tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71714209417766736602024-03-18T16:22:32.363-07:00Legal RuralismA Little (Legal) Realism about the RuralLisa R. Pruitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16469550950363542801noreply@blogger.comBlogger3745125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7171420941776673660.post-39841020339568012512024-03-17T03:30:00.000-07:002024-03-17T06:18:01.074-07:00Right-wing political movement losing ground in California's rural-ish north state Hailey Branson-Potts and Jessica Garrison <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-03-16/shasta-voters-oust-far-right-leader">report for the <i>Los Angeles Times</i> </a>from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shasta_County,_California">Shasta County, California,</a> a recent hotbed of election denialism and similar conspiracy theory madness. (You can read some related past posts <a href="https://legalruralism.blogspot.com/2023/07/shasta-county-california-declares.html">here,</a> <a href="https://legalruralism.blogspot.com/2021/05/defying-stereotype-that-rural-folks.html">here</a>, <a href="https://legalruralism.blogspot.com/2022/03/recalling-local-government-officials.html">here</a>, <a href="https://legalruralism.blogspot.com/2022/06/election-shenanigans-in-two-far.html">here</a>, and <a href="https://legalruralism.blogspot.com/2022/03/big-la-times-profile-of-man-financing.html">here)</a>. The headline is "<a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-03-16/shasta-voters-oust-far-right-leader">One far-right leader ousted. Another barely hangs on. Is Shasta rejecting MAGA politics?, and th</a>e gist of yesterday's <i>Times </i>story about the March 5 election results follows: <div><blockquote>Shasta County voters have booted from office a key figure in the county’s hard-right shift, even as the fate of a second far-right crusader on the powerful Board of Supervisors still hangs in the balance.<br /><br />Patrick Jones, a former chair of the five-member board, was soundly defeated in the Super Tuesday election, according to results released by the county registrar Friday afternoon. With 98% of the vote counted, Jones’ opponent, Matt Plummer, a nonprofit adviser, was winning outright with nearly 60% of the vote.<br /><br />It marked a stunning turn for Jones, a gun store manager who in his one term in office has emerged as a leading voice in an ultraconservative insurgence that transformed this largely rural Northern California county into a national poster child for hard-right governance and election denialism.</blockquote><blockquote>In recent months, Jones led the conspiracy-laden charge to <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-03-01/shasta-cuts-tied-with-dominion-amid-unfounded-voting-fraud-claims">dump Dominion voting machines</a> and return the county to hand-counting its ballots. He helped push through a county resolution <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-07-25/shasta-county-supervisors-declare-2nd-amendment-fortress-war-on-guns">pledging fealty </a>to the 2nd Amendment and a measure <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-01-24/defying-california-gun-law-shasta-county-passes-resolution-allowing-concealed-weapons-in-government-buildings">to allow concealed weapons</a> in local government buildings, in defiance of state law.<br /><br />More broadly, he worked with <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14068054/">militia members and secessionists</a> on campaign efforts that dramatically reshaped governance in a county long run by mainstream Republicans.