I watched a great deal of blathering going on as did everyone last night I am sure. One map that kept catching my eye were the state maps the correspondents would show broken down by counties. In almost every case, the rural areas of the states were dominated by red and only the metropolitan areas defined by blue. Is this where the divide lies in our nation? City folks in disagreement with country folks?
That is absolutely the case the vast majority of the time. The question is what do we do about it? How do we find someone that appeals to both groups?
Wonder why I never took note of that before. There is such a vast divide between left and right these days. A much wider chasm than I ever recall in my years.... I don't believe that rural dwelling folks will ever be set apart from the "stand on my own two feet" mindset..... It will take a candidate somewhere in the future that has the ability to make folks proud again. As long as we stay mired down in partisan politics, I don't know that man could ever emerge.
Rural areas of the Midwest are dying. Rural areas are filled with drug problems, militias, racists, and no jobs. If you drive around Missouri, Iowa, Indiana, Nebraska, you find that small town downtown areas are almost abandoned with maybe a dollar store barely holding on. Farms are failing, kids grow up and leave for better opportunities, and the outlook is pretty bleak. The divide has everything to do with rural vs. suburbs and cities.
Hey, why’d you have to say Missouri haha, just kidding, yes, we have drugs, racists and no jobs. The sort of big change that rural areas look for is big companies who want to start factories in the Midwest due to cheap property and labor, and less restrictions and regulations compared to places such as California. For example, Joplin, Missouri, my town, was on the shortlist of 30 cities that Tesla considered opening a car plant at. We didn’t get it
Yep. I was 9 but I remember it quite well. No damage to my house or loss of family but I still remember the day vividly.
My daughter and grandkids live in Moore Oklahoma and have lived through two massive tornadoes like that one.
Sorry about the Missouri inclusion. I was just rattling off states in the Midwest. I doubt Missouri is any different than the rest, but honestly, I am less familiar with Missouri than most other Midwest states. A few years back, I was driving my son around the Midwest doing college visits. We passed through a lot of small towns and couldn't believe the number of downtown areas that were mostly boarded up. Lots of closed factories, vacant houses, old vehicles, and dilapidated infrastructures and in some cases, one small liberal arts college still plugging along. It was sad. In all honesty, neither my son nor I could fathom him spending 4 years in many of these little dying towns but certainly there was never the idea of graduating and staying in those towns either. The strange part was that these small towns were not the poverty ridden ghettos commonly associated with minorities living in big cities you see represented on TV. They were primarily white people that seemed to be living hand to mouth with no real possibility of significant advancement if they stayed put. Their only option seemed to be to leave for a larger population centers. The idea that some big company is going to come along and revitalize one of these communities is a pipe dream. There just aren't enough companies to save even a small percentage of these dying communities and relying on one employer to bring a town back, is a bad idea from the start. The economy will change eventually, the company will get a better deal in another state eventually, and then the community is right back where they started from. It must cause a lot of anxiety among people living in these communities. It must seem hopeless to many of them. Is it surprising that the people in these communities turn to drugs, guns, racism and resent the people that seem to be leaving them behind?
No worries about the Missouri jest, I agree with you on this one. Joplin, Missouri isn’t nothing, population 50,000, but besides KC, Saint Louis, and Springfield, it’s the only midsize city in the Midwest. So it was in the running for a Tesla plant, it’s geography is good, we are the cross hairs of a few major Midwest highways so transportation would be easy, but there is still no doubt it lacks the glitter and glamour of a big city.
Would you come back after your enlistment or would you try and live somewhere else? Asking because none of my boys wanted to stay in the town they were raised in. I whole heartedly agreed with all three of them. There is nothing for them in this town and it is by no means dying or rusting back into the prairie. It just lacks the opportunities they are interested in pursuing....and we even have a university in town.
I don’t anticipate it, but I wouldn’t cry if I had to throw a stake in the ground and call it home. Another thing Joplin has going for it is you can be in Kansas in 10 mins, Oklahoma in 20, and Arkansas in 45, and so if you live anywhere near the 4 state border of MO,KS,OK and AR, it’s pretty convenient to go to Joplin for work or even your usual errands. My father works in Kansas and lives in MO, I have coworkers who live in AR and drive an hour for work in Joplin. So I don’t plan on staying just because I’m adventurous and like to see what’s out there, but we’ll just have to see.
