#2. reach across the divide: to the rustbelt and beyond
the to-do list — how to quash fake news and fix our broken democracy
For sixty years Democrats held nearly uninterrupted majorities in both Houses of Congress. That ended in 1994. Since then Dems have lost over 700 state legislative seats and, as Biden says, we’re battling for the soul of the country. As more rural areas have turned red — it’s become increasingly difficult to win a Senate majority or garner the needed Electoral College votes to win the White House. In 2020, Democrats won the Presidency and control of Congress with a margin of only 90,000 votes — total, even though Biden won the popular vote by 7 million and Dems collectively won 4.6 million more House votes. That the GOP came that close to controlling all of Washington (with far fewer votes) shows just one of the structural disadvantages that Dems face. The GOP, a party known for focusing on short-term gains, has been using a long-game strategy to beat the Left, and it’s working.
What have they been up to? REDMAPing (Republican gerrymandering), shrinking union membership, suppressing votes, presenting a skewed version of reality on Fox and other news outlets, and blocking Democratic legislative success. Meanwhile the Democratic Party’s lack of substantive action to address economic hardship in rural areas has compelled voters to question who’s really looking out for them.
Dems have been MIA. Small towns are drying up, giant agribusiness is moving in, wages are stagnating, and automation and cheap labor elsewhere is siphoning off blue-collar jobs. No wonder two thirds of rural America voted to “Make America Great Again.” But Trump wasn’t the messiah the heartland had hoped for. His trade war was harmful to agricultural communities, causing bankruptcies and suicide rates to rise, and we lost nearly a quarter of US coal jobs during Trump’s tenure. But Midwesterners haven’t felt that Dems have served the region much better. Wisconsin farmer Bill Hogseth wrote in Politico that “There is an overwhelming sense that there is no future here…The pain and struggle in my community is real, yet rural people do not feel it is taken seriously by the Democratic Party.”
Hogseth suggests trust can be rebuilt if the Dems make good on promises. So that farmers can get a fair price — antitrust enforcement is key, along with “policies to manage oversupply in commodity markets.” Dems need to “challenge the anticompetitive practices of the gigantic agribusiness firms that squeeze our communities, … enforce the Packers and Stockyard Act, and Country of Origin Labeling.” A similarly dedicated approach addressing the collapse of the coal industry with Green New Deal opportunities has the potential to bring new life to stricken communities across the nation. The Infrastructure Law Rural Playbook will help bridge the gap and give rural Americans a leg up.
Can they hear us?
Ever take a long drive out on the interstate with the radio on and notice how different the station choices are out there? It feels like a different world. There’s Talk Radio, Country, and Christian programming, but there isn’t a lot of actual news coverage to be had. Conservative media giants now own much of the local airspace. iHeart and Cumulus own 1,300 radio stations, Salem Media owns 3,100, and Sinclair Broadcasting has bought up more than 500 independent television channels. In addition, the demise of more than 1,800 American newspapers has made it more difficult for rural communities to stay informed. Sinclair, Cumulus, iHeart, Salem and others have sought to put a thumb on the scale — tipping public opinion to the right. All of these changes, plus the communication void left by a declining organized labor movement, have made it hard for Dems to connect with rural America.
48 million Americans listen to AM talk radio each week, and 91% of Talk Radio is conservative; by comparison NPR’s All Things Considered reaches 15 million. Expanding Public Radio Station broadcast range, including Spanish content in hispanic communities, establishing and funding new stations in underserved areas, and providing free news programming to smaller stations can counterbalance the conservative monopoly on rural radio.
“While You Weren’t Watching Christian Radio Grew into a Goliath” is the title of InsideRadio.com’s summary of radio trends. There are 3,139 religious format FM stations in the U.S. (compared to 947 NPR news broadcasting stations). Religious radio stations are exempt from a local station requirement — allowing them to build massive networks of transmitters that cover much larger territory than would otherwise be permitted. Many ministries and local churches buy block programming from Conservative radio giant Salem Media. Salem’s president David Santrella says “News/talk is a fantastic complement to Christian talk. The results of the 2016 Presidential election tell you that there is a quiet but powerful force that’s willing to mobilize for a cause they believe in…And our lineup of hosts does a terrific job in rallying those listeners for conservative causes.” In addition, Trump’s Executive Order 13798 halted the enforcement of consequences for ministers preaching politics from the pulpit. 78% of White Evangelical voters supported Trump in 2020. That’s around 30 million votes. The combination of conservative media ownership and special exemptions has helped to turn rural communities red.
