# "Is it that the Dems don't understand white, working-class America?" No, that's not it **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 28, 2016, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-that-the-dems-dont-understand-white-working-class-america-no-thats-not-it/773291 "2016-11-28T16:35:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-that-the-dems-dont-understand-white-working-class-america-no-thats-not-it/773291/21 "2016-11-28T20:12:50Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > because you won’t stop screaming at each other long enough to listen. Or fence-sitting is all you’re capable of? I just gave you the opportunity to give a solution-did that sound like “screaming” to you? ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-that-the-dems-dont-understand-white-working-class-america-no-thats-not-it/773291/22 "2016-11-28T20:18:06Z")
I’ve said elsewhere that the Dems need a concerted effort to combat the half-truths, distortions and outright lies that these folks suck up with mothers milk these days. If that meets your definition of re-education, so be it. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-that-the-dems-dont-understand-white-working-class-america-no-thats-not-it/773291/23 "2016-11-28T20:20:32Z")
> [@E-DUB](#): > > I’ve said elsewhere that the Dems need a concerted effort to combat the half-truths, distortions and outright lies that these folks suck up with mothers milk these days. If that meets your definition of re-education, so be it. But the link provided in the OP shows why that approach just doesn’t work. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-that-the-dems-dont-understand-white-working-class-america-no-thats-not-it/773291/24 "2016-11-28T20:26:52Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > Well, and the article says that they’re stupid. No; more like effectively insane. Stupid people can learn, it just takes longer. People like this are beyond persuasion. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-that-the-dems-dont-understand-white-working-class-america-no-thats-not-it/773291/25 "2016-11-28T20:33:56Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Or fence-sitting is all you’re capable of? I just gave you the opportunity to give a solution-did that sound like “screaming” to you? well, one step would be if you encounter someone who says they voted for $\_CANDIDATE, a good way to start would to just ask why. because if you go in with this attitude: > [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > No; more like effectively insane. Stupid people can learn, it just takes longer. People like this are beyond persuasion. then you start out with “how the hell could you vote for \_CANDIDATE?!!? Don't you know only \_BAD\_PEOPLE vote for $\_CANDIDATE?!?! What’s wrong with you?” after which you trot back to your safe haven and complain how they won’t listen to you. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-that-the-dems-dont-understand-white-working-class-america-no-thats-not-it/773291/26 "2016-11-28T20:34:13Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > The people that the pundits are claiming the Democrats “don’t understand” aren’t rural bible-thumpers, but the people in e.g. Downriver (Detroit,) Milwaukee, northern Ohio. The blue collar industrial areas in and near cities. the ones who have seen their industries fade and jobs steadily leave under both Republican and Democratic governments. These are the areas the Clinton campaign took for granted and ignored until it was too late. Quoting this for further consideration. The fact is that blue-collar manufacturing is probably never coming back. And that coal mining is a job with only a past and no future. What is a politician to say to the (former) workers in those areas? You can tell them the truth, and offer those areas help to change their economies to some other basis that includes good-paying jobs. Or you can promise to get all those old jobs back, without any reference to reality. Which one works? The second one works because no-one wants to hear or think about the fact that their livelihood has been yanked out from under them and that they have to probably go back into training or serious schooling for something else. Because “it’s not fair” trumps\* “this is what happened and this is what we can do about it” and “the world has moved on, you need to move on with it or get left behind.” In this sense, these areas are just as irrationally faith-based as the ones in the article, it’s just what they believe in that’s different. \*Seriously, we’re going to have to find some other metaphor for this relationship; for some reason “trump” doesn’t work for me any more. Any ideas? eta: I’ve been wondering why this thread is in the pit? Shouldn’t it be in Great Debates or something? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-that-the-dems-dont-understand-white-working-class-america-no-thats-not-it/773291/27 "2016-11-28T20:41:51Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > well, one step would be if you encounter someone who says they voted for $\_CANDIDATE, a good way to start would to just ask why. because if you go in with this attitude: > > then you start out with “how the hell could you vote for \_CANDIDATE?!!? Don't you know only \_BAD\_PEOPLE vote for $\_CANDIDATE?!?! What’s wrong with you?” after which you trot back to your safe haven and complain how they won’t listen to you. For someone who spouts the fence-sitter’s refrain of “You are both the same-you won’t listen to each other!”, it doesn’t seem like you actually read the link provided in the OP. Just this once, why don’t _you_ stop sneering, and actually listen? ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-that-the-dems-dont-understand-white-working-class-america-no-thats-not-it/773291/28 "2016-11-28T20:47:41Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > here’s the problem- those people think the Dems are stupid too. > > and that’s why political discourse in this country is non-existent. we wall off into two sides, scream at each other for being stupid, then go running back into our like-minded safe havens and pat each other on the back for having screamed at the other side for being stupid. I am, at least half seriously, going to blame it on the death of the Fairness Doctrine back during the Reagan years. The Fairness Doctrine required that if a TV or radio station was going to discuss an issue of controversy, it had to give time to persons on both sides of the issue. (Not _equal_ time, incidentally. That’s a separate thing having to do with political campaigns. But you couldn’t completely shut out one side of the debate.) I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Rush Limbaugh became a household name within a few years of the demise of the Fairness Doctrine. He took advantage of an environment where he could spout off whatever wingnut nonsense he wanted to, without being challenged. A ‘safe space,’ in today’s lingo. And he was followed by a multitude of wingnut radio jocks, and of course Fox News. And so now we’re in a world where nearly equal parts of the population hear totally different views of reality itself. The Fairness Doctrine is not coming back. And absent that, I really don’t know what can be done about the divide. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-that-the-dems-dont-understand-white-working-class-america-no-thats-not-it/773291/29 "2016-11-28T20:50:44Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > then you start out with “how the hell could you vote for \_CANDIDATE?!!? Don't you know only \_BAD\_PEOPLE vote for $\_CANDIDATE?!?! What’s wrong with you?” after which you trot back to your safe haven and complain how they won’t listen to you. But they _won’t_ listen, because they are _genuinely_ not rational, pretending otherwise is self destructive. You are just using the standard false equivalency rhetoric used by people who try to defend the Right. The Right is _genuinely_ malignant, bigoted and irrational; and pretending they aren’t won’t change them. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-that-the-dems-dont-understand-white-working-class-america-no-thats-not-it/773291/30 "2016-11-28T20:51:00Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > Quoting this for further consideration. > > The fact is that blue-collar manufacturing is probably never coming back. And that coal mining is a job with only a past and no future. What is a politician to say to the (former) workers in those areas? You can tell them the truth, and offer those areas help to change their economies to some other basis that includes good-paying jobs. Or you can promise to get all those old jobs back, without any reference to reality. Which one works? The second one works because no-one wants to hear or think about the fact that their livelihood has been yanked out from under them and that they have to probably go back into training or serious schooling for something else. Because “it’s not fair” trumps\* “this is what happened and this is what we can do about it” and “the world has moved on, you need to move on with it or get left behind.” In this sense, these areas are just as irrationally faith-based as the ones in the article, it’s just what they believe in that’s different. > > \*Seriously, we’re going to have to find some other metaphor for this relationship; for some reason “trump” doesn’t work for me any more. Any ideas? it’s not even that. I’d say it’s that at least Trump is saying he’s going to do _something._ I’d wager the thinking is “well, we probably can’t bring those jobs _back_ but maybe we can keep more from leaving.” The problem with the Dems is that they basically ignored these regions until they realized they were in trouble (seriously, Debbie Dingell was raising alarm bells [for a while](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/i-said-clinton-was-in-trouble-with-the-voters-i-represent-democrats-didnt-listen/2016/11/10/0e9521a6-a796-11e6-ba59-a7d93165c6d4_story.html?utm_term=.d8c9c92c4e33) to no avail. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-that-the-dems-dont-understand-white-working-class-america-no-thats-not-it/773291/31 "2016-11-28T21:02:48Z")
He was willing to tell the convenient lies, and they were willing to listen to them. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-that-the-dems-dont-understand-white-working-class-america-no-thats-not-it/773291/32 "2016-11-28T21:06:38Z")
Czarcasm wrote: “But the link provided in the OP shows why that approach just doesn’t work.” Then, as your teacher used to say, you do it again and again until you get it right. There’s an old saying that some learn by being told, some learn by seeing, and others just have to pee on the electric fence for themselves. Well, this country just took a giant whiz on a high-voltage special and is going to see themselves that what they’ve been told in one case isn’t true and just maybe they’'ll be more receptive to learning it about other cases. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-that-the-dems-dont-understand-white-working-class-america-no-thats-not-it/773291/33 "2016-11-28T21:08:28Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > But they _won’t_ listen, because they are _genuinely_ not rational, pretending otherwise is self destructive. > > You are just using the standard false equivalency rhetoric used by people who try to defend the Right. The Right is _genuinely_ malignant, bigoted and irrational; and pretending they aren’t won’t change them. oh for fuck’s sake. you can’t honestly tell me that a good chunk of people who gladly voted for Obama twice just suddenly became bigoted and racist overnight. look, I work in the Rust Belt, in a building with a good chunk of union-represented employees. I know a number of them who voted for Trump this time around, after having voted Obama twice. They are _not_ stupid, bigoted, or irrational. But go ahead and pat yourself on the back for how much better you are. I just hope you’re OK with being on the losing side of many elections to come. > [@Czarcasm](#): > > He was willing to tell the convenient lies, and they were willing to listen to them. _sigh_ if you think complex problems boil down to simple, soundbite answers, I can’t help you. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-that-the-dems-dont-understand-white-working-class-america-no-thats-not-it/773291/34 "2016-11-28T21:11:09Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > But they _won’t_ listen, because they are _genuinely_ not rational, pretending otherwise is self destructive. > > You are just using the standard false equivalency rhetoric used by people who try to defend the Right. The Right is _genuinely_ malignant, bigoted and irrational; and pretending they aren’t won’t change them. So it’s intrinsic and genetic? ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-that-the-dems-dont-understand-white-working-class-america-no-thats-not-it/773291/35 "2016-11-28T21:11:32Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > it’s not even that. I’d say it’s that at least Trump is saying he’s going to do _something._ I’d wager the thinking is “well, we probably can’t bring those jobs _back_ but maybe we can keep more from leaving.” The problem with the Dems is that they basically ignored these regions until they realized they were in trouble (seriously, Debbie Dingell was raising alarm bells [for a while](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/i-said-clinton-was-in-trouble-with-the-voters-i-represent-democrats-didnt-listen/2016/11/10/0e9521a6-a796-11e6-ba59-a7d93165c6d4_story.html?utm_term=.d8c9c92c4e33) to no avail. No; the Democrats \*have \*tried to help for decades, and been totally ignored by the local people while the Republicans do their best to wreck everything there. These people just voted their own enemies into power. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-that-the-dems-dont-understand-white-working-class-america-no-thats-not-it/773291/36 "2016-11-28T21:11:33Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > the problem is that he’s talking about people who will never vote Democratic, ever. they’re “lost” to the Democrats, so saying Trump won because of them is foolish. > > The people that the pundits are claiming the Democrats “don’t understand” aren’t rural bible-thumpers, but the people in e.g. Downriver (Detroit,) Milwaukee, northern Ohio. The blue collar industrial areas in and near cities. the ones who have seen their industries fade and jobs steadily leave under both Republican and Democratic governments. These are the areas the Clinton campaign took for granted and ignored until it was too late. > > see, the problem is with you people who think that anything which isn’t NYC, SoCal, Chicago, or D.C. is just cows and cornfields and churches and guns. The people who the Democratic Party couldn’t get this year are people who have voted solidy Democratic in the past (e.g. union workers) and decided this time to go a different way. Michigan as a whole turned red this year (after 20 years blue) based on just a couple of counties flipping red. But keep telling yourself that Trump won because this country is racist and bigoted even though it put Barack Obama in office for two consecutive terms. Yep. That’s exactly right. And how it’s not obvious is beyond me. Those voters the article is talking about have not been potential Democratic voters for some time. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-that-the-dems-dont-understand-white-working-class-america-no-thats-not-it/773291/37 "2016-11-28T21:14:03Z")
that’s ok, they just want to call them stupid and pat themselves on the back. “Hey, we told them how stupid they are! It’s their fault for not listening!” ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-that-the-dems-dont-understand-white-working-class-america-no-thats-not-it/773291/38 "2016-11-28T21:17:48Z")
> [@](#): > > The real problem isn’t east coast elites who don’t understand or care about rural America. The real problem is rural America doesn’t understand the causes of their own situations and fears and they have shown no interest in finding out. They don’t want to know why they feel the way they do or why they are struggling because they don’t want to admit it is in large part because of choices they’ve made and horrible things they’ve allowed themselves to believe. This is one way to frame what just happened in the election. It’s not the only way, but it’s one way. Unprovable opinion. Maybe it’s correct. But, even if it is, so what? How do we want to solve the “problem” that stupid people are allowed to vote? > [@](#): > > The problem isn’t a lack of understanding by coastal elites. The problem is a lack of understanding of why rural, Christian, white America believes, votes, behaves the ways it does by rural, Christian, white America. Oh, I see . . . the solution, whatever it is, isn’t my responsibility (_phew_). Ultimately, if we want a majority of people to support the Democratic party and its platform, then our job is to figure out how to talk to the people who currently don’t support it and try to show them how it can work for them and their community in ways the Republican platform cannot. If they don’t believe us, or don’t understand, well, then we’ve got to try different methods. I mean, this is how ‘changing opinions’ works. It’s not complicated. Sitting around and saying, “the problem isn’t my message, the problem is that you don’t know how to listen” is essentially giving up on communication completely. It might make you feel good knowing you’re right, but if you want change, it’s a sure-fire way to not achieve it. And, so, I wish people would stop obsessing about how dumb Republicans are, and instead start working on how to communicate with them in positive and constructive ways. Because they’re certainly not going to solve the ‘problem’ for us. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-that-the-dems-dont-understand-white-working-class-america-no-thats-not-it/773291/39 "2016-11-28T21:19:21Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > that’s ok, they just want to call them stupid and pat themselves on the back. “Hey, we told them how stupid they are! It’s their fault for not listening!” And the article discussed exactly why they couldn’t be reached(and those weren’t the reasons, btw). Once again, did you actually read the article, or did you knee-jerk your response from the tread title? ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-that-the-dems-dont-understand-white-working-class-america-no-thats-not-it/773291/40 "2016-11-28T21:37:06Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > … > eta: I’ve been wondering why this thread is in the pit? Shouldn’t it be in Great Debates or something? I put it in the Pit because I figured it would get [del]ugly[/del] heated. > [@Czarcasm](#): > > And the article discussed exactly why they couldn’t be reached(and those weren’t the reasons, btw). Once again, did you actually read the article, or did you knee-jerk your response from the tread title? It’s not “stupidity.” It’s much more complicated and global than that. > [@](#): > > The honest truths that rural, Christian, white Americans don’t want to accept and until they do nothing is going to change, are: > > [ul] > [li]Their economic situation is largely the result of voting for supply-side economic policies that have been the largest redistribution of wealth from the bottom/middle to the top in U.S. history.[/li] > [li]Immigrants haven’t taken their jobs. If all immigrants, legal or otherwise, were removed from the U.S., our economy would come to a screeching halt and prices on food would soar.[/li] > [li]Immigrants are not responsible for companies moving their plants overseas. Almost exclusively white business owners are the ones responsible because they care more about their share holders who are also mostly white than they do American workers.[/li] > [li]No one is coming for their guns. All that has been proposed during the entire Obama administration is having better background checks.[/li] > [li]Gay people getting married is not a threat to their freedom to believe in whatever white God you want to. No one is going to make their church marry gays, make gays your pastor, accept gays for membership.[/li] > [li]Women having access to birth control doesn’t affect their life either, especially women who they complain about being teenage, single mothers.[/li] > [li]Blacks are not “lazy moochers living off their hard earned tax dollars” anymore than many of your fellow rural neighbors. People in need are people in need. People who can’t find jobs because of their circumstances, a changing economy, outsourcing overseas, etc. belong to all races.[/li] > [li]They get a tremendous amount of help from the government they complain does nothing for them. From the roads and utility grids they use to the farm subsidies, crop insurance, commodities protections…they benefit greatly from government assistance. The Farm Bill is one of the largest financial expenditures by the U.S. government. Without government assistance, their lives would be considerably worse.[/li] > [li]They get the largest share of Food Stamps, Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security.[/li] > [li]They complain about globalization but line up like everyone else to get the latest Apple product. They have no problem buying foreign-made guns, scopes, and hunting equipment. They don’t think twice about driving trucks whose engine was made in Canada, tires made in Japan, radio made in Korea, computer parts made in Malaysia.[/li] > [li]They use illicit drugs as much as any other group. But, when other people do it is a “moral failing” and they should be severely punished, legally. When they do it, it is a “health crisis” that needs sympathy and attention.[/li] > [li]When jobs dry up for whatever reasons, they refuse to relocate but lecture the poor in places like Flint for staying in towns that are failing.[/li] > [li]They are quick to judge minorities for being “welfare moochers” but don’t think twice about cashing their welfare check every month.[/li] > [li]They complain about coastal liberals, but the taxes from California and New York are what covers their farm subsidies, helps maintain their highways, and keeps their hospitals in their sparsely populated areas open for business.[/li] > [li]They complain about “the little man being run out of business” then turn around and shop at big box stores.[/li] > [li]They make sure outsiders are not welcome, deny businesses permits to build, then complain about businesses, plants opening up in less rural areas.[/li] > [li]Government has not done enough to help them in many cases but their local and state governments are almost completely Republican and so too are their representatives and senators. Instead of holding them accountable, they vote them in over and over and over again.[/li] > [li]All the economic policies and ideas that could help rural America belong to the Democratic Party: raising the minimum wage, strengthening unions, infrastructure spending, reusable energy growth, slowing down the damage done by climate change, healthcare reform…all of these and more would really help a lot of rural Americans.[/li][/ul] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-that-the-dems-dont-understand-white-working-class-america-no-thats-not-it/773291.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-that-the-dems-dont-understand-white-working-class-america-no-thats-not-it/773291.md?page=3)