Democrats are facing a serious backlash vote in the 2022 midterms, this is already known. What you might not be aware of unless you live in a rural area is that Democrats are so unpopular that people don’t even want to be associated with the party’s name.
Steve Peoples reports at the Associated Press:
‘The brand is so toxic’: Dems fear extinction in rural USSome Democrats in rural Pennsylvania are afraid to tell you they’re Democrats.The party’s brand is so toxic in the small towns 100 miles northeast of Pittsburgh that some liberals have removed bumper stickers and yard signs and refuse to acknowledge publicly their party affiliation. These Democrats are used to being outnumbered by the local Republican majority, but as their numbers continue to dwindle, those who remain are feeling increasingly isolated and unwelcome in their own communities.“The hatred for Democrats is just unbelievable,” said Tim Holohan, an accountant based in rural McKean County who recently encouraged his daughter to get rid of a pro-Joe Biden bumper sticker. “I feel like we’re on the run.”The climate across rural Pennsylvania is symptomatic of a larger political problem threatening the Democratic Party heading into the November elections. Beyond losing votes in virtually every election since 2008, Democrats have been effectively ostracized from the overwhelmingly white parts of rural America, leaving party leaders with few options to reverse a cultural trend that is redefining the political landscape.
This didn’t happen overnight.
The Democratic Party’s struggle in rural America has been building for years. And it’s getting worse.Barack Obama won 875 counties nationwide in his overwhelming 2008 victory. Twelve years later, Biden won only 527. The vast majority of those losses — 260 of the 348 counties — took place in rural counties, according to data compiled by The Associated Press.The worst losses were concentrated in largely white areas across the Midwest: 21 rural counties in Michigan flipped from Obama in 2008 to Trump in 2020; Democrats lost 28 rural counties in Minnesota, 32 in Wisconsin and a whopping 45 in Iowa. At the same time, recent Republican voter registration gains in swing states such as Florida and North Carolina were fueled disproportionately by rural voters.
It’s not hard to see how this happened. Democrats constantly put their party agenda ahead of the concerns of average voters. You tell a Democrat that you’re concerned about the rising cost of gas and food, and they start talking about the dangers of climate change. You tell them you’re worried about the economy, and they respond by promising you free childcare.
Jim Cooper, a House Democrat from Tennessee who recently announced his retirement, describes being a Democrat as a form of stigma in some places.
From The Blaze:
The party’s struggles are not only felt in Pennsylvania but all across rural America.In Tennessee, Democratic Rep. Jim Cooper acknowledged, “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 discussion with a local news outlet last week, the lawmaker warned, “The Democratic Party in Tennessee is basically facing extinction. We’ve been on a long downhill slide for a long time.”Cooper is one of 30 Democratic House members who recently announced that they would not seek re-election in 2022. The widespread dropout is indicative of the considerable headwinds the party is experiencing in the run-up to the midterms.
Democrats have worked hard to earn this scorn. On issue after issue, they seem less interested in helping the American people and more interested in changing America into a different country.
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