Blog

Rural Whites Deserve a Fair Break. But they Must Dump the Language of MAGA.

January 12, 2021 By Erik Curren

After 1/6, it’s gotten harder to talk about why America needs to do more for the rural white working class. Can they meet the rest of us half way, by dumping Trump and picking some other champion?

[Book Review] ‘How the South Won the Civil War’ by Heather Cox Richardson

January 6, 2021 By Erik Curren

Heather Cox Richardson, a historian of 19th-century America with a popular daily politics blog, argues that today’s conservatives owe a large debt to yesterday’s Confederates.

[Book Review] ‘Harvest the Vote’ by Jane Kleeb

December 27, 2020 By Erik Curren

Jane Kleeb thinks that Democrats shouldn’t reject rural white voters as racists and dupes because they voted for Trump. Give them a choice beyond the lesser of two evils, and those voters will be open to a pro-rural left.

[Book Review] ‘Caste’ by Isabel Wilkerson

December 27, 2020 By Erik Curren

America has a race problem, and it’s as bad as it ever was. But talking about racism and hatred won’t help. We need to go deeper, writes Isabel Wilkerson.

Why Rural Voters Swung from Obama to Trump — and Stayed Loyal to Trump

December 9, 2020 By Erik Curren

It’s a mistake to dismiss rural white voters who swung from Obama to Trump as racists or dupes. Their economy shows that rural white people have good reason to distrust Democrats.

Trump Loves Polarization and His Opponents Love It Too

October 24, 2020 By Erik Curren

Ezra Klein explains the partisanship that allows Republicans to put party before country by embracing Trump. But he says that Democrats aren’t much different in the ways they oppose Trump.