If you don’t live in Maryland, you don’t know unsettling it is to see signs supporting Donald Trump.
Maryland is one of the bluest of the blue states, and so it can kind of be hard to realize that even though the state consistently votes for a guy with a “D” at the end of their name, there are vast swaths of the state that are as red as it gets. Driving to Ocean City you will see no shortage of that good ol’ southern pride that a typical Marylander might mistake for being for other, lesser southern states.
I recently went to Niagara Falls with my wife, before the shit really hit the fan and we could still reasonably say that blowing a shitton of money on a vacation instead of buying the local Sam Club’s supply of toilet paper was a good idea. The drive from our home took just about seven hours, which isn’t a bad little trip to visit another country and maybe eat some french fries smothered in brown gravy.
I’ll also take a moment to say at this point; fuck Google Maps. Like, fuck Google Maps forever. Because regardless of how much you just want to stay on a nice highway, even if it might take a little longer, Google Maps will throw you down the nearest back country road, where there’s nothing to stare at and no fucking rest stops. I don’t care if the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, keep me on a road where there’s at least a McDonald’s and a relatively clean toilet every ten or so miles. It’s not hard to ask! I’ll pay the tolls!
So yeah, Google Maps decided to go all Google Maps and shove us into the remote reaches of Pennsylvania and Upstate New York. And as I drove the winding back roads, I was reminded of something that is both heartening and kind of troublesome.
All those times I said that no one should give a shit about the person who lives Podunk, Idaho and how they should vote? I kinda don’t feel like that. At least not anymore.
When you’re driving down narrow highways and through tiny villages, you can see the rot that’s set in for a certain set of the country. America’s rural villages and it’s inner city “ghettos” aren’t that different. Both suffered from white, upper class flight around the same time. Both are pockmarked by once beautiful homes left to decay and wither. Both seem to be forgotten right up until the moment where you drive through one and realize “holy shit, people actually live and exist and breathe here.”
There’s also all the first world thoughts that creep into your mind. Man, if someone could buy that house and fix it up they’d be able to make a nice little profit, I thought to myself. Not seeing the golden arches every couple miles was a terrifying experience. There were no Targets, no Walmarts, no signs of everyday suburban life, and it made me deeply uncomfortable. And the fact that it made me uncomfortable in and of itself shows how elitist those of us who do live big cities or suburban sprawl or maybe even a small town with a Starbucks can be. It shows how elitist I can be, to be traveling through a small town, thinking about the ways I could gentrify it, while in the same breath grumbling about white folks doing it to Brooklyn.
How the fuck do I justify saying these people’s votes don’t matter? For better or worse, the only people who seem to speak to these candidates are the red guys. Now, most of the people trying to reach out to them are craven, opportunistic assholes who only want to get them to vote against their self-interest in attempt to maintain as much power as possible, but as anyone who has ever seen a Democratic candidate pander to black voters can attest to…I mean, it’s the same shit, isn’t it?
I hate the thought the powers that be have pit normal people against each other in an effort to distract from making money and maintaining power, mostly because I think it ignores the little centuries of institutionalized discrimination that have happened, and gives the prejudiced and the racists a free pass. But I find myself thinking that I lived out there…I’d kinda feel that way. If I were a white man who was inundated with the idea that “all white people are kind of racist” who lived in a small town where there weren’t any black people…yeah, I’d be kinda pissed. How can I be racist against something I don’t know? How can I be prejudiced against someone I can’t see? Why am I a bad person just because of the news channels I watch?
Of course, you still can be racist and be prejudiced even if you don’t know black people personally. But I guess the point of this rambling is that…I understand a little bit better why the families who live next to an abandoned steel mill that probably supported their families for generations until one day it just…didn’t anymore, might feel kicked aside by the world. And why it’s not fair to say that their votes don’t matter. They do matter. They’re just as alone and scared and pissed off and angry as the rest of us. They’re sheltering in place and fearing the end of the fucking world too. Maybe cut them a little slack. Not a lot, but, like, a little. A little understanding goes along way. Especially now.
Also, they have Sheetz, and Sheetz kicks ass. Go to a Sheetz. You won’t regret it.
As the mayor of Podunk, Idaho, I applaud your many thoughts.
