Small Town Rural America Has Been Screwed

[pknopp]

Greed

Explain please.

Also, Everyone is greedy.

I disagree that the idea that one should be able to pay their bills in exchange for a 40 hour work week makes one greedy.

I know the answer....You Lefties should invite 20-40 million illiterate thirdworlders to flood our employment, education, healthcare and welfare systems....that’ll make everything better...ain’t that right colfax_m ?

It's the greedy business that are inviting them but you know that.

Public opinion can change that...are you helping to change the public’s opinion?
Are you fighting against sanctuary city policies, are you fighting for aggressive deportation legislation...etc etc?

I have argued endlessly to address the employers hiring illegals. That's how you find them.

Okay cool....so do you stand against sanctuary city policies, free healthcare for illegals, free school for illegals, free shit for illegals, drivers licenses for illegals and ALL incentives for illegals? Are you for aggressive deportation legislation?

No. Since we will not address employee's hiring illegals I support ignoring all immigration laws.

Haha...Right. I thought so.
The old “go after the employers” bullshit it just something for proponents of illegal immigration to hide behind.
We already knew that.

When the business is raided and the employer arrested, arrest the illegals also and deport them.

Haha...that’s clever.
Is that kind of like “arrest the crackhead ONLY if and when you can arrest the crack dealer.”
Hear how retarded that sounds?

I don't support arrestsing the user. I support getting them rehab.

You ignore the lawbreakers you want to and I'll ignore the ones I want to.

As much as I hate employers who hire illegals, understand, it is not illegal to offer a job.
The "lawbreakers" are those traversing our border...You have chosen not to see it that way for some strange reason...my bet is you have illegal roots of your own.

It's not illegal to cross the border.

You really need to do some due diligence before making a fool of yourself.

1911. 8 U.S.C. 1325 -- Unlawful Entry, Failure To Depart, Fleeing Immigration Checkpoints, Marriage Fraud, Commercial Enterprise Fraud

www.justice.gov

That doesn't dispute what I said.

 

[Mustang]

I've been on a road trip that I've wanted to do for a very long time.

I drove east to Illinois then am driving southwest to the Pacific Ocean on what's left of Route 66.

That road, or what's left of it, goes through small town rural America.

I've gone through ghost town after ghost town. The towns that aren't abandoned are so deeply depressed it's painful and shameful to see.

Small town rural America has been totally screwed and abandoned by both our government and our citizens.

I understand now why so many republicans are so angry. I don't understand why they can't see why they have been screwed so badly and by whom.

Most of the states and all of the towns are controlled by republicans. People keep voting for them because of social issues like gay marriage and because they don't make much money and wrongly seem to believe that tax cuts are the answer to their financial problems.

Tax cuts have only totally screwed small town rural America. Their roads are so bad. I mean so bad that there were times the rough road and wind has my car literally bouncing down the road. When was the last time their roads were paved? The poverty is just terrible.

This is the result of keeping wages low, no regulation on business and trillions in tax cuts for the rich and big business.

Capitalism is making it worse because there's no money to be made in those areas so they are abandoned by business which results in more depressed economic conditions.

Raising wages will help these people a lot. Not just by increasing their own pay but by increased business from others being paid more. No little tax cut that is temporary will be a solution to such poverty. Higher wages will.

Better education will help a lot. So people don't have to take low wage jobs that require public assistance to be able to survive.

Small town rural America needs to stop electing politicians who don't give a damn about them and won't invest in the people and the areas they live in.

I was in one place that the water coming out of the faucet was a light brown and cloudy. I didn't wash my hands, I used hand sanitizer instead.

I have gone through countless towns that are totally abandoned. I've gone through farming areas that there aren't houses on the land. Just farming. People don't live in those areas anymore so the towns are turning into ghost towns.

The air in Oklahoma and Texas was so polluted it has caused a sinus infection. And people live in those areas. I can only imagine the health problems of the people in those areas but they don't have any hospital or medical facilities to go to. They have to travel hundreds of miles to get medical help.

Younger people who weren't alive before Reagan think this is normal.

It's not.

America wasn't like this before the conservatives convinced Americans that taxes, regulations, worker protections, a livable wage and investing in our nation was a horrible thing.

