Why Rural Residents Resent Us

[Jimbo S]

The UW-Madison political science professor, an Ozaukee County native, was stunned by what northern Wisconsin residents told her in diners, coffee shops, back rooms and barns between 2007 and 2012.

“I did not expect to hear it, but many of the people I listened to in rural areas exhibited a multifaceted resentment toward urban areas,” Professor Katherine J. Cramer writes in her new book, The Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin and the Rise of Scott Walker.

“That resentment was part of a perspective. I call it rural consciousness. It is a perspective rooted in place and class identities that convey a strong sense of distributive injustice.”

“A man working with milking machines looks around the back of the cow at me and says, ‘I’m glad Walker did what he did. It’s about time someone takes something away from those bastards.’ The bastards in this case, are public employees. I am one of them.”

It was a reference to Act 10, which Walker pushed through the Legislature weeks after taking office in 2011. It eliminated collective bargaining for most public employees and required them to pay more for pensions and health care.

http://urbanmilwaukee.com/2016/04/25/the-state-of-politics-why-rural-residents-resent-us/

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Something for the Wisconsin Democratic Party to keep in mind when developing a game plan to win back some control.