Reply #22: Most Republican Rural Voters are "Old Fashioned" Republicans... [View All]

[demodonkey]

They have NO idea what their party has become. Not a clue. They need to learn.

As a farm person myself, I have often wondered why so many rural people lean Republican, and I have come to believe that that is what is going on. They just don't know their own party as it is today.

I am talking about the regular family farmer types here... They connect with hard work, no free ride, pay as you go, patriotism (the real kind not the Bushco crap), religion (mostly Protestant Christian), small government which keeps out of their hair, low taxes on the little guy, protecting our own markets first as opposed to outsourcing and buying overseas, right to farm in the face of other land use issues, right to pass farms on to next generation, right to bear arms (hunting type, not AK-47) etc etc.

Rural people DO NOT like to be talked down to. They do not like fake pandering stuff like a city boy creating a fake photo-op trying to milk a cow (well they might think that's funny!) unless the city boy genuinely wanted to LEARN something about what milking that cow takes.

Most of them are pretty much live and let live. You can be yourself with Rural people IF you start with respect for their values/beliefs, are honest, and explain where you are coming from. They will usually give you a good listen, again if you are not talking down to them and truly seem sincere. For example not long ago I convinced a rural voter to change their mind on gay marriage by telling a true personal story of a gay friend who died, what his partner went through (and what I went through helping him), and how at least a legal Civil Union would have helped their situation.

One thing that I think would work enormously in rural areas is for Christian Dems to start speaking out and reclaiming the word "values"!! If they say we are "in favor of abortion", bring up the problems of unwanted children being abused, or better yet how many children being killed in Iraq due to Bush's policies. The Ten Commandments says "Thou Shalt Not Kill" not "Thou Shalt Not Kill Fetuses".

Another big area is guns. The GOP has defined the Dems as wanting to take away guns, and a gun on a farm is pretty much a necessity (to cover a rabid animal, suffering livestock if no vet nearby for euthanasia, etc.) We need to strongly promote "responsible gun ownership" rather than "gun control". And let them know we don't want to take away their hunting rifles -- they really need to know that.