I totally understand now why so many in small town rural America voted for trump. He was the first republican who actually vocalized the problems the Republican Party was creating.

Only he either went about fixing the problem wrong or just didn't do anything. Which is what he mostly did. Nothing. In fact, things got worse for small town rural America.

I don't know what the solution is to help these people see that voting for republicans got them in this mess and won't get them out of it.

But I finally saw for myself the reasons why republicans voted for trump.

If you want to know what's happened (and is happening) to small town America, it can probably best be summed up by the concept of economies of scale. The trend began under Reagan.

You see, Reagan embraced the idea of massive tax cuts for businesses for a specific stated reason. A little history is in order here.

In the aftermath of WWII, the US was the only major industrial economy with our factories, and shipyards, and transportation system completely intact. Meanwhile, the economies of England, France, Germany, Japan, and the USSR were in ruins. Consequently, we cleaned up during the 1950s and 1960s. Not only did we manufacture consumer goods for them, we rebuilt their industrial base. By the 1970s, countries like Japan were cleaning our clock. They built better quality cars which were also considerably more fuel efficient. In the aftermath of the oil embargos of the 1970s, we were no longer competitive because our industrial base was much older and no longer efficient compared to the other industrial countries.

In comes Reagan with the idea of granting massive tax cuts to businesses in order to help them retool. This is where the law of unintended consequences comes in. Unfortunately, there were insufficient strings attached to the tax cuts indicating how the money had to be spent. As a result, both large and smaller companies went on a corporate buying spree with their windfalls. That's how companies like RJ Reynolds (a tobacco company) ended up buying Nabisco (of food company) to become RJR Nabisco. That's how media companies like ABC, NBC, and CBS ended up being owned by Disney, GE, and Westinghouse. The trend continued for decades even to the point that huge profitable oil companies like Exxon and Mobile felt compelled to merge (like Chevron and Texaco) in order to compete with other oil companies that had merged.

While all of this was happening to the economy as a whole, small towns got hit in ways that weren't as much of an issue in and around large cities.

The first was the exportation of manufacturing jobs. After all, some towns had a major manufacturer that employed hundreds of people, often working several shifts. People referred to them as company towns whether it was a paper plant, an athletic shoe manufacturer, or a company that made bicycles, or refrigerators. Once those jobs started going overseas for cheaper labor, their competitors were forced to follow if they wanted to stay in business. This trend was the opposite of over a hundred years of American policy which was always to protect our industrial base by keeping them here at home.

The second was the growth of Walmart. Previously, small towns had a healthy business class of educated people who owned stores and shops that were operated by small town residents who, in turn, hired locals to work there. Once Walmart moved in and started selling products at prices that undercut the best prices local merchants could offer, it was just a matter of time until the local shops closed their doors, leaving main street with shuttered doors in empty buildings which nobody could afford to rent. Making matter worse, megastores like Walmart took their profits out of these small towns unlike the local shop keepers who spent their profits in their home towns, thereby stimulating their local economy.

Then there's the demise of the family farm. You probably remember the Willie Nelson Farm Aid concerts of the 1990s. As family farms were sold off, agribusinesses like Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM), also known as "The Supermarket to the World," moved in to gobble up thousands of acres of farm land. The remaining family farms couldn't compete based on, you guessed it, the economies of scale.

Finally, with little opportunity and very few jobs available, people in general, especially young people, started moving away to larger cities in search of a better life.

I should know. I came from a small town where the population has declined by over 25% since 1970.

 

[Lysistrata]

These rural folks are very confusing. They seem to want help, on one hand, and then want, on the other hand, to live apart from the rest of their fellow Americans, blaming their fellow citizens all the way when nobody else is actually treating them badly.

The ruralists need to get out more, meet more people, acknowledge that people who are different from themselves exist. They somehow expect that the rest of the U.S. cater to their desire to live in a bubble. The closer you live to a population center, the more different people you interact with. I grew up right outside of NYC, and live in the DC suburbs. I've known people from all over the world. I've really enjoyed it. I can't imagine living any other way.

The anger that these ruralists exhibit toward others is entirely unfounded. Nobody owes them anything. They have no one else to blame for their failure to participate in society.

Here's the money quote in that:

"I can't imagine living any other way."

