The Associated Press recently floated a story about the decline of the Democrat Party brand in rural and near-rural areas of the United States and attempted to lay that decline at the feet of the party itself, as if it is a separate entity from rank-and-file Democrats themselves. Of course, to a large extent, this is a false narrative.
In an article titled, ‘The Brand Is So Taxic’: Dems Fear Extinction in Rural US, the AP reports that people in rural and near-rural communities in the United States who identify as Democrats are too afraid to identify their political affiliation openly.
The report claims that the Democrat Party has moved so far to the fascist-Left that rank-and-file Americans in rural locations, including Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and elsewhere are taking down their pro-Democrat yard signs and peeling off like bumper stickers for fear of condemnation.
“The party’s brand is so toxic” in rural and near-rural communities the AP reports.
“The hatred for Democrats is just unbelievable,” an accountant and Democrat voter based in rural McKean County, Pennsylvania said. “I feel like we’re on the run.”
Another Democrat voter, a retired teacher, said, “You have to be careful around here.” And another voter – a self-identified supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement and LGBTQ rights, said of identifying as a Democrat, “I would rather not say, just because it’s a small town.”
In Tennessee, US Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN), said, “It’s hard to sink lower than we are right now. You’re almost automatically a pariah in rural areas if you have a ‘D’ after your name.” In a separate interview the Congressman, who is retiring after this term, continued on, “The Democratic [sic] Party in Tennessee is basically facing extinction. We’ve been on a long downhill slide for a long time.”
A January Gallup poll determined that Democrats lost a stunning amount of political ground in 2021, dropping from a nine-point advantage to a five-point deficit, the largest party preference shift in over 30 years.
Why This Is Important
Equally as stunning as the seismic shift in political party preference is that rank-and-file Democrats feel no responsibility for that shift; that Democrat voters fail to understand their party’s shift was facilitated by them.
Frankly, if the Democrat Party itself had the power of the electorate, Hillary Clinton would be the president right now. The fact is this. The Democrat Party is a reflection of its rank-and-file supporters.
Blaming the party itself for the actions of the people rank-and-file Democrats elected to office is a grand exercise of denial. The Democrat Party is not responsible for the actions of their elected representatives, the Democrat voters are responsible for who is elected under their banner.
If Democrats in rural and near-rural Pennsylvania and Tennessee – and in rural and near-rural areas across the country – are afraid to identify as Democrats publicly because of the policies of their elected representatives then, perhaps, they shouldn’t have voted for people who execute embarrassing policy.
The AP’s attempt to exonerate Democrat voters of responsibility for whom they have elected to office is a narrative of deflection. Democrat rank-and-file voters are responsible for electing Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to office. They had ample opportunity during the primaries to advance intelligent and sincere nominees yet settled on two opportunistic, self-enriching grifters.
So too, they had the opportunity to elect people with solid plans for all Americans – or at least those who would have fidelity to their constituencies rather than to their party – to Congress, yet they re-affirmed people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders to office.
Without voters voting for these Fascist-Left opportunists, they could not have been elected. It’s not the party that is to blame for the fascist agenda being imposed on the country, it is the Democrat voters who are to blame.
The solution to this, of course, is an open, honest, and intelligent discussion about what the priorities of our society should be and how to achieve them on common ground. We will never agree on all things, but there is infinitely more that Americans agree on than that on which we stand opposed.
Yet this necessary discussion can’t be pursued if true Democrats – not the fascist-Left Progressives who have hijacked their party, but real, honest, and true Democrats – are afraid to identify themselves and sit at the table of rational discussion.
The Squad, Warren, Sanders, and the rest of the fascist-Left Progressives do not accurately represent the electorate of the Democrat Party. In fact, the Democrat Party has been hijacked by its far– and fascist-Left. It will take real, honest, and true Democrats to take their party back from the radicals. They can’t do that by hiding from who they are.
Democrats. It’s beyond time to cleve the fascists from your ranks. If you don’t then Cooper is correct. Your party will become extinct in rural and non-rural areas and then you will be ruled by the inner-city radicals that have produced the failed Blue cities from coast to coast.
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