Rural Democrats: Party Ignored Us, Suffered the Consequences

[potone]

24. It doesn't say that the writer voted for Trump, as you know.

This attitude toward rural voters is part of the reason for our defeat. They asked for help and didn't get it. You ask what is wrong with DU? What is wrong with DU, in my opinion, is that so many people felt certain of Clinton's victory and, in shock and anger at Trump's victory, they have turned on the electorate, rather than accepting the fact that we have to look objectively at why the Democratic party has lost the allegiance of many former supporters.

The fact is that the Democratic party has, as the article states, left rural America to its own devices:we haven't solicited their views, we haven't listened to their concerns, and when campaign workers from other states do bother to show up, they lecture their audiences rather than listen to them. This is an arrogant and self-defeating attitude.

I grew up in the Midwest, and there is a strong populist tradition there. Many remember the 80s when many family farms went into bankruptcy. Rural farmers are no friends of Wall Street. When they saw how close Hillary's connections to Wall Street banks are, that had to be alienating. It is false and self-destructive to view all of rural America as populated by racist, misogynistic bigots.