<br /><br />In another closely watched primary race, Jones’ political ally, Supervisor Kevin Crye, was surviving a recall election by just 46 votes. Crye made headlines last year when he enlisted support for nixing Dominion machines <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-03-03/lies-about-dominion-are-the-real-election-threat-in-california">from Mike Lindell</a>, the MyPillow chief executive and pro-Trump election denier. </blockquote></div>Lisa R. Pruitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16469550950363542801noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7171420941776673660.post-11943429818883576222024-03-16T08:25:00.000-07:002024-03-16T08:27:12.601-07:00California's Sacramento and San Joaquin Delta in the national news this week Earlier this week, an episode of the <i>New York Times</i> podcast, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/11/podcasts/the-daily/california-forever-tech-housing.html">The Daily, featured Solano County, California's rural reaches, including an area referred to as the Delta and specifically the town called RioVista</a>. The podcast is about Silicon Valley investors buying up land to build a new city, an enterprise now called <a href="https://californiaforever.com/">California Forever</a>. I first wrote about the land purchases <a href="https://legalruralism.blogspot.com/2023/09/rural-places-as-sacrifice-zones-from.html">here </a>and a student wrote <a href="https://legalruralism.blogspot.com/2023/09/solano-county-from-farm-to-booming.html">this post</a> a few weeks later. <div><br /></div><div>A day after that episode of The Daily, Here and Now, the syndicated news program by WBUR in Boston, featured a story about <a href="https://www.kqed.org/news/11973656/bay-area-creatives-find-unexpected-welcome-in-small-town-delta">how Bay Area (California) artists and makers are moving to the same Delta region</a>, where they find more affordable housing and a surprisingly welcoming community of locals. <div><br /></div><div><div>The Daily podcast is mostly an interview with <i>NYT</i> journalist <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/19/business/economy/flannery-california-forever-solano.html">Connor Doughterty, who broke the story about who was behind the land purchases in rural Solano County</a>. The reason I want to feature this podcast is to showcase the descriptions of rural people and their lifestyle, including their attachment to place, though that has little to do with what is suggested by the story's headline, "<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/11/podcasts/the-daily/california-forever-tech-housing.html">The Billionaires' Secret Plan to Solve California's Housing Crisis</a>." Here are some examples of what drew me to share the podcast, beginning with this description of the place the billionaires have been buying up: </div><blockquote>[I]magine you’re in San Francisco and you drive north further up into the Bay Area into an area called Solano County. And then you go way east and you end up in this very rural corner of the Bay Area that not a lot of people know about. And it’s over here, in this rural corner of Solano County, where our story takes place.<br /><br />And it’s these open sort of rolling landscape of yellow hills with almost nothing on it. The largest structures there are wind turbines. And a lot of the families out there are farmers. They farm sheep, feed crops, and cows. And many of the people out there have been there since the 1860s.<br /><br />This is a place where families stay in the same place for generations and pass the farms down several times. This is a place where not a lot changes, but then, in 2017, something very unusual starts to happen. A company called Flannery Associates, which nobody in the area has ever heard of, starts buying land.</blockquote><blockquote>And they buy more the next year, the year after that, the year after that, more and more and more and more, until pretty quickly they’re the biggest landowner in the entire county. So all these neighbors are at supermarkets, they’re at church, they’re at schools. I mean, this is a place where everyone knows everyone.<br /><br />They’re all on community boards together. They all talk to each other all the time. They all sort of simultaneously get these offers for their land.</blockquote><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Then there's this: </div><blockquote>[Dougherty:] So they not only want everyone’s farm, they start offering people these incredibly sweetheart deals, which say, OK, well, I’m going to buy your land, but you can stay there for the next decade or two, depending on how old they are. And for all that time, you can collect all the income from this land.