This is an interesting, sad article from Podunk, which is a real place in Massachusetts:
https://www.telegram.com/news/20161109/real-life-podunk-votes-to-make-america-great-again
Geezus, that just hurts to read.
Lifelong Mass resident here. Interestingly enough, my mom and I took a road trip out that way around October of 2016 and yup, Trump signs everywhere. And we were on Podunk Road at some point. We ate lunch at the Salem Cross Inn (West, not East Brookfield) which I highly recommend to anyone who happens to be in the area.
The crazy thing in a lot of the areas ruined by the Sacklers is how much of the political power is based on screwing over the victims. Rehab funding gets cut to the bone, crazy work requirements get added to public assistance, draconian law enforcement gets a growing slice of the budget…
The GOP has followed the same playbook everywhere, which is meant to demonize a subpopulation in order to increase unity among conservatives. They also disenfranchise large numbers by denying voting rights to anyone with a conviction, and propagandize a message of cynicism, arguing that government can’t do anything but crack heads.
The same dynamic is in play in rural America as it is in Fort Worth or Long Island. But I think it is getting stretched awfully thin. I’m not sure what happens when it breaks.
This is the one of the best opinion pieces I’ve read in a LONG time. Thank you.
I’ve always been a southern city-dweller, and I’ve always driven around a lot. I choose country roads. I have worked with and am related to plenty of country people (of all stripes, not just Trump idiots). I’m slightly amused by your fish-out-of-water account here, but I share all of these feelings.
The thing about gentrification is it can be a net good if the community is taken care of. Like, a bunch of tax payers coming in and funneling real money into what would have been abandoned/blighted buildings is absolutely a net positive – IF THE RESIDENTS CAN STAY. If you rent is controlled but your child’s school now has more funding? They fix your street lamps and broken infrastructure? Amazing. The problem is when capitalism allows the market to drive up living costs and forces the people out, then calls it a “transition” or “revitalization.”
Really looking forward to the rent bubble bursting in our dark times. Or not looking forward to it. Ahhh.
I’ve lived in a bunch of different places. Grew up in Middle America farmland. Lived in a number of metropolitan suburbs. Lived way the hell out in the sticks where the closest hospital was 120 miles away. Lived in a place where people were speaking 300-year old Spanish and I was the minority–and treated as such. Lived in a couple of Southern states where a certain set of people would wink and nod at me like I was one of them while I informed them that I very much was not.
All that’s to say that I think my experiences have provided me with a rapidly diminishing quality in our society: empathy. Not sympathy–empathy. The ability to actually consider how someone else might feel in their situation. This often puts me on the unpopular end of a LOT of conversations but that’s the way it goes.
I’ll tell you what though. If you really want to see a case of the difference between a relatively high tax state and an almost no tax state, drive from VT to NH. VT is nice and well preserved and civilized, and NH looks like something out of a post-apocalyptic horror film. Live Free Or Die, indeed.
…empathy is a rare trait these days…but then not even courtesy is common any more
…nor sense, neither…sad to say
I typed and deleted four responses before this. Because I’m conflicted. I grew up in Pittsburgh, lived there during the collapse of the steel industry. So I have a certain amount of sympathy for these people, just as I do for the coal miners in Appalachia. Their problems are real. But their attachment to trump and his authoritarianism is mind boggling. I understand their fear and frustration. I can almost get their willingness to vote for someone promising to upend the status quo. But, they’re no better off now than they were before he took office. And until Covid 19 and the TRUMP response they were still attending his rallies, still parroting the GOP talking points, still wearing their stupid MAGA hats and telling reporters they’re voting for him in 2020. They feel like their voice isn’t being heard. I’d counter that we hear it, but it’s not possible to give them what they want. The steel industry as we knew it is never coming back. The life they lived in the 1970’s is never coming back. They either don’t believe this or know it and want to drag the rest of us down with them.
And Sheetz is awesome.
I think part of the problem with this group is that they have been fed a steady diet of propaganda for the past 30 years, so they literally don’t know what they don’t know. As anyone who has spent a considerable amount of time in a manipulative/abusive relationship can attest, it’s really difficult to recalibrate one’s worldview after it’s been so thoroughly warped for so long.
