There's a lot of fluff in the first part that plays up the caricature of rural America -- this hurts the blog post because it makes it easier to dismiss the ent

There's a lot of fluff in the first part that plays up the caricature of rural America -- this hurts the blog post because it makes it easier to dismiss the entire message. Don't. The oil angle is crucial, although not often talked about. By rallying against projects like Keystone XL -- a Canadian venture to bring Alberta oil sands crude to Gulf of Mexico refineries -- and conflating the legitimate debate over the exact routing of the Bakken formation's Dakota Access Pipeline with a blanket opposition against oil pipelines in general, Democratic voters and leaders are signalling that they're uninterested in supporting a major job producer and the reason for North Dakota's positive balance sheet. Although several years behind, North Dakota has every opportunity to become like Alberta (or any number of states in OPEC), using oil money to prop up the quality of life of its residents. The influx of money and talent can been used to stimulate job creation and ventures that are less dependent on the momentary price of oil and create lasting wealth in an area of the country that could really use some. These ventures have been pursued since the Bakken boom and have resulted in low unemployment, a state budget surplus, and personal income growth, but have a long way to go before they're self-sufficient. Climate change affects us all, but not defending domestic energy extraction seriously hurts the Democratic party platform.