<br /><br />They don’t even want the income of the land. So one thing everyone realizes pretty quickly is, these people are not interested in farming.<br /><br />Michael Barbaro [host] [LAUGHS]: Because if they wanted to farm, they would kick the farmers off the land they had just bought.<br /><br />Dougherty: Or they would want to make money from farming.<br /><br />Barbaro: Right.<br /><br />Dougherty: They don’t care about the price that reflects the income and they don’t even care about collecting the income. So they very obviously have a plan that has nothing to do with farming. And so the question is, what’s the plan? And who are these people?</blockquote><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The next step is to see if they can pass a local ballot initiative to get approval for California Forever: </div><blockquote> Solano County has a rule that says you can’t build in the rural areas, and that’s because they want to preserve these farms just as they’ve been for generations. So at the start of this year, California Forever filed a proposed ballot initiative that would undo that and pave the way for them to eventually build this city.</blockquote><p>California Forever CEO Jan Sramek is now <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/19/business/economy/flannery-california-forever-solano.html">holding town hall meetings to try to convince voters to support the land use change</a>. Along Interstate 80 from Vallejo to Dixon, both cities in Solano County, one now sees California Forever billboards touting the jobs that will come with the new endeavor--and the annual salaries (in the six figures) associated with those jobs. </p><p>And here's a November, 2023, <a href="https://www.kcra.com/article/solano-county-california-forever-ceo-jan-sramek/45798458">story by KCRA out of Sacramento touting the first tour of the land Flannery Associates bought</a>. The report mentions the new community would "include open space, agriculture, solar farms, and habitat conservation." </p></div><div>Here's another terrific quote from the January story by Doughterty, more appropriately headlined, "<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/19/business/economy/flannery-california-forever-solano.html">The Farmers Had What the Billionaires Wanted"</a>:</div><blockquote>The truth was that Mr. Sramek wanted to build a city from the ground up, in an agricultural region <b>whose defining feature was how little it had changed. </b>(emphasis mine)</blockquote><div>While <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/11/podcasts/the-daily/california-forever-tech-housing.html">the podcast headline suggests that the Silicon Valley billionaires were motivated to help solve the state's housing crisis</a>, I don't think that is accurate. The plan really comes down to profit--one could even say greed. The investors would not have gambled, otherwise, on getting the necessary local approval, by referendum, before they are able to begin to execute their plan. </div><div><br /></div><div>The images Dougherty shares of the agricultural areas of the California Delta compare and contrast in interesting ways with those in the <a href="https://www.kqed.org/news/11973656/bay-area-creatives-find-unexpected-welcome-in-small-town-delta">Jon Kalish story that ran on WBUR's "Here and Now"</a> (initially for KQED in January). Kalish talks more about the Delta town of Isleton, leading with this: </div><blockquote>The small communities tucked into the San Joaquin River Delta are full of contradictions. Located northeast of the San Francisco Bay Area, much of the area is populated by farmers growing crops like wheat, alfalfa and rice. But, visitors might also stumble upon a circus performed on board a huge boat made to look like an island, a community of free spirits living out of tiny homes plopped down in an RV park, even a woman walking a goose on a leash down the street in town. Needless to say, it can be a quirky place.