people are bereft and feel that circumstances are beyond their control, they cling to whatever they feel they have left. In the case of the rural states, it was their conservative social values, and the Republicans astutely picked up on that. I was 22 years old when abortion was legalized, and I don't remember the opponents being quite so crazy before the Repubicans decided to make it part of their appeal to rural and working class voters.

The upshot of it is that we let one (two, if you count blue collar workers) of our constituencies down, and the Republicans were right there to entice them away.

I'm relatively young - I didn't know that Dems had a chance in the eighties and turned their backs...figures. We have got to change that. The analysis in this thread is similar to Thomas Franks' book "What's the Matter with Kansas?" An excellent read - I'm sure you've heard of it, and maybe you've read it.

The pugs take away everything but the security blanket of fundy values, and then say either stick with us or the Dems will take away that security blanket. It's the ultimate con. The ultimate big lie - and our party is partly responsible for TURNING OUR BACKS on what should have been a natural constituency of ours - and in fact used to be so.

In Franks' books he talks about populist movements in Kanas. They used to be left-wing in their movements! The people of Kansas are always railing against outsiders - they used to rail against Wall Street and the big farming outfits. Now the pugs have them turned agains the 'liberal elite'.

It is possible to wrench the focus back on the big money interests, on the greedy corporations, and on the hypocrisy of the pug party. But that will take leadership - who in our party is up to it?

A great film "Northern Lights" was made on the subject. For many years the Democratic party was known as the Democratic-NPL party.

Matt Blunt (won Governor in Mo.) was in my very small town on the 4th of July, he worked the crowd very well. About 60 Harley owners were in my parking lot, prepping to ride in the parade, he took the time to get out of line, and walk over and talk to almost everyone- they had to yell at him to get in line when the parade started. All I heard him talk about was repealing the helmet laws :( here and saying how nice this or that bike looked.


Point is- he took the time to stop in podunk, and talk.

Our people need to start early and hit the small towns- eat at the local place, and go to the local evens- NOT to campaign, but to just talk to people.

Look at the #'s for my county- (putnam co)

B*sh 1659
Kerry 771

Blunt 1755
McCaskill 622

Yea, he stopped and talked to about 60 people in my parking lot on the 4th.


LEARN!!!

Bob Behnen he won too :(

to hate and somewhere to send their kids to die? I don't see where the Republicans jumped up to help these people when they were losing their farms. Hell, it was the Republicans taking them away!

promoting things that were either offensive (abortion rights) or irrelevant (affirmative action in an area where people can go for years without seeing anyone who isn't white) to their minds.

The Dems probably could have gotten away with ignoring them OR promoting ideas that were offensive to them, but both was too much.

Even though the Republican small town bankers were the abusers, the Democrats failed to live up to their own self-proclaimed role of protecting the little person.

The farmers who could see through the Republicans' charade appear to have simply stopped voting for anyone.

Have you ever met an incest survivor who is angrier at her mother for not protecting her than she is at her father who actually raped her? I have met such a person, and I think that rural voters have somewhat the same mentality.

These rural types tend to be way too religious and all a Rethug candidate has to do is invoke hellfire and brimstone and that'll secure their votes. They don't care about economic issues. Facts and figures do not matter to them. (I know because I have tried "debating" these sentimental types). But the good news is that the nation is turning more and more urban, and you know what that means :) Heh heh.

Regardless of what faith or lack of faith we as Democrats have.
The Repugs have latched on to a sure fire vote getter...religious faith. And they will use it from here on out. I know for a fact it had a huge, enormous role here in my swing state. For months the administration has been dealing with the churches making promises... and in return the church leaders needed to instruct their people to press the 'issues' to it's congregations. And boy did they ever! My family has said it was brought up regularly in their churches.

The religious faith believe that you stand with God when the rest of the world falls. They believe it is better to suffer economic hardship than to turn you back on your God. The belief is stand firm for God and God will stand for you. Like it or not...this is the belief of those in the bible belt and the Southern Baptists, Holiness,etc., churches.

So where does that leave us. I have spent most of my day in heated arguments with repugs, or in tears and had a few really great talks with other Dems. One in particular that to me was really pertinent to the issue of getting the rural vote. Faith. The real danger of mixing faith with politics. I was in the middle of a really great heated discussion with 3 female repug store employees today and this wonderfully sincere man came to back me up and left these ladies speechless.

