Free Republic

I grew up in a rural community, began my career as an organizer in small towns, and now lead one of the largest efforts to rebuild pro-democracy, pro-worker civic capacity in rural America. So I can speak with some authority when I say that President Biden, somewhat surprisingly, has ushered in a new economic paradigm that can radically transform the lives of rural people and build a more politically and economically secure future for all Americans. He calls his agenda “Bidenomics,” a term that will be hotly debated in the months ahead. But what does it mean? And what’s its...

An article published Friday detailed how some Hispanic ranchers are abandoning their previous allegiance to the Democratic Party under the Biden administration. Ranchers in New Mexico’s Tierra Amarilla are part of a broader trend of Biden losing support among Hispanic populations in rural parts of the country, Axios reported. Their growing disdain for our current president comes from Biden’s progressive policies on so-called “environmental protection” that are actually just destroying the generational wealth of Hispanic landowners. Ranchers in the region were predominantly Democrat voters, but the tides are turning red as the Biden administration continues to haemorrhage support. Apparently many...

Under HB 125, sufficiently trained physicians could bypass the residency requirement by proving that they have “previously completed medical school and postgraduate training that” is “ substantially similar to the requirements for licensure” in NC.

There are 646 rural hospitals at risk of closure due to financial issues, comprising around 30 percent of all rural hospitals in the U.S., according to the Center for Healthcare Quality & Payment Reform.The hospitals face losses on patient services as health plans aren't paying enough to cover the cost of care delivery. The losses will likely increase as inflation and workforce shortages persist, according to the report, which was released in April. While rural hospitals are receiving some support through grants, local tax revenues or other profits, they still have low financial reserves and remain at risk.More than half...

School leaders in rural northwest Oregon are worried about big budget cuts. The Oregon Department of Forestry is working on a plan to protect habitats for endangered species across 640,000 acres of state forest. The loss of timber revenue will affect local schools. The Jewell School District expects to be the most heavily impacted because it gets almost all of its funding from timber revenue. It could see budget cuts of 40 percent. The Jewell School District has about 150 students and a budget of $5 million. District superintendent Cory Pederson estimates the cuts will bring his annual budget down...

New York Times economics columnist Paul Krugman went on a tone-deaf rant against rural Americans who are fed up with Washington, D.C. elites making their lives miserable. Krugman’s Jan. 26 drivel, headlined “Can Anything Be Done to Assuage Rural Rage,” bemoaned that rural Americans have shifted so far to the right that loyal Democrats supposedly “face intimidation and are afraid to reveal their party affiliation.” Krugman exploited the findings of political scientist Katherine J. Cramer that reportedly tied “rural resentment” to “perceptions that rural areas are ignored by policymakers, don’t get their fair share of resources and are disrespected by...

Rural hospitals have a new option to get millions of dollars in additional funding from Medicare if they agree to drop all inpatient care — but so far Colorado health care facilities aren’t jumping to take the money. Under the federal program, rural emergency hospitals must keep an emergency room staffed around the clock, but can’t offer inpatient beds. In exchange, they get extra payments, estimated to average around $3 million a year, to support outpatient and emergency care. It’s a drastic trade-off, but one that, in Colorado, would require regulatory and legislative action before any hospitals could take advantage...

The Radical Christians are found in rural areas. Their towns are defenseless, they have almost no cops and their firemen are volunteers. They have to borrow cops and firemen from neighboring jurisdictions miles away in order to handle anything big. And they think they are safe out there! Forget burning the cities, we have the cities on our sides. It's time for rural areas to feel the heat. If we show up 100 people deep in every rural home, everything within a 50 mile radius intent on revolution, you'll crash their [white supremacy] system and make them pay.

Well, this isn’t exactly a new story. The bleeding has been occurring for years, and Democrats have ignored it. It reached critical levels under Obama, where state party apparatuses truly withered away and died. Hillary Clinton pledged to fix that in 2016 but she lost the election. In the age-old debate about the allocation of outreach resources, the Left could have done what they should have which is double-down on rural white working-class voters or go all-in on the urban-based elites. The Democrats decided to do the latter. Four years later, Democrats saw their hopes of a huge House majority...

SMETHPORT, Pa. (AP) - Some Democrats here in rural Pennsylvania are afraid to tell you they’re Democrats. The party’s brand is so toxic in the small towns 100 miles northeast of Pittsburgh that some liberals have removed bumper stickers and yard signs and refuse to acknowledge their party affiliation publicly. These Democrats are used to being outnumbered by the local Republican majority, but as their numbers continue to dwindle, the few that remain are feeling increasingly isolated and unwelcome in their own communities. “The hatred for Democrats is just unbelievable,” said Tim Holohan, an accountant based in rural McKean County...

