Understanding the Urban Rural Divide from the Urban Perspective
Every week, we get some thinkpiece from the New York Times or Washington Post about how us urban folks are oh so mean to rural folks. To a certain extent I can understand that being called racist for minor disagreements or even for things that were completely innocent a decade ago can get tiring. I’ve heard liberals who are allegedly paragons of tolerance talk about Christians in a way that they would never talk about Muslims or any other minority religion. You never see Hollywood rip on any non-Christian religions the way they rip on Christians and try to justify the hypocrisy by saying, “It’s different because Christians are in the majority.” You can say that all you want but treating people like garbage for their religion is still treating people like garbage for their religion. And telling people who live well outside reasonable police protection that they don’t really need guns to defend themselves is more than a little artless.
But that said, the urban rural divide cuts both ways. Urban dwellers, like myself, have had to listen to rural dwellers talking similar amounts of garbage about us and even advocating policies that they themselves won’t live up to for decades. Us urbanites have constantly heard that we’re not“real” Americans. And it’s time the gloves come off. No more Billy-Bob coddling.
Personal Responsibility and Free Market Fundamentalism
The two big beliefs that permeate rural culture are:
- Personal responsibility, I.E. The idea that we’re all responsible for our own choices and dealing with the results of those choices or things that the universe throws our way. The government should not finance choices someone else freely made.
2. Free market fundamentalism. Modern rural dwellers tend to be against government interfering in the economy in almost any capacity. They see it as government picking winners and losers.
Both of these are fair points. Too bad rural Americans tend to only apply those points when bad stuff happens to us urban folks.
Consider what happened when outsourcing was sweeping through urban centers like the plague. We wanted the government to do something to make outsourcing less profitable. What we got from rural voters and the politicians they elected were statements like:
“The free market has spoken! Stop playing the victim!”
“Pull yourselves up by your bootstraps! Learn new skills!”
“Move to where the jobs are!”
A short decade later, when coal’s fortunes turned because natural gas became cheaper, suddenly asking government to bail out people affected by impersonal free market winds became A-OK. Promising that the government would save coal miners was basically half of Donald Trump’s campaign. And woe betide any latte-sipping city-dweller who dares to throw back the greatest hits of rural America. If you told the coal miners that they had to adapt or die, you were a mean old elitist looking down on someone who was just left behind.
Heck, without the Federal government getting involved in the economy, rural America would basically not exist. Without Medicaid, food stamps, crop subsidies, and a whole host of government programs designed to keep small-towns afloat, small towns would have died long before Trump was known for anything more than skyscrapers and failed casinos. The residents would have had to move where the jobs are.
This is the crux of the urban-rural divide: Rural dwellers want dog-eat-dog Libertarianism for us urban folks but socialistic carve-outs for themselves. And the hypocrisy only gets worse.
Personal Responsibility and Government Aid
A big part of rural voter enthusiasm for things like Medicaid work requirements is that if you’re getting government aid, you should do everything possible to get yourself off of it. Good idea, in theory. In practice some states are exempting rural areas who just happen to vote for the politicians supporting work requirements. Funny how that works. More red states who try to add work requirements to Medicaid will most likely do the same. Imagine if a bunch of city-dwelling liberal politicians forced through a bunch of strict Medicaid work requirements and then said they only apply to rural dwellers. The Sagebrush Rebellion would pale in comparison to what the reaction would be.
What about learning new skills? That too is seen as only for us elitist city folks. Many coal miners are actively refusing to get free retraining to get new skills. Imagine if urbanites rejected free government-funded retraining to learn new skills during the Bush era. It would have been the end of all welfare programs.
I am not saying all people living in rural areas are bad people. As someone who doesn’t like being around large groups of people, I can understand why living in a rural area can be appealing. But don’t talk to me about the virtues of small government and how terrible the Federal government is when you’re taking crop subsidies. Don’t advocate dog-eat-dog Libertarianism and say that city people should move to where the jobs are while the government is basically propping up your town so you don’t have to. Don’t say that people who are on government aid should have to adhere to work requirements while your town gets exempted. Don’t talk to me about how educated city people hurt your little feelings and then turn around and say educated city people are less than American.