Neither can people in rural areas. They HATE the idea that their neighbors could see into their houses. They HATE the idea that an HOA president can literally dictate the color of their house, the size and shape of their mailbox, when their grass has to be cut, how big their shrubs can be. They HATE the idea that there's nowhere they can hunt and they would be crucified if they dressed out a deer in the front yard. They HATE the idea that they couldn't have chickens in the backyard for fresh eggs every day. They HATE the idea that their kids could not safely play outside without multiple adults constantly watching them.

I'll paraphrase your last sentences. The anger that these urbanites exhibit toward others is entirely unfounded. Nobody owes them anything. They have no one else to blame for their hatred and fear toward those who trade wealth for freedom.

Let's put this to you. Would you rather live where:

Someone else dictates the color of your house? Or where you can paint your house whatever color appeals to you?
Your children can never go outside without you being literally within 20 feet of them at all times? Or your children can safely play outside because you have plenty of room and even if they wander off, you know everyone that lives within a 5 mile radius and they will make sure the kids get back to you?
You are totally dependent on trucks getting into town from the countryside with your food? Or where you can provide for the basic needs of your family and don't worry very much about food distribution chains being broken?
You smell car exhaust and sewer gas every time you step outside? Or where you can breath clean air every day when you go outside?
You hear police sirens multiple times every day and see reports of yet another shooting two blocks from your house? Or where the only shooting going on is during deer or turkey season and you don't have to keep an eye on every car that passes?

And finally, would you rather have to say, "I wish someone would do something about this", or would you rather say, "I'd better do something about this", and do it yourself?

See, I think this is one reason why urbanites tend to vote democrat. They are very removed from the source of things. Literally, their entire lives are spent having people bring them things. If they want food, they go to a store and buy it or just call someone who will bring it to them. Someone else does all the work to make it available. If they want clothes, they they go to a store and buy them. Someone else does all the work to make it available. In short, they are accustomed to receiving things that someone else has made. The rural dweller, OTOH, lives closer to the source of things. They can raise their own livestock. If they want a chicken dinner for Sunday lunch, someone takes an axe into the chicken yard. If they want to fill the freezer with beef for the winter, a cow gets slaughtered. They can get their own fresh milk and eggs daily without needing someone else to get it for them. Is it any wonder then that urbanites believe in and vote for a Santa Claus who promises them ever more free stuff while the rural dweller prefers to vote for those promising to leave them the heck alone?

What you said about rural life may be true, but doesn't address your anger at the millions of people who live in suburban or urban environments. Nobody ever demanded that you move or stop doing these things that you find enjoyable. What is this "free stuff" that urbanites supposedly demand? Urbanites and suburbanites also want to be left the heck alone. Actually, this is why a lot of us dislike the right-wingers so much. They are much too interested in forcing everyone to live their way. They haven't heard of the term MYOB.

trump had this big slogan and sign: "save America." From what?

 

[Preacher]

Don't cry for me. I love everything about my small RED town. It's clean, safe and the people work and look out for each other. I really don't mind that we don't have all night bodegas with all night drug dealers hanging out in front. I like not having drive by shooting shootings. I don't mind light traffic. And I especially like my garden, vineyard and about 50 golf courses that are within 30 miles. My biggest fear is that some Democrats will move here and bring their version of utopia to my paradise.

Spot on and same here! My small town is growing at a quick pace. We are right on interstate 85 near the SC border and 3 businesses have opened since we moved here in February. Another is coming soon just announced yesterday. LOT of manufacturing jobs here as well and they pay well especially when rent and mortgage payments are under 1,000$ a month.

 

[bigrebnc1775]

Right wingers come out in hives when you mention higher wages. Higher wages are communism because they reduce the profits that their masters make. Its the big right wing con.

and rat shit foreigners are clueless about America.

 

[Crepitus]

Capitalism is making it worse

What capitalism? You type all of this hogwash and dont even understand your own premise.
You bitter fool.

Do you not know what capitalism is?

Of course. The OP, sadly, does not.

More irony?

Slow down! I'm running out of memes, dude.

You have already shown you have no fucking idea what that means, goob smooch.

Lol, sure. Let's go with that.