This gives an extreme advantage to those few who move first, long before they must. The financial advantage for first movers is equally extreme. Moving is a difficult decision, so we hesitate. But when the window to do so closes, it's too late. We always think we have all the time in the world to ponder, calculate and explore, and then things change and the options we once had are gone for good. Moving to a new locale is difficult for those of us who are well-established in the place we call home. Add in a house we love, jobs/work,...

Ford CEO Jim Farley explained to Automotive News that not all of its customers are ready to make the transition, due to their specific needs. "We have a lot of rural customers at Ford that a lot of other brands don't have. We have Super Duty customers who do heavy-duty towing: horse trailers, people in the energy business who are towing big-time loads over very long distances. It's hard for me to imagine that all those customers will go electric in the next 10 years," Farley said. "They're actually as interested in the technology as anyone, it's just their use...

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Sunday rural and suburban voters should buy electric cars because they burn the most gasoline. “The people who stand to benefit most from owning an EV are often rural residents, who have the longest distances to drive, they often burn the most gas,” Buttigieg said in an interview with MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart. He also argued low-income suburban drivers would benefit from electric vehicles because gas near urban areas was more expensive. “They would gain the most from having that vehicle, but these are the very residents who have not always been connected to electric vehicles...

If you want to see how out of touch the left is with rural America, look no further than the recent elections in Virginia. The left ignored and marginalized most Virginians, and Republicans experienced huge wins. That same tone deaf rhetoric is now being heard in regards to the urban/rural proposed boundaries of Oklahoma's 3rd Congressional District.Big-city Democrats have decried the map as "racist" and the residents of rural Oklahoma as "uneducated" and "uncultured." They have said that the "most vibrant parts of Oklahoma City's urban core are being marginalized" and that big-city voices are "being drowned out by rural...

HOT SPRINGS, Va. — The increasingly liberal politics of Virginia had been a sore spot for residents of this conservative town of 499 people nestled in the Allegheny Mountains. But this past week, as Republicans stormed to marquee victories powered in part by turnout in rural areas like Bath County, local voters cheered. “We got our Virginia back,” said Elaine Neff, a 61-year-old resident. “And we haven’t had a win in a long time.” Ms. Neff said she cried from a mix of happiness and relief after the election. She does not want to take the coronavirus vaccine and believes...

She thought of the 40 acres Ed had bought two years ago outside Colorado Springs — “for retirement” — which had an unfinished house and … not much else. She booked a ticket out west anyway. A year and a half later, it turns out life on the Colorado Prairie isn’t quite the vacation they anticipated. “It’s brutal!” said Kate. The couple — along with their friend, musician Mary Ann Ivan, who has spent much of the pandemic with them — immediately got to work transforming the barren property into a home. Ed, 55, designed a garage and finally put...

Hunting, breeding livestock, even pest control would be all but illegal under a ballot initiative backed by Oregon animal rights activists and opposed by incensed Oregon farmers. The proposal, Initiative Petition 13, would lift virtually all exemptions to state laws related to animal abuse, neglect and sexual assault. The vast majority would ban common farming practices from artificial insemination used in targeted breeding and killing live animals for meat. Farm animals could only be raised for rodeos, milk or fur and could be spayed, neutered and castrated. In addition, IP 13 would further restrict hunting, fishing, trapping and “intentional injury”...

Vice President Kamala Harris was decried for saying that some voter identification laws make it "almost impossible" for rural voters at the ballot box, with critics suggesting she doesn't think rural citizens have the wherewithal to use a copy machine. **SNIP** "There are a whole lot of people, especially people who live in rural communities, who don't — there's no Kinko's, there's no Office Max near them," Harris said. "People have to understand that when we're talking about voter ID laws, be clear about who you have in mind and what would be required of them to prove who they...

If I had to boil down the political wisdom I’ve learned over four decades of observing, studying, writing, and debating, it would be this… Life in Rural America (which is where Republican Trump voters live and govern), is clean, safe and racially tolerant. Most places in America where life is dirty, polluted, dangerous, violent, and plagued with racial hate and race riots, are cities that are almost exclusively populated by and governed by Democrats.

Lately, there has been so much frustration with the last election and the direction of our country that some Trump supporters have been talking about “secession.” Many conservatives and libertarians are asking if it makes sense for certain states to leave the union the way South Carolina left in 1860, after the election of Abraham Lincoln as president of the United States. Whether it makes “sense” or not, we can be assured that it will not happen. Although the South Carolina state legislature voted in November of 1860 to initiate the process of secession, no state legislature would do that...