He was a Baptist minister, name unknown, and as these ladies said that my Democratic party would bring this country to it knees with it evil ways.. Yep evil ways. He asked them if they were familiar with the bible and the anti-Christ. They said yes and he said do you think the anti-Christ would be a Democrat or a Republican? One said
neither one said Democrat, the other looked unsure. He said the anti-Christ candidate must be a very religious person. The masses would praise him and he would con the world. He said if you can just imagine this, he said the country would be deeply divide. This person would probably run on the fact he is a religious person. Probably not unlike what we are seeing right now. He asked the ladies again, who is more likely to use religion as a vote getter, a Democrat or Republican. Again sort of dumb looking except for one, she said "a Republican cause Democrats don't believe in religion in schools". (Because we believe in the issues that are destroying the morality of this country and if we are allowed to continue the country is going go to hell in a hand basket. Thats what one lady said to me!!! Argh!!) He said, Well...if Democrats don't believe in mixing religion with government then it's kind of unlikely the anti-Christ would be a Democrat. That really blew their little minds.
He handed a little card to the one that had the name of his Church and the hours on it. He said... their is wisdom to keeping the heavy hand of government out of your churches, their is equally great wisdom in keeping the power of religion our of your government.
Then he said.. God gave us choices to except him or not except him. To follow him or not. He doesn't force his will on the masses. You have options. He said so if God allows us to make our own decisions...what makes you people, and I mean Republicans, think you have the right to make decisions for everyone else?
HE left them speechless...it was excellent. He said alot more but that is the sum up of it.

We need to press the issue to the faith based voters the dangers in what they are doing for our future elections. The very thing they fear is exactly what they are opening the door for to happen. In Rural America they mainly vote Repug because of a religious conviction, especially if the candidate is saying "if your a true Christian you must vote for us, otherwise...well your a 'weak' Christian at best. And if the economy is bad, "keep the faith and it will be better".

Just MHO.

will be disguised as a Godly figure - he will be revered as a religious person.

IMO - we could appeal to many people of religious faith by focusing on the big corporations and economic injustice - and the environment. Not the hard-core fundies of course - but the others....

But maybe for us to get to that point things must first get worse.

But I believe the seeds are there. On the Country Music Channel there's a Montgomery Gentry song out now - I forget the title - something like "You Do Your Thing I'll Do Mine." He's a true red state fundy type country singer - there's a violence in his eyes. He truly represents red state rage. In the video there's a young white family man travelling around his city facing down a variety of different sorts of menace. Drug abuse...etc, etc...symbols of moral decay. One of the symbols of decay he confronts are old Wall Street corporate types in a limo partying it up with a young woman. The indictment was levelled at the greed of the lifestyle. Take that for what it's worth.

We have areas with significant populuation density that are in a "rural" setting, but it is really nothing but low density suburban sprawl. These people commute to the nearest city and work in industry. (I grew up in this type of setting. Now I live in one of the blue islands in Ohio...)

Most of these people wouldn't know a donkey from a mule and have no real concern for typical rural issues. They like to hunt and fish, they like to drive pickups, and they go to church. (Guns + SUVs + God = One vote for Bush)

Farmers deserve breaks (especially small ones), but the real voter jackpot is these pseudo-rural people. There are a bunch of them and most of them voted for Bush.

That is my view from inside the state, anyway.

I have family members in Kansas City that are exactly like this. They live on the edge of the city and rural - they go to big city concerts and also fish for crappies. Most survive by the skin of their teeth, just like most of us.

The thing is...anyway...the 'psuedo-rurals' I know are not that fundy. They like to drink and they like to party. A lot of them have far, far from perfect mariages, if they aren't already divorced. They don't really have much in common with Ashcroft types - and yet the flag-waving and God-talk still suckers them in - how can we change this?

I still think that honest talk about economics could eventually reach them - sometimes things just have to get worse before they get better.

lost the most manufacturing jobs of any state. (In my immediate family we've had four job losses or prolonged layoffs.)

It is hitting people hard, but I they I don't think they were convinced that it is partially Bush's fault or that Kerry could do much better. Since that issue was "defused" they fall back on false patriotism and religion.

It is really confounding... (The miracle Bush tax-bribe I think also did wonders.)

Too much hot air, not enough results - I'm sick of this crap.