 

[bigrebnc1775]

Don't cry for me. I love everything about my small RED town. It's clean, safe and the people work and look out for each other. I really don't mind that we don't have all night bodegas with all night drug dealers hanging out in front. I like not having drive by shooting shootings. I don't mind light traffic. And I especially like my garden, vineyard and about 50 golf courses that are within 30 miles. My biggest fear is that some Democrats will move here and bring their version of utopia to my paradise.

Spot on and same here! My small town is growing at a quick pace. We are right on interstate 85 near the SC border and 3 businesses have opened since we moved here in February. Another is coming soon just announced yesterday. LOT of manufacturing jobs here as well and they pay well especially when rent and mortgage payments are under 1,000$ a month.

Visit Kings Mountain and the battle of Cowpens you're near it

 

[Oddball]

I've been on a road trip that I've wanted to do for a very long time.

I drove east to Illinois then am driving southwest to the Pacific Ocean on what's left of Route 66.

That road, or what's left of it, goes through small town rural America.

I've gone through ghost town after ghost town. The towns that aren't abandoned are so deeply depressed it's painful and shameful to see.

Small town rural America has been totally screwed and abandoned by both our government and our citizens.

I understand now why so many republicans are so angry. I don't understand why they can't see why they have been screwed so badly and by whom.

Most of the states and all of the towns are controlled by republicans. People keep voting for them because of social issues like gay marriage and because they don't make much money and wrongly seem to believe that tax cuts are the answer to their financial problems.

Tax cuts have only totally screwed small town rural America. Their roads are so bad. I mean so bad that there were times the rough road and wind has my car literally bouncing down the road. When was the last time their roads were paved? The poverty is just terrible.

This is the result of keeping wages low, no regulation on business and trillions in tax cuts for the rich and big business.

Capitalism is making it worse because there's no money to be made in those areas so they are abandoned by business which results in more depressed economic conditions.

Raising wages will help these people a lot. Not just by increasing their own pay but by increased business from others being paid more. No little tax cut that is temporary will be a solution to such poverty. Higher wages will.

Better education will help a lot. So people don't have to take low wage jobs that require public assistance to be able to survive.

Small town rural America needs to stop electing politicians who don't give a damn about them and won't invest in the people and the areas they live in.

I was in one place that the water coming out of the faucet was a light brown and cloudy. I didn't wash my hands, I used hand sanitizer instead.

I have gone through countless towns that are totally abandoned. I've gone through farming areas that there aren't houses on the land. Just farming. People don't live in those areas anymore so the towns are turning into ghost towns.

The air in Oklahoma and Texas was so polluted it has caused a sinus infection. And people live in those areas. I can only imagine the health problems of the people in those areas but they don't have any hospital or medical facilities to go to. They have to travel hundreds of miles to get medical help.

Younger people who weren't alive before Reagan think this is normal.

It's not.

America wasn't like this before the conservatives convinced Americans that taxes, regulations, worker protections, a livable wage and investing in our nation was a horrible thing.

I totally understand now why so many in small town rural America voted for trump. He was the first republican who actually vocalized the problems the Republican Party was creating.

Only he either went about fixing the problem wrong or just didn't do anything. Which is what he mostly did. Nothing. In fact, things got worse for small town rural America.

I don't know what the solution is to help these people see that voting for republicans got them in this mess and won't get them out of it.

But I finally saw for myself the reasons why republicans voted for trump.

I live in small town Murica half the year, and I'm here to tell you that this is the biggest steaming heap of shit I've seen on this site in some time.

You are a stone fucking bigot.

 

[Dana7360]

Access to quality internet is an issue over here as well. The only solution to poor access is by the government taking it over and ensuring that there is a national standard. The government has had to do so at all stages of our evolution, from the postal service through the telephone service.
Green initiatives should encourage folk to live and work at home but there needs to be investment in local services to make that work.

We had the same problem with electricity and water in the early 1900s.

The cities were all electrified and had clean water.

The rural areas didn't.

So FDR changed it. He electrified the rural areas and made sure they had clean safe water.

We had a problem with roads too. It was Eisenhower who solved that problem.

He built a nationwide interstate system.

Everyone benefits from such projects.

The rural areas should be all for this. I don't understand why they want to continue to sabotage themselves this way.

What they're doing is destroying their areas. Yet they keep doing it.

It makes absolutely no sense to me.