Does that make them somehow not responsible for their actions? Hells no. They own this shit. What it does do is simply explain their lack of willingness to accept reality because, for them, their twisted view of the world IS reality.
These people have been gaslit by years and years and years and YEARS of politicians swearing up and down that their way of life could return. Even fucking Democrats make overtures to “clean coal” and not taking away mining jobs. Hillary might’ve been the only one to say different, and we saw how that shit went. Even the media plays the “what about the poor blue collar workers” card, making it functionally impossible for any politician to rationally explain how they can help these communities without being like “WE’RE GONNA OPEN UP THE OLD MILL!”.
And yeah, that doesn’t excuse their behavior at all, but it does *explain* it, and that’s certainly better than assuming they’re just unwilling to change. if someone spends years lying to you about some shit, eventually you’re gonna fucking believe it.
I know a lot of good people there that haven’t bought into the right wing way of thinking. And a lot of people I thought were good who did. While the money was rolling in maybe it was easier to be a decent human being. And when the gravy train stopped some of them gave in to the baser parts of themselves that were under the surface. I don’t know, there are people there I barely recognize anymore.
More like 20 years,although that’s still a significant amount of time. These were Clinton voters, Bill, not Hillary. NAFTA pissed a lot of them off and even though PA went for Kerry that was mostly urban voters in Pittsburgh and Philly, northern and western PA voted for Bush. I really don’t know how it broke down for Obama. I don’t know if it was 9/11, age+fear, or a steady diet of Fox news. I wish they’d snap out of it for their own good and ours. But I don’t think it’s going to happen.
Edited to add that I’m sure the propaganda did start earlier than 20 years, it probably made them uneasy at first, even while they still voted for the Dems. Until it wore them down. Fucking 24 news.
Some thoughts on your thoughts:
1) You might want to check to see if you have “avoid highways and toll roads” checked in your Google Maps settings!
2) I used to live in Rochester, NY, and my parents currently live in Central PA. I’ve done the drive straight south through NY where 390 — a highway — turns into PA-15 — decidedly NOT a highway — many times, and in bad weather. It is a real haul and goes through some very not suburban areas, but at least the geography is interesting. That being said, taking a route like 83 –> 81 –> 90 from MD into Canada and Niagara Falls is also not very enjoyable. I-90 is so flat and straight and boring that it actually makes you miss the myriad adult video stores and novelty shops you see driving through central Pennsylvania.
3) Gun culture, farm subsidies, and religion are big reasons why rural MD, PA, and NY are so red. We treat political parties like sports teams in this country, and since the Republicans have co-opted those aspects of American culture, they’re “The Team” for those parts of the country. From what I have seen it’s got little to do with actual polices and lawmaking, outside of policies that relate to the aforementioned big 3.
I double checked and I didn’t have the settings turned on! I decided not to turn them on when we left and basically tried not to have them turned on the whole time I was there.
Probably the most boring and painful time I had on the whole trip was driving behind a truck on a back road that was doing 25 all the way down one had to be one of many, many mountains. No amount of Earth, Wind and Fire made it okay. I was really trying to drive the whole trip, but that part killed me, so I had to switch with my wife when we FINALLY made it to a Sheetz. Which, may I once again re-iterate, is fucking awesome.
I basically go through this pretty much every weekend, visiting my mother or my mother-in-law. Orlando is a sort of blue island surrounded by some of the most backward and reactionary areas in Florida (not Panhandle backward, but close). The biggest problem is retirees. They flock here, they don’t want to pay a dime in taxes, and they swamp the polls for every vote. So the only things that get passed are veteran programs, medical programs, and protections for the elderly (emergency services, prisons and the ability to purchase vast amounts of firearms and ammunition).
Roads, schools, universities, parks, environmental measures all get ignored. Since there’s no businesses except hospitals, doctors, chiropracters and nursing homes, there’s no decent jobs outside those fields, which require the education that’s currently being starved for support, ’cause “who needs that fancy book learnin'”? Well, you do if you need a triple bypass, asshole. “Fuck the environment — I’ll be dead in 5 years.”
Crime and drug abuse are rampant. Which then frightens the old people even more. White supremacy (which goes hand-in-hand with Trump support) is incredible in some of these places. There’s actually active Ku Klux Klan chapters — I thought that shit died out when I was a child, but nope. I’ve got friends who will not go into certain towns and places after the sun sets.
