The road to change goes through rural America — if Democrats would only travel it

D. Earl Stephens
September 29, 2024 

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE - JUNE 06: Dolly Parton speaks onstage during Kicking Off CMA Fest: A Special Conversation With Dolly Parton Hosted By Rachel Smith at Music City Center on June 06, 2024 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Terry Wyatt/WireImage)


Crime is down in America. The stock market is up.

Inflation is down in America. The U.S. economy is up — the envy of the free world, in fact.

Unemployment is down in America. Wages are up.

Democrats want to protect women’s rights. Republicans want to attack them.

Democrats want clean air and water. Republicans believe these things are optional.

Democrats once-in-a-lifetime infrastructure bill is finally fixing our roads, bridges and information highway. Republicans are coasting along, taking credit for its success despite voting repeatedly against it.

Democrats lowered the prices of prescription drugs and voted to increase veterans’ benefits. Republicans fought hard against those things.

Democrats joined Republicans in enacting the strongest border protection bill in American history … so Republicans smacked themselves on their rock-hard foreheads and decided they were against that, too.

I reckon I could go on for 20 minutes carrying on like this, but that would only serve to drive you away from boredom at a time we have never needed each other more, my friends. You know how much good Democrats have done for America, so let me sharpen my point but quick and tell you that sadly, tens of millions of other Americans don’t.


Too damn many people in this country live in information silos where facts float straight up and disappear into all that hot air.

Thanks in large part to the most dangerous, anti-American propaganda machine in United States history, too many of our fellow citizens receive the filth that passes for news in their homes through the rusty sewer pipe of Fox “News.”

The real fact is, none of this stink we find ourselves in these days would be possible without this endless, 24/7 stream of right-wing slop. Rupert Murdoch’s gang of irresponsible on-air blowhards have poisoned an entire generation of adults with their terrible lies and blatantly racist gaslighting. Worse, Murdoch and his family knows full well their station’s future lies with dealing their dope to our children, so we can expect more of the same for decades.


Our attention-starved corporate media hasn’t been much better, catastrophically failing to honestly report on the most significant story in more than 160 years: The Republicans’ relentless attack on America, and our ability to choose who represents us with our sacred vote. Democracy is hanging by a thread, and you’re lucky if you hear about that at all from our meandering press, which is far more interested in keeping things close.

There’s a horse race to run, and billions of dollars to stuff in their overflowing pockets.

Instead of framing the stakes and sounding the alarms at a blast about the anti-Democratic fires that are burning through the countryside, our halls of Congress and right up to our nation’s highest court, they write stories asking why more people just aren’t much worried about it.


Instead of reporting that the economy is actually chugging along at pretty brisk pace, they’ll run cheap, reactionary nonsense that seriously asks out loud why more people just don’t seem to know it ...

One political party answers to a two-bit phony, a felon and an America-attacking woman-abuser, who is telling us he will finish America off for good if God forbid he is elected.

The other party answers to the people.


What-in-the-hell is so damn hard about reporting that as the fact it most certainly is?

With five weeks and change left until D-Day in November, I say Democrats need to do everything they can to take their message everywhere. And if that sounds too obvious and overly intuitive, then ask yourself why they’re not.

Understand, I’m not bagging them here, and actually think they are running many strong races across the board, but I also think they need to stop conceding to all this silliness from what passes for the national media in this country, and go hard into every town, city, and suburb across this country — whether they are tucked into Wisconsin or West Virginia; North Carolina or South Carolina; or Michigan or Montana.


We need to visit them where they live and tell them all the good things America and her Democrats have been doing for them, while they’ve been tuning out the truth and into the dark places like Fox.

“Things are actually pretty good in this country, dude. Here’s why …”

Imagine Harris/Walz campaign stops in Iowa or Missouri ... Arkansas and Alabama. A couple of those states have voted Democratic in national elections semi-recently, and they could stand to hear the truth. Democratic policies are inclusive, not exclusive. They would play well in Red America, even if much of Red America doesn’t know it.


Do I expect Harris to carry any of these states in November? No I don’t, but I’d sure like them to hear what she had to say to them. I bet they’d like her. One thing all these damn polls have showed consistently is that the more people see and hear from our vice president, the more they’d support her.

There’s minds to be changed, folks, and you do that by giving them the real thing.

And what about the blue dots on the ground in these states who have been working their tails off outside the shine of the spotlight to protect America? They are in every state in our country doing the good and important work. Our next president could do real wonders by showing up in these places and showing out. The seeds have been planted by these Democratic activists in rural America, who are making real differences in their communities by running hard in local races, and doing important things like protecting women’s rights and our environment.


They might not be in one of these exclusive battleground states, but they are fighting every bit as hard.

I say give ‘em a hug from on high. Show ‘em the love they have earned. Plant the seeds … watch an orchard grow.

I bet even the clueless national media would sniff out a good story in all that …


[sigh]

I’ll stop right here for a second, pull off to the side of this column, and concede I am doing some heavy-duty dreaming right now. Politics is a machine, and the information I’m spitting out right now just won’t compute with but 38 days to the election. There’s never enough time or dollars when you’re running hard to save America.

So let’s end this weekend walk on some middle ground, shall we?

On Thursday, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee announced it will be throwing millions of dollars into the Senate races in Florida and Texas. This isn’t the wild expansion of the electoral map I was talking about above, but it does portend strength, and tells you Democrats think they have a real shot in these two states.

I don’t know much about Democrat Colin Allred in Texas, but we all know plenty about Ted Cruz, who is a completely terrible man, and has polluted our Senate long enough.

Former Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner once had this to say about Cruz: “I have Democrat friends and Republican friends. I get along with almost everyone, but I have never worked with a more miserable son of a bitch in my life than Ted Cruz."

Cruz can be beat, and the Democratic Machine is laying money on it.

In Florida, Debbie Mucarsel-Powell is giving the revolting Rick Scott a run for all his family money in that Senate race. I do know something about her. Our paths crossed a few times during her time as Congresswoman in the Sunshine State.

She is whip-smart, a tireless worker, and has inroads to the Latino community in Florida. I am predicting right here and now that she will beat Scott, who is almost as unlikeable as Cruz.

If nothing else, Democrats have put Republicans on notice by making them defend their weak positions in states that only a few months ago seemed like a sure thing for them.

It looks like that will be the end of the Democrats’ expansion this election cycle, and maybe the American way right now is through those battleground states. But our future depends on expanding the map.

The party that can do that will be that future.

I’m not wrong about this, my friends ...


D. Earl Stephens is the author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes. You can find all his work here.