6 ms·

I don't agree with everything in the article, but I do believe that the non-urban folks are feeling ignored. I think the results of the election highlight this

I don't agree with everything in the article, but I do believe that the non-urban folks are feeling ignored. I think the results of the election highlight this very well. In the critical "mail-in" states, the difference in the Presidential election was made by the large urban populations. In the House and Senate, local preferences were more strongly favored. In the aftermath of the elections, all of the "land doesn't vote" posts serve to amplify the feeling of abandonment and disdain felt by the non-urban populations.

NovemberWhiskey 6y ago
>I think the results of the election highlight this very well. In the critical "mail-in" states, the difference in the Presidential election was made by the large urban populations. In the House and Senate, local preferences were more strongly favored. The part about the Senate doesn't make any sense to me: voting for the Senate works exactly the same way as voting for the Presidency in most states - it's a winner-take-all plurality vote on a statewide basis.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- fatnoah 6y ago
  >The part about the Senate doesn't make any sense to me: voting for the Senate works exactly the same way as voting for the Presidency in most states - it's a winner-take-all plurality vote on a statewide basis. Whoops, I wrote one thing while thinking the other. IIRC, the Democrats picked up a seat, which does seem to follow the statewide popular voting vs. regional voting. Good catch!
bsanr2 6y ago
I honestly think this is a case of equality appearing as persecution to those who've lived relatively blessed lives heretofore. For all the rigors of rural, small-town, w/e life, you don't see a mass exodus to the cities. Why not? Because, ultimately, they're getting what they want out of the deal: tight-knit communities, regulatory autonomy, and - the dirty little secret, which we must at least mention lest we make liars of ourselves - clear cultural (and even racial) hierarchy, if not homogeneity, among other things. But, of course, it's not sustainable in an accelerating information and service society. People are getting left behind and they don't like it (just not enough to move). Their desires matter, but not more than anyone else's. So we have to find the balance. No, you can't just do what your dad did. No, you don't, just by nature of being you (whatever that entails), deserve a stable, affluent, modern lifestyle in an inoffensive culture surrounded by people who look just like you - at least, not anymore than urban folk deserve what they want. If we're going to do this thing, it's not going to be make-work pork (that would be your given farming subsidies, federal contracts - including in highly-educated STEM work, and whatever other public-private partnerships that get cast as bootstraps when they're very much not) getting shipped out to your rugged individualist homestead, funding your technically-rigorous but otherwise anti-science and ahistorical curricula, $80k lifted trucks, and mall-scale megachurches, while everyone else has to scrimp and sacrifice and live on the margins. A true national solution will respect regional interests while, at its core, recognizing an equal right to whatever quality of life we deem workable and sustainable, and our collective interest in such. If the goal is a) rural folk get what they want, and b) fuck everyone else, it's not going to work. And what I've seen lately is city-dwellers switch from a patronizing to a hostile regard to these demands, so the decision on what to do is going to have to be made quickly, before the bottom falls out. Most of America's big cities could "secede" economically and be fine; after all, their reliance is on the trade of digital goods and intellectual services. Good luck to our landlocked states who sour their relationship to our ports of entry and exit.
jfengel 6y ago
I hear their sense of abandonment, and I want to reach out to them: stop voting for ignorant incompetents. It's not just the top spot, but all up and down the ticket, those voters repeatedly choose morons. The last four years they've had overwhelming control, and their chosen leaders have done absolutely nothing for them -- except deliver a steady stream of insults, which seems to be all they really want. Their message is clear: given the opportunity, rather than help themselves, what they desire more is to stick it to those urban populations they hate so much. Every election we go through this hand-wringing cycle of trying to listen harder to them. It's time to turn it around: how about you flyover chuckfucks listen to me for a change? Not the psychotic delusions of me being handed to them by the single solitary news stream they watch (the only one, they're told, that isn't lying to them), but the things I actually say and think. Maybe then I'll stop referring to them as flyover chucklefucks. But thus far, they've spent so much time convincing themselves that I despise them that they've made themselves right.
- krapp 6y ago
  >Their message is clear: given the opportunity, rather than help themselves, what they desire more is to stick it to those urban populations they hate so much. The constant refrain that the rest of the country needs to sympathize with them and understand their pain rings hollow coming from the same people who use "fuck your feelings" as a campaign slogan.

