Rural Voters Need More

Saving the country begins with small towns and ‘flyover’ states.

In a Senate hearing on April 6, Senator Cotton (R-AR) called out Janet Yellen and the Fed for missing and discounting rural counties in their economic assessments. I’m no fan of Senator Cotton, but he’s dead on. Both parties have either ignored or merely paid lip service to rural disparity for 25 years.

They have completely missed and misled rural communities, while small businesses in these areas have continued to be gradually crushed since the dot-com bust and the 2007–2009 crash. The current triple threat of inflation, frozen supply chains, and war in Europe is more of the same.

Real, direct, personal inflation for basic goods in rural communities is consistently higher than in cities. Wages are always the slowest to increase, trailing urban centers with or without federal minimum wage hikes. Fundamental operating costs are higher for small businesses in rural counties, and business credit is harder to secure at competitive rates.

What Trump understood — and what top Democrats always, always, always discount— is that rural America has never recovered from the last three economic downturns. No viable Democratic presidential candidate since Bill Clinton has understood the lasting impact of recessions on rural communities.

Unfortunately, like every president and every Congress since the 90s, from both parties, Trump and the latest legislative leaders made grand gestures and speeches during the last administration with little lasting impact. Advisors like Larry Kudlow and Wall Street insiders didn’t help at all.

Biden has now laid out plans for long-term impact, but he does so with incomplete analysis, a predictable presidential echo chamber of opinions, and little chance of making changes stick beyond his time in office. Furthermore, White House communications often rely on highly debated opinions and partisan policies rather than widely understood economic facts. The only advisor Biden seems to have who understands the impact of policies on rural communities and businesses is Pete Buttigieg.

Just as we need more veterans and mothers in office who understand those issues on a personal level, we need more rural leaders in state and national offices. It took a president from a small town in Arkansas to see rural economic struggles as equally important to urban struggles. I think it will take a candidate from a small town in Indiana, Pete Buttigieg, to do the same, but I’m ready to listen to anyone without a silver spoon in their mouth.

Whoever is next in the White House, we can’t allow them to ignore or misunderstand rural counties and small-town businesses anymore. Many more towns won’t survive if they are left behind again, and those that do will increasingly depend on federal assistance. That wouldn’t just be heartless; it would have a compounding effect on the national economy.

Liberal and conservative voters alike need to be demanding that political leaders pay attention to the communities left behind for so long.

We need to let wealthy Republicans know they can’t continue paying lip service to rural voters on the campaign trail, promising trickle-down benefits from the top that barely touch them. And if Democrats don’t want to lose another “sure thing” election, they better stop fighting small-town critics and learn from them instead.