https://writersontherange.org/montanas-politicians-have-lost-their-ties-to-land/ Syndicated Opinion for the American West Wed, 21 Aug 2024 13:21:24 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://writersontherange.org/montanas-politicians-have-lost-their-ties-to-land/#comment-792 Tue, 13 Aug 2024 14:21:00 +0000 https://writersontherange.org/?p=8670#comment-792 It’s sad how the Republican Party, the party of the rich, has captured the support of working class folks. They’ve done it through domination of the media in rural areas. In the early 2000’s, I had a job that took me on the road in rural Colorado (where I live), and all I could get was AM radio,which was a dominated by the likes of Limbaugh and Hannity, who spewed hatred and discontent like a firehose. Having a small business which dealt with local vendors, I noticed that, among the counter folks, it was “cool” to support the most radical conservatives … and that remains the case til today. This is hard to understand, because Democrats kick started rural electrification, Social Security, Medicare, provided jobs during the Great Depression, and supported labor laws while Republicans gave tax breaks to the rich (trump paid only $760/yr during two years while he was president). We need better messaging in rural areas, or we’ll lose our democracy.

]]>