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I do believe that the flavor of small towns will vary depending on where you live. Unfortunately, mine was of the hardcore Bible-thumping variety. In Texas. If a family with kids didn't go to church, that was scandalous! And heaven help the people who were confessed agnostics or atheists! Get ready for a beating ...
People who vote democrat or independent are socialist scum, of course.
There was one guy who I went to high school with who made it known in certain circles that he was gay. One night, he was murdered in his apartment. The police didn't barely bothered with it. After a cursory investigation, the case went cold. That would NOT have happened under any other circumstance.
I'm childfree, and I remember, as a teen, telling some of my school friends that I didn't plan on having children. That was a bad idea. My parents' house was TP'd and my car shoe polished. In that particular town, it was assumed that if you didn't want children, you were "funny that way," if you know what I mean.
Even though I'm totally straight, have spiritual leanings and believe in marriage, I can't imagine what it would be like if my S.O. and I lived in that town today. We'd have no friends and be gossiped about incessantly, especially because he's agnostic. Oh, and vegetarian. That's another big N-O. We also have high levels of education, so most people operate under the assumption that we think we're "better than them" and have the chip on their shoulder to prove it. Um ... well, now that you bring that up ...
I left this little slice of h*ll on earth in the 1990s, so this throw-back-to-the-1950s attitude wasn't so long ago. It still persists today. Whenever I go back to visit my mom (rarely), I'm reminded of just how miserable I was living there to the point of deep, deep depression. The women still sit around and compare the jewelry their husbands buy them, vying for one-upsmanship, which I find totally boring. They still gossip about people behind their backs and criticize anyone who doesn't tow the small town line straight and narrow. But I'm sure they find me boring, too. I have nothing to contribute to such conversations. My world is quite a bit larger than that.
God, I hated it there. What's amazing is that even thought the population grew, this town continued to attract the same type of people. It's still as backa**wards as it was in the 1990s.
Not are you all over the place, but are wrong about rural America. I doubt you ever lived the life, cause then you would know.
First off rural and small town people help each other a lot, yes proud people, but everyone helps the other that's in need, mainly because everyone knows everyone, as neighbors. other than that, rural life has the same problems city folks do, just not as much, ( except for crystal meth which is everywhere in the country). Whats different is there is not much to do, IF you desire things only found where there were lots of people, simple math ! The schools in some cases have a larger drug problem than the city, its sad for sure.
Now , as I said before politics has in general been conservative , most wealthy folk and large farmers, always vote Republican, thats the money thing, the haves and the have nots. These people are few, they usually are not so nice to live around . What drives the less prosperous rural countryside to vote Republican is the Church. WE did not attend religious stuff, and, conservative in thinking , but Liberal in our Politics.( One of the reasons I left, too conservative and in this case I don't mean Politics) Why there are so many evangelical Churches, is because that was just a part of life in the early days. Social events, and get to gathers on every other crossroad Church. many long ago were also schoolhouses, I know I went Kindergarten in a one room school house.The day President Johnson got equal rights for the rural minorities, was the day all these folks switch sides, and the preachers just threw more fuel on the fire. Johnson knew what would happen, but, it was the right thing to do.
Just to clarify, Granny is probably FAR more rural than 99% of this board. I know I am, and she's even more remote than me! Lol. Also, she lives in a county that STILL educates children in one-room schools.
(Btw, I used to teach in one about 15 yrs ago. And its still going. )
Which is also a good point. If I remember correctly, rural areas get a disproportionately higher amount of welfare than their urban/suburban counterparts.
To be sure, if we were to count farm supports as welfare (which personally, I always have), it jumps a lt of rural areas into the net *reicever* category.
You are wrong on that one. Do you know where the farm aid came from in the beginning? There may not be soup lines in rural small towns like in the city. fact is, a vast minority of people in specific states earn a wage that qualifies them to be below the poverty level.
You are wrong on that one. Do you know where the farm aid came from in the beginning? There may not be soup lines in rural small towns like in the city. fact is, a vast minority of people in specific states earn a wage that qualifies them to be below the poverty level.
Yeah, farm aid was originally a New Deal program to bail folks out during the Depression/Dust Bowl...I'm not seeing your point...?
And despite what folks will try to tell you, nations CAN function without artficially subsidizing farmers. New zealand is a perfect example.
Just to clarify, Granny is probably FAR more rural than 99% of this board. I know I am, and she's even more remote than me! Lol. Also, she lives in a county that STILL educates children in one-room schools.
(Btw, I used to teach in one about 15 yrs ago. And its still going. )
I know the area. There is some great farm land in or near where you both live.NE is not a poor state, nor is Kansas ( may get worse now that Beech-craft went bankrupt ) We are also talking about an area that has an average amount of people. Its not like the plains of western NB. or Kansas. Missouri is another matter in my book. BTW I grew up in n.central Iowa, can't get much more rural than that. Everything and every person was connected to Farming in some way. Today commodities have made a lot of money for farmers. land prices are thru the roof ! No reason to be poor in an Ag. state these days.
Yeah, farm aid was originally a New Deal program to bail folks out during the Depression/Dust Bowl...I'm not seeing your point...?
And despite what folks will try to tell you, nations CAN function without artficially subsidizing farmers. New zealand is a perfect example.
I did not say some subsidies should not be done away with. same goes for Big Oil, they still get some nourishment. Hell, how about tobacco farmers?
I agree, with a modern logistics system there should not be a need for farmers to be paid not to grow crops, and yet...people are starving around the world and right here at home. Somethings wrong for sure !
Reasons why many rural areas are conservative:
People move there for the "experience" and immediately start to *****.
They ***** about the smells, they ***** about the stores, they ***** about the churches, they ***** about the tractors, they ***** about having to drive to go to a store, and on and on and on.
They want to have "city" amenities in the country when there's no market or, in many cases, desire for those amenities.
Right now where I am, my colleagues on Town Council are getting ready to ban chain link fences and make current owners of them remove the existing fence. Why? Because a very small goup of very loud new people don't like them and the Council members are tired of hearing them *****.
And then the new people wonder why they can't make friends with us long time residents.
My family were always Democrats, in a small isolated Arkansas town of around 2000 people. But I don't know if I would call them liberal...or conservative. They were Baptist farmers and gun owners, so they definitely didn't fit the mold of a New York style liberal Democrat. But they always saw Republicans as the party of the rich that didn't care about the working class or farmers. I think it had something to do with the Solid South trend of always voting for the Democratic candidate back in the day. I remember my mother using "Republican" and "Yankee" interchangably, and my grandmother talked about the local Republicans like they were traitors. And this was in the 90's.
I have to take back a lot of what I said. Somehow I thought you folks lived in the corn belt. Sorry.
My points still apply, maybe even more so . You do have some oil, right ? Or is the amount these wells pump it costs more to haul it than its worth. Could not some of these wells be fracked ? I am not an oil man, but they are doing it in ND ...real boon time, lots of money to be made for all ! I see a lot of fifth wheel campers headed out there these days, and its not for sight seeing !
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