 

[Dana7360]

These rural folks are very confusing. They seem to want help, on one hand, and then want, on the other hand, to live apart from the rest of their fellow Americans, blaming their fellow citizens all the way when nobody else is actually treating them badly.

The ruralists need to get out more, meet more people, acknowledge that people who are different from themselves exist. They somehow expect that the rest of the U.S. cater to their desire to live in a bubble. The closer you live to a population center, the more different people you interact with. I grew up right outside of NYC, and live in the DC suburbs. I've known people from all over the world. I've really enjoyed it. I can't imagine living any other way.

The anger that these ruralists exhibit toward others is entirely unfounded. Nobody owes them anything. They have no one else to blame for their failure to participate in society.

It's a safety and economical situation as far as I'm concerned.

I learned about the safety this morning.

After driving on these bad roads for over a week, the front driver side blew out one of the nearly brand new tires I had put on my car in November.

I hit one of their craters in the road and it blew my tire to smithereens. I was driving 75 mph at the time. Some how I got the car to the shoulder safely.

I called AAA for help. Was towed 40 miles back to Winslow to a tire shop.

The AAA driver said what happened to me is very common here. He said he himself has had that exact same thing happen to him 3 times in the last couple year. The guy at the tire shop wasn't surprised either. He said it's normal.

It's not normal in my state.

It's not normal for the roads to be so bad that it destroys a nearly brand new tire.

But the people are used to it. It's normal for them.

I'm in Flagstaff now for the rest of the day and night. Will take my car to the Toyota dealer tomorrow to have all my other tires checked out before I hit the road again. Hopefully the tires will be able to handle these roads so I can get home.

I always get much more appreciation for my state when I travel. This trip sure has done just that.

I so understand why so many people keep flocking to my state.

 

[Dana7360]

Great post Dana! I saw the same thing on a road trip over to Boise to see my daughter for Thanksgiving. Took the backroads to Sunriver, OR to meet a friend and stay for a few nights. Went through a lot of tiny Oregon towns. Saw two Trump Parades (AFTER the election believe it or not) with disgruntled looking souls with guns in the backs of pickups flying ginormous MAGA flags. But other than that, these little towns looked deserted and run down. They are not run by Democrats - guaranteed. But yep, they've been ignored and in some cases forgotten entirely by our federal government for many years.

Thank you DrLove.

Your roads have a reputation in my state for not being very good.

Your roads are a paradise compared to what I've driven on in the last week.

Wow.

I've been all over your state. Backroads and the interstate.

You have fantastic roads compared to what I've been driving over for just over a week.

My only problem is with Portland and your bridges. If you are in the wrong lane and can't get over, you're screwed. LOL. It has happened to me a couple times.

 

[Disir]

I've been on a road trip that I've wanted to do for a very long time.

I drove east to Illinois then am driving southwest to the Pacific Ocean on what's left of Route 66.

That road, or what's left of it, goes through small town rural America.

I've gone through ghost town after ghost town. The towns that aren't abandoned are so deeply depressed it's painful and shameful to see.

Small town rural America has been totally screwed and abandoned by both our government and our citizens.

I understand now why so many republicans are so angry. I don't understand why they can't see why they have been screwed so badly and by whom.

Most of the states and all of the towns are controlled by republicans. People keep voting for them because of social issues like gay marriage and because they don't make much money and wrongly seem to believe that tax cuts are the answer to their financial problems.

Tax cuts have only totally screwed small town rural America. Their roads are so bad. I mean so bad that there were times the rough road and wind has my car literally bouncing down the road. When was the last time their roads were paved? The poverty is just terrible.

This is the result of keeping wages low, no regulation on business and trillions in tax cuts for the rich and big business.

Capitalism is making it worse because there's no money to be made in those areas so they are abandoned by business which results in more depressed economic conditions.

Raising wages will help these people a lot. Not just by increasing their own pay but by increased business from others being paid more. No little tax cut that is temporary will be a solution to such poverty. Higher wages will.

Better education will help a lot. So people don't have to take low wage jobs that require public assistance to be able to survive.

Small town rural America needs to stop electing politicians who don't give a damn about them and won't invest in the people and the areas they live in.

I was in one place that the water coming out of the faucet was a light brown and cloudy. I didn't wash my hands, I used hand sanitizer instead.