<br /><br />Once primarily known for farming, Delta communities are changing as people priced out of the Bay Area discover this relatively close region that still offers land and freedom. It has become particularly attractive to artists and other creatives looking to live in a place where they’re free to create without the pressures of city regulators and rising rents. </blockquote><blockquote>“The big question was, ‘Do I stay in the Bay Area, which is getting unsustainably expensive?’” said Michelle Burke, who used to be involved in running American Steel, a sprawling West Oakland artist collective. “My friends are being displaced. They’re losing their workspaces, their art spaces, their homes. It was just unsustainable.”</blockquote><blockquote>In Isleton, where Burke relocated, she’s got enough room on her property for six shipping containers to store materials and DIY projects. She’s one of many who have found the Delta to be a refreshing change. </blockquote><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #04151a; font-family: Georgia, "Time New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px;">* * *</span></p><blockquote>While the newcomers are visible because of their aesthetic and creative projects, it’s not like people are flooding into these rural communities, he said. In fact, according to Wells, the population numbers have largely stayed the same for a hundred years. Still, some locals distrust the new people.<br /><br />“The farmers that I talk to are more concerned about that than anybody else,” Wells said. “I think everybody else enjoys some controlled growth. The farmers are concerned because they have farm equipment, and they claim people are coming and stealing crap out of their farmyards.”</blockquote></div></div>Lisa R. Pruitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16469550950363542801noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7171420941776673660.post-19779719243521025362024-03-14T22:06:00.000-07:002024-03-16T21:55:09.063-07:00My Rural Travelogue (Part XXXVII): New Cuyama and California's Hidden Valley of Enchantment<br /><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4fMO8_AaKHpqFRqtpkGwkHHb9zZghIPGcxOdTDWDVbtD7w2XduVxaFB93hgWS-PhFBOMMoMyJx8ecqnC4l34KjRmk699eueYS9NYK9oQ8gafZnRyH5R3-XHSDoBbT6yFx8ekeBOUBw_IiAxcjqIwRQ-XqNuwPGSFxQATON8z1uGOxfG7L9mh4wK_QxeM/s4032/Cuyama%20Valley%20First%20People.HEIC" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4fMO8_AaKHpqFRqtpkGwkHHb9zZghIPGcxOdTDWDVbtD7w2XduVxaFB93hgWS-PhFBOMMoMyJx8ecqnC4l34KjRmk699eueYS9NYK9oQ8gafZnRyH5R3-XHSDoBbT6yFx8ekeBOUBw_IiAxcjqIwRQ-XqNuwPGSFxQATON8z1uGOxfG7L9mh4wK_QxeM/w400-h300/Cuyama%20Valley%20First%20People.HEIC" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cuyama Valley from New Cuyama, with interpretive sign about the Chumash<br />(c) Lisa R. Pruitt 2024</td></tr></tbody></table>I had the opportunity to visit the community of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Cuyama,_California">New Cuyama, California (population 542) </a>last month, in northern Santa Barbara County. The area is known as the Hidden Valley of Enchantment. </div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlWswsRLhkVxyZ2uzKjQGawlwQZ4myXpD-61q9jhgSm0x6djD7JRz1fGSV5EnXHhpEMdeQzVfl_JPrVbUkf4OhPI4Q57wTzDYjUBbr1Vmg0MA48U10SUxPWgaWOoubRavxPTkvUhbyg0Ye6Y4vgD9n2pgcUU0otAX7C0QBc9gr-ovA6iV_DAMkAOS3sOE/s4032/New%20Cuyama%20population%20joke%20sign%202024%2002.HEIC" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlWswsRLhkVxyZ2uzKjQGawlwQZ4myXpD-61q9jhgSm0x6djD7JRz1fGSV5EnXHhpEMdeQzVfl_JPrVbUkf4OhPI4Q57wTzDYjUBbr1Vmg0MA48U10SUxPWgaWOoubRavxPTkvUhbyg0Ye6Y4vgD9n2pgcUU0otAX7C0QBc9gr-ovA6iV_DAMkAOS3sOE/w400-h300/New%20Cuyama%20population%20joke%20sign%202024%2002.HEIC" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(c) Lisa R. Pruitt 2024</td></tr></tbody></table><div><div>I first learned of the Cuyama Valley about a year ago when a <a href="https://legalruralism.blogspot.com/2023/03/harvard-water-grab-how-largest-academic.html">student wrote this post about Harvard University buying up land there</a>. </div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ2b4Wn7waefqOvfY2f-Vt9swQqbVGPn9LhS9W2-NVy443ZXZSww59AaNXO99LIK-KopP58bq1UwHGdj2MLv8QSPTnMmV_3FJGM82VVVqf_pm_jmx_5_6LGj2X9IC-qfG3xRzlQjpYIc8x4965Way_uDthXozZ7QPv5F_UJ2Pnoit2rkMNzvUjBYjbrAI/s4032/vineyard%20planted%20by%20Harvard%20Cuyama%20Valley.HEIC" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ2b4Wn7waefqOvfY2f-Vt9swQqbVGPn9LhS9W2-NVy443ZXZSww59AaNXO99LIK-KopP58bq1UwHGdj2MLv8QSPTnMmV_3FJGM82VVVqf_pm_jmx_5_6LGj2X9IC-qfG3xRzlQjpYIc8x4965Way_uDthXozZ7QPv5F_UJ2Pnoit2rkMNzvUjBYjbrAI/w320-h240/vineyard%20planted%20by%20Harvard%20Cuyama%20Valley.HEIC" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vineyard