Entire libraries worth of ink have been poured in an effort to understand, mythologize, and explain the behavior of white rural voters — why they are so attached to former President Donald Trump, and perhaps the ways that voters and politicians in more cosmopolitan areas don't understand the sufferi...
The article focuses on a “culture war” when in reality the reason rural communities are so fucked are class and economic issues. There’s no funding for bumfuck America, once the “elites” start funding outreach programs that aren’t tied to the church you’ll see a lot of the christian right go away. But nobody wants to do that because culture war benefits the landed gentry and upper class elites.
I didn’t have running water until I was 5 and no water heater till I was 11. The reason was booze and pills, there are still kids out there growing up how I grew up. And they’ll continue to, because the only outreach programs out there are funded and run by the church and they don’t help out drug addicted single moms.
Harm reduction programs, funded by taxes and managed at the federal level so there’s no local political fuckery. That’s the only way forward for rural America.