I have gone through countless towns that are totally abandoned. I've gone through farming areas that there aren't houses on the land. Just farming. People don't live in those areas anymore so the towns are turning into ghost towns.

The air in Oklahoma and Texas was so polluted it has caused a sinus infection. And people live in those areas. I can only imagine the health problems of the people in those areas but they don't have any hospital or medical facilities to go to. They have to travel hundreds of miles to get medical help.

Younger people who weren't alive before Reagan think this is normal.

It's not.

America wasn't like this before the conservatives convinced Americans that taxes, regulations, worker protections, a livable wage and investing in our nation was a horrible thing.

I totally understand now why so many in small town rural America voted for trump. He was the first republican who actually vocalized the problems the Republican Party was creating.

Only he either went about fixing the problem wrong or just didn't do anything. Which is what he mostly did. Nothing. In fact, things got worse for small town rural America.

I don't know what the solution is to help these people see that voting for republicans got them in this mess and won't get them out of it.

But I finally saw for myself the reasons why republicans voted for trump.

So, you went through Oklahoma, didja?
See this?

Route 66 Road Trip | TravelOK.com

Did you know Oklahoma boasts the longest drivable stretch of historic Route 66? Use this page as your trusty guide as you explore it for yourself.

plan.travelok.com

How fucking arrogant you are.

 

[Dana7360]

Consumer greed?

Greed is good. It’s the bedrock of capitalism.

Blaming consumers for the actions of corporations is such a pathetic sell out.

No greed is not good.

We are living the results of greed.

Ambition is good.

Greed is bad.

 

[lennypartiv]

Dear Dana7360,

You claim education will help, but what you really want is a bunch of liberal propaganda to be taught in our schools. Those living in rural areas are better off with the current education systems they have.

 

[Disir]

I call bullshit. What fucking idiocy. Sounds exactly like this shit:

Florida Democratic Party Exec: Poor Voters Don't Care About "Issues," Vote Based on "Emotions"

There is truly no defeat the Florida Democratic Party will avoid snatching from the hands of victory. Donald Trump has turned the Republican Party radioactive. His polling numbers are plummeting right alongside the GOP as a whole. And the nation is seeing a groundswell of progressive activism at...

www.miaminewtimes.com

Any questions on why Democrats are hated?

Didn't fucking think so.

 

[Flopper]

I've been on a road trip that I've wanted to do for a very long time.

I drove east to Illinois then am driving southwest to the Pacific Ocean on what's left of Route 66.

That road, or what's left of it, goes through small town rural America.

I've gone through ghost town after ghost town. The towns that aren't abandoned are so deeply depressed it's painful and shameful to see.

Small town rural America has been totally screwed and abandoned by both our government and our citizens.

I understand now why so many republicans are so angry. I don't understand why they can't see why they have been screwed so badly and by whom.

Most of the states and all of the towns are controlled by republicans. People keep voting for them because of social issues like gay marriage and because they don't make much money and wrongly seem to believe that tax cuts are the answer to their financial problems.

Tax cuts have only totally screwed small town rural America. Their roads are so bad. I mean so bad that there were times the rough road and wind has my car literally bouncing down the road. When was the last time their roads were paved? The poverty is just terrible.

This is the result of keeping wages low, no regulation on business and trillions in tax cuts for the rich and big business.

Capitalism is making it worse because there's no money to be made in those areas so they are abandoned by business which results in more depressed economic conditions.

Raising wages will help these people a lot. Not just by increasing their own pay but by increased business from others being paid more. No little tax cut that is temporary will be a solution to such poverty. Higher wages will.

Better education will help a lot. So people don't have to take low wage jobs that require public assistance to be able to survive.

Small town rural America needs to stop electing politicians who don't give a damn about them and won't invest in the people and the areas they live in.

I was in one place that the water coming out of the faucet was a light brown and cloudy. I didn't wash my hands, I used hand sanitizer instead.

I have gone through countless towns that are totally abandoned. I've gone through farming areas that there aren't houses on the land. Just farming. People don't live in those areas anymore so the towns are turning into ghost towns.