planted on land owned by Harvard University<br />(d) Lisa R. Pruitt 2024</td></tr></tbody></table><div>I was excited to be passing through the region (ok, well, it was a bit out of my way on my journey from Los Angeles to Fresno) and to have the opportunity to see the enchanted valley for myself. While the student had written about a sort of water controversy (really, water hoarding) in which Harvard University's endowment was engaged (see their vineyard in the photo to the left), I quickly learned of another water war--this one by local farmers against corporate agriculture, specifically the entities associated with Grimmway and Bolthouse carrots. In fact, when you first approach the valley from the east, you see massive fields (brown at this time of year), with signs suggesting an association with Grimmway and/or Bolthouse (see photo at bottom). </div><div><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO9k9D67XKK8g9WtPvdhh1RiYQU09igbk3jNZK8f7I2HONA8k3AfpcrXxaMbxQXFYAuy6WjjpSBt67XuM7CIxX-VqG-_Yf5YVxBTOXYuGnNLLpeZEu1ra2KVYtRSYbpem0C9CRfKLKJFpHlZ8ujIS3ntkyvsO_VS11b3KywL7XdJnEYsf7fzicFlJb1Ac/s4032/Grimway%20Carrot%20Wars%20Sign.HEIC" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO9k9D67XKK8g9WtPvdhh1RiYQU09igbk3jNZK8f7I2HONA8k3AfpcrXxaMbxQXFYAuy6WjjpSBt67XuM7CIxX-VqG-_Yf5YVxBTOXYuGnNLLpeZEu1ra2KVYtRSYbpem0C9CRfKLKJFpHlZ8ujIS3ntkyvsO_VS11b3KywL7XdJnEYsf7fzicFlJb1Ac/w320-h240/Grimway%20Carrot%20Wars%20Sign.HEIC" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(c) Lisa R. Pruitt 2024</td></tr></tbody></table><div>When I arrived at my destination for the night, the Cuyama Buckhorn, a recently renovated 1960s motel and diner, I found signs imploring folks to "BOYCOTT CARROTS" AND STAND WITH CUYAMA AGAINST CORPORATE GREED." These name Bolthouse Farms and Grimmway Farms by name. </div><div><br /></div><div>Naturally, I wanted to know more, and I found two stories about the matter, one in the <a href="https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2023-11-13/cuyama-valley-carrot-boycott-groundwater-depletion#:~:text=Carrots%20are%20grown%20in%20the,large%20growers%20over%20water%20concerns.&text=In%20the%20Cuyama%20Valley%20north,a%20single%20thirsty%20crop%3A%20carrots."><i>Los Angeles Times</i> </a>and the other by the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/california-groundwater-carrots-boycott-grimmway-bolthouse-c2f4353f4c1b86eaa9f6e6e1168176c6">Associated Press</a>. </div><div><br /></div><div>For the <i>LA Times</i>, Ian James reported last November with this lede: </div><blockquote>In the Cuyama Valley north of Santa Barbara, lush green fields stretch across the desert. Sprinklers spray thousands of acres to grow a single thirsty crop: carrots.<br /><br />Wells and pumps pull groundwater from as deep as 680 feet, and the aquifer’s levels are dropping.<br /><br />As the valley’s only water source shrinks, a bitter legal battle over water rights has arisen between carrot growers and the community. Residents are fighting back with a <a href="https://www.standwithcuyama.com/">campaign</a> urging everyone to stop buying carrots.<br /></blockquote><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzARGzf_WAEj920gm3b16q7l1MlRNIIZZ6v2QDfxG3cpdOjxxMoXyKqkHL8rS8IqWNZiYUSh9iZ6W0YR2qhrqnJxv0kphXvdcyVlQCbvyIZxFFY7xiw_meS_oL3sJL54QxUD49OR3ctBCF5hZGf3V-5JM3hnQqdhP_El0wZKYimXkUJ1ooP2irpS-Hp3A/s4032/Grimmway%20Farms%20Cuyama%20Feb%202024.HEIC" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzARGzf_WAEj920gm3b16q7l1MlRNIIZZ6v2QDfxG3cpdOjxxMoXyKqkHL8rS8IqWNZiYUSh9iZ6W0YR2qhrqnJxv0kphXvdcyVlQCbvyIZxFFY7xiw_meS_oL3sJL54QxUD49OR3ctBCF5hZGf3V-5JM3hnQqdhP_El0wZKYimXkUJ1ooP2irpS-Hp3A/w400-h300/Grimmway%20Farms%20Cuyama%20Feb%202024.HEIC" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(c) Lisa R. Pruitt 2024</td></tr></tbody></table></div><blockquote>[Bolthouse and Grimmway] stirred outrage when they, along with several other allied entities, sued property owners throughout the valley, asking a court to determine how much water everyone can pump.