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An important article by @clairekelloway on the politics of rural America and how Democrats actually can compete there. If you want to know the conventional wisdom a year before everyone else, read the Washington Monthly. washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/janua…
This piece blows up all the standard narratives about why rural America is suffering. It's not tariffs or technological change or the tides of history. It's public policy. @clairekelloway washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/janua…
“I have a lot of folks calling me thinking of running for president and they want to know what their rural message should be,” @JDScholten says. His answer: “Talk about market consolidation.” washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/janua…
"We are on the verge of a crisis more dangerous than the one that ripped rural America apart in the1980s... Wisconsin alone has lost 1,100 dairy farms... One large dairy co-op in the NE sent its members a list of suicide and mental-health hotlines along with their dairy checks."
"The biggest cause of growing regional inequality isn’t technology; it’s changes in public policy, embraced by both parties, that have enabled predatory monopolies to strip wealth away from farmers and rural communities and transfer it to America’s snazziest zip codes."
"The Dems did have a rural policy that took monopoly seriously, but gave it low priority and retreated in the face of corporate opposition. This record leaves many farmers bitter, especially those who risked retaliation by testifying at the USDA hearings about ...monopolists."
Obama promised to take on rural monopolists and then broke his promise. I often get asked 'be specific about what he did wrong.' That's hard, there's too much to track. Obama pretty much shifted power and wealth to the powerful in every single sector. washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/janua…
Hardest thing for Dems to hear is that many rural voters resent them for completely legitimate reasons. It was Democratic heroes and icons, like Tom Vilsack, who badly hurt farmers by shifting power to big ag. It's not the whole story, but it's part of it. washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/janua…
Also if Dems are interested in ever winning the Senate... washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/janua…