The air in Oklahoma and Texas was so polluted it has caused a sinus infection. And people live in those areas. I can only imagine the health problems of the people in those areas but they don't have any hospital or medical facilities to go to. They have to travel hundreds of miles to get medical help.

Younger people who weren't alive before Reagan think this is normal.

It's not.

America wasn't like this before the conservatives convinced Americans that taxes, regulations, worker protections, a livable wage and investing in our nation was a horrible thing.

I totally understand now why so many in small town rural America voted for trump. He was the first republican who actually vocalized the problems the Republican Party was creating.

Only he either went about fixing the problem wrong or just didn't do anything. Which is what he mostly did. Nothing. In fact, things got worse for small town rural America.

I don't know what the solution is to help these people see that voting for republicans got them in this mess and won't get them out of it.

But I finally saw for myself the reasons why republicans voted for trump.

Small towns adjoining large cities are doing well becomes they have become the suburbs of large cities. They offer many advantages of the large cities with fewer of the big city problems. Most small towns near major tourist attractions are also surviving.

It is rural America that has been on a death spiral for many years. They simply can not offer what most young people are looking for, good jobs, education, and entertainment and cultural events. By today's standards, there is nothing to do in these towns. It is not the fault the government. In fact, many small towns are able to exist only because of social security, disability and other government welfare programs.

There are plenty of cities with populations 100,000 to 200,000 that are doing well.

 

[Dana7360]

I've been on a road trip that I've wanted to do for a very long time.

I drove east to Illinois then am driving southwest to the Pacific Ocean on what's left of Route 66.

That road, or what's left of it, goes through small town rural America.

I've gone through ghost town after ghost town. The towns that aren't abandoned are so deeply depressed it's painful and shameful to see.

Small town rural America has been totally screwed and abandoned by both our government and our citizens.

I understand now why so many republicans are so angry. I don't understand why they can't see why they have been screwed so badly and by whom.

Most of the states and all of the towns are controlled by republicans. People keep voting for them because of social issues like gay marriage and because they don't make much money and wrongly seem to believe that tax cuts are the answer to their financial problems.

Tax cuts have only totally screwed small town rural America. Their roads are so bad. I mean so bad that there were times the rough road and wind has my car literally bouncing down the road. When was the last time their roads were paved? The poverty is just terrible.

This is the result of keeping wages low, no regulation on business and trillions in tax cuts for the rich and big business.

Capitalism is making it worse because there's no money to be made in those areas so they are abandoned by business which results in more depressed economic conditions.

Raising wages will help these people a lot. Not just by increasing their own pay but by increased business from others being paid more. No little tax cut that is temporary will be a solution to such poverty. Higher wages will.

Better education will help a lot. So people don't have to take low wage jobs that require public assistance to be able to survive.

Small town rural America needs to stop electing politicians who don't give a damn about them and won't invest in the people and the areas they live in.

I was in one place that the water coming out of the faucet was a light brown and cloudy. I didn't wash my hands, I used hand sanitizer instead.

I have gone through countless towns that are totally abandoned. I've gone through farming areas that there aren't houses on the land. Just farming. People don't live in those areas anymore so the towns are turning into ghost towns.

The air in Oklahoma and Texas was so polluted it has caused a sinus infection. And people live in those areas. I can only imagine the health problems of the people in those areas but they don't have any hospital or medical facilities to go to. They have to travel hundreds of miles to get medical help.

Younger people who weren't alive before Reagan think this is normal.

It's not.

America wasn't like this before the conservatives convinced Americans that taxes, regulations, worker protections, a livable wage and investing in our nation was a horrible thing.

I totally understand now why so many in small town rural America voted for trump. He was the first republican who actually vocalized the problems the Republican Party was creating.

Only he either went about fixing the problem wrong or just didn't do anything. Which is what he mostly did. Nothing. In fact, things got worse for small town rural America.

I don't know what the solution is to help these people see that voting for republicans got them in this mess and won't get them out of it.

But I finally saw for myself the reasons why republicans voted for trump.

If you want to know what's happened (and is happening) to small town America, it can probably best be summed up by the concept of economies of scale. The trend began under Reagan.

You see, Reagan embraced the idea of massive tax cuts for businesses for a specific stated reason. A little history is in order here.

