So, a few readers know I grew up in rural southern Indiana. The politics out there aren’t great. I mean, really not great. It’s been a bastion of various kinds of far right activity for some time. And it stands in well enough for the rural Midwest as a whole. It’s a bit more southern than, say, rural Iowa. But the politics are close cousins.
At the same time, lots of people – especially liberals – hold various misconceptions about life and politics in the rural Midwest. The truth of the matter is that there’s quite a bit of diversity of thought and opinion in the rural Midwest. Liberals miss that part.
The Traditionalist Worker Party
The story of the Traditional Worker Party is a bit too much to summarize here. So, I’m including a few links to the full story. Let’s just say it involves a trailer park brawl, a love triangle, a Walmart, and an assorted cast of people. It all took place about a 20 minute drive or so from where I grew up.
It’s basically a Nazi soap opera, as one friend said to me when I shared the story with him. And there’s no longer a Traditional Worker Party, which might not surprise those of you who read the story.
The story fits a narrative many liberals hold about the rural Midwest. According to that narrative, a large collection of ‘white trash’ (or whatever ‘nicer’ term people use to mean the same thing) spew racist garbage and hoard guns. If we want to blame someone for Trumpism, it’s people like that.
Do those people exist? Well, yes. You can read about them at the links above. But they’re not even that large a part of the far right. Let alone the entire political right or the rural Midwest.
Southern Indiana and Iowa City
In fact, there’s a lot of political diversity in southern Indiana. And I think what holds there holds for the rest of the rural Midwest. There’s far more political diversity than one might see in, say, the voting data.
I could start with my own extended family. Few people in my family went to college. About half don’t vote, and the rest vote mostly GOP. But within that group, you can still find lots of political perspectives. If you sat down to holiday dinner with them, you’d hear from Trumpists, moderate conservatives, and everything from centrists, liberal Democrats, New Deal Democrats, and perhaps a leftist or two.
Frankly I find as much political diversity in southern Indiana as I do in Iowa City, where I live now. Politically, liberal Democrats dominate Iowa City politics and our political narrative. They win all partisan races in the county, and each member of the non-partisan city council is part of their camp.
Rural Midwest Politics
Here’s the thing. One reason many liberals fail to see the political diversity of the rural Midwest is that this diversity often isn’t polished into regular US political language and jargon. The boxes of American politics and political identity – liberal, conservative, and so on – come from wealthier, educated voters and pundits. Many people in the US don’t think or act precisely this way.
Republicans dominate electoral politics in southern Indiana. That’s not a secret. But most people there don’t have any real allegiance to the GOP. Partisan groupthink is far stronger in Iowa City. Rather, there’s a great deal of political apathy in southern Indiana, especially among lower-wage workers. They don’t vote.
Poverty dominates southern Indiana far more than the GOP ever did. But there’s still a fairly large wealthy and upper-middle income segment in the region. It’s those people who make up the GOP voter base, and often even the Trumpist base.
If any readers interviewed people in southern Indiana and asked them what kind of society they wanted to see – and drew away from any partisan ties – you’d get a lot of variety. And a lot of messy answers. I suspect you’d get more variety – and messiness – than you’d get with the same question in Iowa City. In some ways – not all ways – you’d get more leftist thought in southern Indiana than in Iowa City.
