Thread by @drvolts

I wasn't going to respond to this aggravating AP article, but ... it is my nature. I wanna make two quick points on it. apnews.com/article/joe-bi…

First -- yes I am predictable -- it is utterly bizarre to write on this subject & barely mention right-wing media, which has utterly captured rural America & is filling its head with lies & conspiracies. There's no way to understand what's happening without understanding that.

The "Dems" that people in these areas hate bear virtually no resemblance to real-life Dems. It doesn't matter what Fetterman or any other ostentatiously in-touch-with-working-people candidate says -- they'll never hear it! They'll just hear lies about him. That's the root of it.

Second: it is also bizarre to write a story like this without noting that, in general, there are *fewer* rural Americans & the only reason their votes are so important is that the US constitution gives power to land, not people, & they're spread out over more land.

That's a super-dumb feature of the constitution, but it is what it is. Problem is, we've let that practical need to over-value rural votes bleed into a kind of mythology that rural votes are somehow more important, more authentic, more *American* than urban votes.

But why would that be? As you move closer to dense city centers, you find voters that are producing more GDP, are more educated, have more accurate views of the world, are more involved in culture, art, & learning, have lower per-capita GHG emissions, are more diverse, on & on.

Those are statistical facts, but merely to state them is to invite a landslide of accusations: arrogant elites, looking down the hicks in flyover country! These accusations are ubiquitous, not only from the right but from lefties keen to burnish their populist bona fides.

And yet, go back to the original piece. That's not urbanites disdaining ruralites, it's the opposite! It's diverse urban populations being effectively invisible in political media in favor of bi-weekly check-ins with MAGA hats in rural diners. It's faux populism all the way down.

Consider: have you ever, in your life, a single time, seen a piece in mainstream media framing it as a problem that the GOP has completely lost cities? That the party's brand is "toxic" in urban areas? Are any Republicans taken to task for that or forced to answer for it?

One might think it striking -- worthy of comment! -- that the nation's most educated, its high-skilled professionals, its scientists & scholars, its non-white working class, its minorities & single women & immigrants ... have utterly rejected the GOP. Seems like a thing!

Instead, the Dem Party is cast as vaguely *suspicious* for commanding the loyalty of those demographics. The only votes that matter, the ones that vouchsafe your candidate & party as Truly American, are the ones that are objectively the most ignorant & deluded.

So we get this story -- "Why aren't Dems more popular with people who believe they are an organized global pedophile ring?" -- again & again & again & again.

I have no solution. But it's real dumb for a wealthy advanced technological culture in 2022 to be operating this way.