NovemberWhiskey 6y ago

>I think the results of the election highlight this very well. In the critical "mail-in" states, the difference in the Presidential election was made by the large urban populations. In the House and Senate, local preferences were more strongly favored. The part about the Senate doesn't make any sense to me: voting for the Senate works exactly the same way as voting for the Presidency in most states - it's a winner-take-all plurality vote on a statewide basis.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
fatnoah 6y ago
>The part about the Senate doesn't make any sense to me: voting for the Senate works exactly the same way as voting for the Presidency in most states - it's a winner-take-all plurality vote on a statewide basis. Whoops, I wrote one thing while thinking the other. IIRC, the Democrats picked up a seat, which does seem to follow the statewide popular voting vs. regional voting. Good catch!

bsanr2 6y ago

I honestly think this is a case of equality appearing as persecution to those who've lived relatively blessed lives heretofore. For all the rigors of rural, small-town, w/e life, you don't see a mass exodus to the cities. Why not? Because, ultimately, they're getting what they want out of the deal: tight-knit communities, regulatory autonomy, and - the dirty little secret, which we must at least mention lest we make liars of ourselves - clear cultural (and even racial) hierarchy, if not homogeneity, among other things. But, of course, it's not sustainable in an accelerating information and service society. People are getting left behind and they don't like it (just not enough to move). Their desires matter, but not more than anyone else's. So we have to find the balance. No, you can't just do what your dad did. No, you don't, just by nature of being you (whatever that entails), deserve a stable, affluent, modern lifestyle in an inoffensive culture surrounded by people who look just like you - at least, not anymore than urban folk deserve what they want. If we're going to do this thing, it's not going to be make-work pork (that would be your given farming subsidies, federal contracts - including in highly-educated STEM work, and whatever other public-private partnerships that get cast as bootstraps when they're very much not) getting shipped out to your rugged individualist homestead, funding your technically-rigorous but otherwise anti-science and ahistorical curricula, $80k lifted trucks, and mall-scale megachurches, while everyone else has to scrimp and sacrifice and live on the margins. A true national solution will respect regional interests while, at its core, recognizing an equal right to whatever quality of life we deem workable and sustainable, and our collective interest in such. If the goal is a) rural folk get what they want, and b) fuck everyone else, it's not going to work. And what I've seen lately is city-dwellers switch from a patronizing to a hostile regard to these demands, so the decision on what to do is going to have to be made quickly, before the bottom falls out. Most of America's big cities could "secede" economically and be fine; after all, their reliance is on the trade of digital goods and intellectual services. Good luck to our landlocked states who sour their relationship to our ports of entry and exit.

jfengel 6y ago

I hear their sense of abandonment, and I want to reach out to them: stop voting for ignorant incompetents. It's not just the top spot, but all up and down the ticket, those voters repeatedly choose morons. The last four years they've had overwhelming control, and their chosen leaders have done absolutely nothing for them -- except deliver a steady stream of insults, which seems to be all they really want. Their message is clear: given the opportunity, rather than help themselves, what they desire more is to stick it to those urban populations they hate so much. Every election we go through this hand-wringing cycle of trying to listen harder to them. It's time to turn it around: how about you flyover chuckfucks listen to me for a change? Not the psychotic delusions of me being handed to them by the single solitary news stream they watch (the only one, they're told, that isn't lying to them), but the things I actually say and think. Maybe then I'll stop referring to them as flyover chucklefucks. But thus far, they've spent so much time convincing themselves that I despise them that they've made themselves right.

krapp 6y ago
>Their message is clear: given the opportunity, rather than help themselves, what they desire more is to stick it to those urban populations they hate so much. The constant refrain that the rest of the country needs to sympathize with them and understand their pain rings hollow coming from the same people who use "fuck your feelings" as a campaign slogan.