We can enforce separation of church and state by strengthening the Johnson Amendment and creating legislation to break up media monopolies. The Center for American Progress recommends rescinding Trump’s executive order 13798. And who says Christianity has to be conservative? In parts of the country where truth is competing with ‘truthiness’ and losing, moderate churches are an untapped resource. The strengthening of liaisons with faith institutions helped turn Georgia blue. Moderate or left-leaning alternatives to rural America’s ubiquitous Christian-Right radio content would be a helpful counterweight. We can work with campaigns like Faith in Public Life, Poor People’s Campaign, and Vote Common Good — who’s billboard campaign His Words Matter suggested to Christian voters that the things President Donald Trump has said on the campaign trail and in office “stand in opposition to the words of Jesus Christ.” The White House Office of Faith-based and Neighbor-hood Partnerships can help with this effort.
Could feeling excluded and ignored be turning voters red? Researcher Arlie Hochschild wanted to understand our country’s divisions. The author of Strangers in Their Own Land interviewed Louisiana Tea Party members. She found that voters’ choices were motivated by a perception that the system was unfair — that progressive policies had pushed women and minorities to the front of the line, while hard-working rural whites were written off. They felt disrespected, scorned by a ‘biased’ press, and depicted by Hollywood in stereo-typed caricatures — liberal elites “wagging a moral finger at them” without any understanding of what it might be like to walk in their shoes.
When you think of Hollywood’s portrayals of Southerners, the Bible Belt, rural America, and low income white people — do positive images come to mind? Not really, right? Could conservatives’ label for us as “liberal elites” be describing the way we might be making them feel — like marginalized outsiders? Maybe Trump’s big appeal to rural whites has been the sense of belonging — a gold-plated Manhattanite has invited them to the party and deigned to champion their causes. The same appeal might hold true for Fox News’s welcoming message to conservatives. While a progressive, Hollywood-centric worldview might alienate rural America both by omission and moral smugness, there’s a world of inclusion offered to white Americans of every economic class at Fox News.
The producers of the Roseanne sitcom wrote Roseanne Barr off the show after she fell down the Q-hole and started spouting racist conspiracy theories, but before she was fired the ratings were sky-high. They were boosted by an All in the Family premise of opposing political viewpoints under one roof. The content was relevant and presented conservative working class people respectfully. There’s room for more of this kind of representation on television — in fact, it’s a missed opportunity: built-in drama and a broad audience base.
We’re losing some of the folks who need us most: those with limited education and lack of job opportunities. The red/blue split has continued to widen along education lines. Twenty years ago the white, non-college educated vote was evenly divided between the two political parties, in 2020, 59% voted red and 33% voted blue — a 26-point Republican advantage. Just 36% of registered voters have a four-year college degree today.
Hmmm …. trying to remember that thing Bernie keeps talking about. Free college tuition, replicating the strategies of countries like Finland (who’ve figured out the education equation), and early childhood learning programs like Baby College can help Americans make informed voting choices.
In the heartland, unions have been key to educating blue-collar voters as to which party represents their best interests. Since the 1970s, labor union membership has dropped over 50%, and before the 2016 election, the swing states of Wisconsin and Michigan passed anti-union legislation called Right To Work bills, further shrinking membership. To give you a sense of what’s possible: 70% of Swedes belong to a union, by contrast 10.8% of Americans belong to a union.
Biden and Congressional Dems have said they plan to take up and support the PRO Act — union protection legislation. It’s possible with enough union pressure Manchin and Sinema will get on board. State Dems can also support working class Americans across the country by pushing back on Right To Work bills and other anti-labor legislation, and by supporting union organizing efforts like those of Amazon workers.
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