Even in the cities, the economy is ruled by tourism, which is predominantly low-wage, unskilled workers. It also receives MASSIVE tax subsidies, even though Disney and Universal aren’t exactly hurting for cash. Did you know the State of Florida pays for a massive chunk of Disney/Universal’s advertising? Well, we do. They’re already sounding the alarm that the Orlando area may not recover from this for years. The last recession stuck around here much longer than most other places, because housekeepers and groundskeepers aren’t able to put much back into the economy.
And yet these ignorant fucks constantly vote against their own interests, largely because they don’t know any better. Fox News talking points get passed around like they are gospel, because none of them have the critical thinking skills to evaluate these claims. And don’t get me started on irony — millions of seniors taking advantage of Medicare and Medicaid but not wanting anybody else to have the same resource. It’s sickening.
The only ray of hope is that, every election, more old people are gone and younger people are figuring out they’re getting screwed. But Republicans have been rigging votes here for so long that it’s a very slow process.
I grew up in similar places in Canada City for a large part of my childhood and early teen years.
The rural/urban divide is real here too.
There was always a large number of kids who would leave for college and university. Some always came back to be a part of their communities. I think that because there are no real opportunities in the small communities, now they never come back–I haven’t been back in 30 years. Lured away to the big evil cities, bright lights, crime and full of ever scarier non white people who they believe commit the crime.
I only keep in touch (barely) with someone I grew up with because she married someone in the social circle I am barely a part of. She and I talk about the old small town we left (she visits because of her family) and as I don’t have any family there I have no real reason to come back. She doesn’t hang out with her former friends because they made it perfectly clear they resent the fuck out of those that left.
They are the ones we left behind.
They do live in a bubble. Physically, mentally and emotionally. Made worse being fed toxic bullshit from the news. They don’t have much to go on.
Many never traveled to the nearest “big” city. It is pretty sad to think that their lives revolve around the small places they live. On one hand they’re content to live like that which is fine, but it doesn’t give them any understanding of anyone outside the bubble (which is what we city dwellers live in too if we’re not careful.)
Take them out of the bubble and they freak out. I used to be teased because my parents would drive 3 hours to Toronto to get “asian” supplies but it showed me that there is a bigger world out there. I used to invite my friends to come with us, but only one friend ever did take me up on that offer.
I was the “asian” kid… or usually just called the “chink” kids by the dumber parents or kids.
When I moved to the city, I was stunned to not be surrounded by white folks 24/7. It took me a while to get adjusted to that.
Now, I’ll bet the very multicultural GTA freaks them the fuck out because they feel the white people are all gone (aka “THE WE WILL NOT BE REPLACED” bullshit.)
There are some things that I loved growing up in rural Ontario. The clean air. The winter fun. The good people I knew. The slow calm approach that country types when shit goes sideways unlike many city types I’ve known.
On the other hand, I won’t miss the open racism. Or the close minded stupidity and fear of anything outside of their little bubble. Same reason I don’t hang out with those in the Korean community here (YOU HAVE NON KOREAN FRIENDS?)
I don’t know if we can solve the divide. I’m just riffing based on my own experiences.
Apparently the senator who withheld info from the public was ALSO doing a bit of insider trading🤔🤔🤔
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/senator-richard-burr-coronavirus-stock_n_5e73e80dc5b6f5b7c5412d6c
1. Sheetz is ass. Wawa or GTFO.
2. My in-laws live in Buffalo, and we have found it’s faster to take the road slightly less traveled from suburban Philadelphia through Pennsyltucky and WNY than to go through Syracuse then down the Thruway.
3. The people you’re railing against are the byproduct of the GOP machinery and its media arm. To their credit/fault, they have been on brand and managed to thoroughly capture the hearts and minds of tens of millions of voting citizens, to the point that they’re warped to the truth. So warped that they willingly line up to vote against their own economic self-interests time and again. If you want to bring them back into the fold, you need to break the hold that the right has on them. Instead of demonizing them as “deplorables”, maybe the Dems could reach out to them? The Democrats used to be the party of the working man. They are the people providing the numbers that enable the top of the GOP to remain viable. Win them back, give them a reason to leave their rich oppressors, and take the country back.