In the aftermath of WWII, the US was the only major industrial economy with our factories, and shipyards, and transportation system completely intact. Meanwhile, the economies of England, France, Germany, Japan, and the USSR were in ruins. Consequently, we cleaned up during the 1950s and 1960s. Not only did we manufacture consumer goods for them, we rebuilt their industrial base. By the 1970s, countries like Japan were cleaning our clock. They built better quality cars which were also considerably more fuel efficient. In the aftermath of the oil embargos of the 1970s, we were no longer competitive because our industrial base was much older and no longer efficient compared to the other industrial countries.

In comes Reagan with the idea of granting massive tax cuts to businesses in order to help them retool. This is where the law of unintended consequences comes in. Unfortunately, there were insufficient strings attached to the tax cuts indicating how the money had to be spent. As a result, both large and smaller companies went on a corporate buying spree with their windfalls. That's how companies like RJ Reynolds (a tobacco company) ended up buying Nabisco (of food company) to become RJR Nabisco. That's how media companies like ABC, NBC, and CBS ended up being owned by Disney, GE, and Westinghouse. The trend continued for decades even to the point that huge profitable oil companies like Exxon and Mobile felt compelled to merge (like Chevron and Texaco) in order to compete with other oil companies that had merged.

While all of this was happening to the economy as a whole, small towns got hit in ways that weren't as much of an issue in and around large cities.

The first was the exportation of manufacturing jobs. After all, some towns had a major manufacturer that employed hundreds of people, often working several shifts. People referred to them as company towns whether it was a paper plant, an athletic shoe manufacturer, or a company that made bicycles, or refrigerators. Once those jobs started going overseas for cheaper labor, their competitors were forced to follow if they wanted to stay in business. This trend was the opposite of over a hundred years of American policy which was always to protect our industrial base by keeping them here at home.

The second was the growth of Walmart. Previously, small towns had a healthy business class of educated people who owned stores and shops that were operated by small town residents who, in turn, hired locals to work there. Once Walmart moved in and started selling products at prices that undercut the best prices local merchants could offer, it was just a matter of time until the local shops closed their doors, leaving main street with shuttered doors in empty buildings which nobody could afford to rent. Making matter worse, megastores like Walmart took their profits out of these small towns unlike the local shop keepers who spent their profits in their home towns, thereby stimulating their local economy.

Then there's the demise of the family farm. You probably remember the Willie Nelson Farm Aid concerts of the 1990s. As family farms were sold off, agribusinesses like Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM), also known as "The Supermarket to the World," moved in to gobble up thousands of acres of farm land. The remaining family farms couldn't compete based on, you guessed it, the economies of scale.

Finally, with little opportunity and very few jobs available, people in general, especially young people, started moving away to larger cities in search of a better life.

I should know. I came from a small town where the population has declined by over 25% since 1970.

I have watched almost all of what you posted. From the 60s on.

In the 80s everything changed.

When Reagan and the republicans were doing all those changes people like me said this exact thing would happen.

We were ignored.

Now we are near the end of the road and our nation is failing.

The cities can't exist without the rural areas.

The rural areas can't exist without the cities.

We have stopped calling our nation it's proper name.

The United States of America. We haven't been united for a very long time and it's destroying us.

Something needs to be done or America will be left behind.

 

[odanny]

Right wingers come out in hives when you mention higher wages. Higher wages are communism because they reduce the profits that their masters make. Its the big right wing con.

Sad, isn't it? It's why the Republican plan for the Dumbing Down of America has been effectively parlayed into making the poorest Americans continue to vote against their own interests.

 

[surada]

I don't know what the solution is to help these people see that voting for republicans got them in this mess and won't get them out of it.

But I finally saw for myself the reasons why republicans voted for trump.

It's very simple, and Trump and the Republicans have it right. It just takes time for the policies we want to take affect.

High taxes and global warming policies have pushed rural America's jobs over seas. The only thing that will bring those jobs back is a competitive tax rate on corporations.

The Democrat's "spread the wealth" agenda is what you see on your trip. The only problem is America is not part of where they WANT to spread the wealth to.

Our soybean farmers weren't happy when their market dried up and Brazil provides soybeans to China.

 

[blackhawk]

One could also look at the situations in some of the big cities in states like New York, Califorina, Maryland and Illinois to name a few and ponder why they keep voting Democrat.