'Laugh behind their backs': How 'performative' Republicans insult rural voters

Although 2024 GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump and the MAGA movement struggle in urban areas, rural areas are another matter. Much of Trump's hardcore support comes from rural areas, especially rural areas that are predominantly white.

In their new book, "White Rural Rage: The Threat to American Democracy," authors Tom Schaller and Paul Waldman describe the link between MAGA authoritarianism and the economic and health problems plaguing rural areas. But unlike others who have written on that subject, Schaller and Waldman hold white rural voters accountable for their actions and do not pretend that rural Americans are somehow morally superior to urban Americans.

Schaller and Waldman spoke candidly during a Q&A interview with Salon's Amanda Marcotte, arguing that GOP politicians and right-wing media figures — not urban liberals and progressives — are the most overtly condescending where rural voters are concerned.

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Schaller told Marcotte, "Nobody is more insulting to rural voters than the people who are giving them nothing and taking their votes. They claim Democrats are insulting, but Democrats are doing something for them and getting none of their votes. But nothing's more condescending than getting votes and doing nothing in return. J.D. Vance, Elise Stefanik and Tom Cotton — all these people were educated at Harvard and Yale. They frankly laugh behind the backs of their own voters to some degree, right? Those are the people who are really insulting."

Schaller cited Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) as another highly educated far-right Republican whose performative politics are "insulting" to rural voters.

"When Ted Cruz says: My pronouns are 'kiss my ass' or 'you can't limit me to two beers,' now he's more insulting," Schaller told Marcotte. "What he is saying is: These voters are so easily won over by performative politics. I can reduce their core urges and reflexes to this. And I don't have to deliver a thing for rural Texas."

During the interview, Schaller and Waldman stressed that rural Americans have very real problems — from health care to poverty — and that "performative" MAGA politics do nothing to better their lives.

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Waldman told Marcotte, "You see it in your home state of Texas almost more than anywhere else. Republicans have carefully gerrymandered the state legislative districts, using rural areas as a kind of a leverage to make sure they stay in power. Yet there are huge problems in rural Texas that the legislature never addresses. They've got terrible infrastructure problems. They've got problem with the water systems and the electrical systems. Because they refused to accept the Obamacare expansion of Medicaid, rural hospitals are closing all over. There are people in Texas who have to drive 200 miles to get to prenatal care."

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Amanda Marcotte's full Salon article is available at this link.