New York times opinion writer shows us, he has no clue as to rural America.

 

This discourse is in response to Paul Krugman of the New York Times. Paul wrote an opinion piece found in the Williamsburg Gazette 2-1-2023 opinion page. 

Mr. Krugman,

I read your article today an opinion entitled, "Is there anything that can be done to assuage rage in rural America? Let me help you, oh, Northern VA urbanite, understand why rural Virginia hates you. 


1. The vote: In any popular voting process in Virginia, three counties and a handful of large urban cities dictate who our representatives are in Washington, DC. It is so bad that when Mark Warner writes an Op-ed in his quest to ban guns, the Op-ed is not even posted or submitted to a Virginia paper for its residents to read. No, he chooses the Washington Post. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner never visit rural Virginia except it be during voting season. These two urbanites don't give a rats ass about southwest Virginia. 

2. Guns: Rural America owns guns, and we are responsible gun owners for the most part. It is urbanites who shoot each other and not rural America. Yet Northern Va will vote to take from rural Virginia our rights without our permission. Notice how all gun bills in the 2023 Virginia legislation came from urban centers where moral decisions to kill each other do not meet the expectations of rural America's ethical standard. 

3. Most important: The article starts with the New deal and jumps to today's society handouts. Roosevelt 1932 ( in between???) - 1980s. Having grown up milking cows in the 1970s, we had federal subsidies to produce milk on our family farm. That subsidy, along with tobacco subsidies, is all gone. The Government took our milk and took our cash crop. You most likely don't know this, but the family farm is dead in due part to the Federal Government, the lack of subsidies, and in due part to milk processors' cheap payment for raw milk. A living wage was certainly not on the minds of Democrat urban politicians to keep family farms afloat. Now, that is coming back to bite America in the ass, as milk production is done on large milk-producing farms owned by corporations. The Federal Government killed us - to say, the family farm in the 1980s. 

4, Richard Nixon: Ross Perot warned us all, "there will be a great and giant sucking sound if NAFTA is approved." He was right. Not only did we send jobs to Mexico, but we gave communist China favorable trade status in exchange for cheap and, in some cases, slave labor. Textile jobs left Virginians for good. The small town factories making little girls' dresses like in Appomattox and Amelia Va are long gone. Furniture plants like the one in Appomattox and Thomasville, NC, have been shuttered since the 1990s, and Danville Textiles is gone. Do I really have to spell it out for you, or do you understand the term rust belt? The difference between rural America and urban America is the idea of self-sufficiency. 

5. You write about how these perceptions are largely wrong from a point of authority, it seems, and that does not make you right. Yet my guess is you have never lived a day in your life in my shoes; you think you know better, but alas, you seem to believe your friends Thomas Edsall and Katherine Cramer and have yet to experience rural Virginia yourself. 


1. Ignored by Politicians 
2. Don't get their fair share of resources
3. Disrespected by city folk. 


1. Yes, Federally speaking, Tim Kaine and Mark Warner ignore rural Va. The fact is they never leave northern Va, and why should they? All they need is the votes of three counties, Loudoun, Fairfax, and Prince William, along with Roanoke, Richmond, and Portsmouth, to stay in power. That is where they spend their money. State-wise and as well as federally, an example would be gridlock on our roads from the 1990s- 2020. While suburban DC gets a large swath of money to build roads, Tidewater suffered with a lack of US 64 widening until recently. We suffered and still do with tunnel crossing. Rural roads go unrepaired, and I81 is now a nightmare to drive. While it was once rural is now congested beyond relief, and yet no monies to expand I81. Oh, but I95, well, they get all the money, don't they?

2. As a country boy, I can tell you firsthand that, yes, city folks are leaving their urban centers and, in many cases, retiring to communities like Williamsburg, Va. Once a small community of 30k 15 years ago, now boasts, mind you, 80k. Florida is in the same boat. These urbanites leave high taxes and crime in New York City and bring their brand of politics to rural America. We resent that loudly. These buffoons move to rural America, and the first thing they want is a Walmart. Taxes rise because of the urbanite's intent not to be self-sufficient. These "come here" begin to destroy our way of life, and we resent that. We are a proud people who want local jobs; we don't have to be rich to be happy. Yet the federal Government took our jobs starting in the 1970s and sent them overseas or south of the border. We don't want your damn handouts, Paul; we want to live our lives pulling our cart ourselves, and we take pride in that. We are not a bunch of self-serving; shoot each other hypocrites looking for a handout. Generally speaking, we are church-going god-fearing people, who live a life serving Jesus, and we follow his lessons for living a good life. There is a big difference between following Jesus and worshiping Jesus one day a week. Urbanites tend to worship money, greed, and envy the other six days. That is my life experience with Urbanites. That is something Urbanites don't get and never will. The Urbanite has lost its way, destroyed its cities, and moved to rural America and did the same. No thanks, you have done enough already.