Former Sen. Joe Donnelly's new initiative: Teach Democrats to value rural voters

[TexasTowelie]

Former Sens. Joe Donnelly and Heidi Heitkamp are teaming up to launch a new initiative aimed at helping Democrats reach rural voters.

Both lost their re-election bids last year in red states, where Donald Trump won by double-digit margins in 2016 — Donnelly, here in Indiana, and Heitkamp in North Dakota.

Now, they're starting a project called One Country. Its goal: Teach Democrats how to reconnect with voters from the heartland.

"On issues of faith and family and country, Donald Trump has repeatedly tried to take those as his," Donnelly said Thursday. "Those are Democrat values as well. We need to talk about them."

Read more: https://www.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2019/04/27/joe-donnellys-new-initiative-teach-democrats-value-rural-voters/3573371002/

[LuvLoogie]

1. trump didn't appeal to them on Faith, Family and Country.

He appealed to them by despising diversity. The rural voters that support trump have contempt for "urban" voters, for other faiths, for immigrants from the shit hole countries.

Yes, we have to go to the rural areas, but we can't pit them against our other constituencies in order to gain a couple of percentage points in rural communities. trump voters hate us. they hate Democrats. They support child kidnapping by the state as long as it's the others. They blame Democrats, women, minorities, immigrants, gays, for the loss of their farms and factories. And they think that God is on their side.

[Botany]

2. On some them we need to just give up and spend our time on those who will vote blue and on ...

... making sure that ALL THE VOTES ARE COUNTED. Because we have more of us and then they
are of "them." A few of these voters might vote blue if they see progressive/liberal programs
helping out their wallets but they have been fed hate and lies for generations and the dollars should
be spent where they can show a return. 2 winters ago I was in the area where western MD, VA,
and WV come together and back in the hills in the worst dog patches of little towns i saw in front
of more than one shack the following: A rebel flag, a Trump flag, and a NRA flag. Some voters
are just "gone" and we should not spend one second trying to get 'em back.

The farmers who are now having to plow their crops under because of Trump's trade war with
China, the coal miners who will never go back to mining coal, those who are just racist and sexist,
and the evangelical Christians who still support Trump despite his moral failings will still vote
against their own best interests time after time and nothing will ever change that in > 80% of the
cases.

[Freethinker65]

3. Typical shitty misleading headline from the media.

See, Democrats need to be taught how to "value" rural voters...As if we, as a party, do not value and care about citizens from all parts of the country, so we need to be taught (and taught by two Democrats that lost re-election bids).

Of course the body of the story is how to better reach and reconnect with rural voters, by two Democratic candidates that previously won in Red states. To define ourselves and get our message to rural areas, and everyone, how our policies would help everyone. Democrats have been letting Republicans lie about Democratic policy positions for years and Republicans have been successfully dividing the country.

[TheRealNorth]

5. Good point.

Maybe rural voters need to be taught on how to respect and value urban diversity.

[eShirl]

4. "Those are Democrat values as well.

"Those are Democratic values as well.