<br /><br />The <a href="https://cuyamabasin.org/assets/pdf/adjudication/CE-First-Amended-Complaint-Filed-03-08-2022-(00532259xDA2F4).PDF">lawsuit</a>, filed in 2021, has left small farmers, ranchers and other property owners with staggering legal bills. Residents have accused the companies of going to court to try to secure as much water as possible, while forcing painful cuts on smaller farms.</blockquote><p>Amy Taxin had reported for the Associated Press a little over a month earlier, "<a href="https://apnews.com/article/california-groundwater-carrots-boycott-grimmway-bolthouse-c2f4353f4c1b86eaa9f6e6e1168176c6">In a remote, dry patch of California, a battle is raging over carrots</a>," with a lede highlighting one of the small farmers in Cuyama.</p><blockquote>In the hills of a dry, remote patch of California farm country, Lee Harrington carefully monitors the drips moistening his pistachio trees to ensure they’re not wasting any of the groundwater at the heart of a vicious fight.<br /><br />He is one of scores of farmers, ranchers and others living near the tiny town of New Cuyama who have been hauled into court by a lawsuit filed by two of the nation’s biggest carrot growers, Grimmway Farms and Bolthouse Farms, over the right to pump groundwater.<br /><br />The move has saddled residents in the community 100 miles (160 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles with mounting legal bills and prompted them to post large signs along the roadway calling on others to boycott carrots and “Stand with Cuyama.”<br /><br />“It’s just literally mind-boggling where they’re farming,” Harrington said, adding that his legal fees exceed $50,000. “They want our water. They didn’t want the state telling them how much water they can pump.”<br /><br />The battle playing out in this stretch of rural California represents a new wave of legal challenges over water, long one of the most precious and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/dc13c0daf7e444249b2224fc9d68b61a">contested resources</a> in a state that grows much of the country’s produce.<br /><br />For years, California didn’t regulate groundwater, allowing farmers and residents alike to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/california-droughts-climate-and-environment-e49c8c5c34ead7ef7f83b770082f20bc">drill wells</a> and take what they needed. That changed in 2014 amid a historic drought, and as ever-deeper wells caused <a href="https://apnews.com/article/id-7f5b6433943644288ade95a1972eee5d">land in some places to sink</a>.</blockquote><div style="text-align: center;">***</div><blockquote>Grimmway, which has grown carrots in Cuyama for more than three decades, currently farms less than a third of its 20 square miles (52 square kilometers) there and has installed more efficient sprinklers to save water. Seeing groundwater levels decline and pumping costs rise, the company began growing carrots in other states, but doesn’t plan to uproot from Cuyama, said Jeff Huckaby, the company’s president and chief executive.<br /><br />“It’s one of the best carrot-growing regions that we’ve come across,” Huckaby said, adding that arid regions are best so carrot roots extend below ground for moisture, growing longer. “The soil up here is ideal, temperatures are ideal, the climate is ideal.”</blockquote><p>This water controversy aside, I want to share a few more photos of the town, which has a small grocery story and cafe in addition to the spiffy refubished Cuyama Buckhorn. There is both an elementary school and a high school, a branch of the Santa Maria (Santa Barbara County) public library, a family resource center, a recreation district, a community service district, a sheriff's substation and fire house, as well as a transfer station (dump). Nearby is the <a href="https://www.google.com/search?gs_ssp=eJzj4tTP1TcwzU0qKDdgtFI1qLAwSE2yNDcyNDIzNbQ0NDG2MqgwsUg2NTM2SzNIMbNISU1M9uJNTiwqyqzKVyjISczMAwA_qhLS&q=carrizo+plain&oq=carrizo+&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqEwgBEC4YgwEYrwEYxwEYsQMYgAQyBggAEEUYOTITCAEQLhiDARivARjHARixAxiABDIKCAIQLhixAxiABDINCAMQABiDARixAxiABDIQCAQQABiDARixAxiABBiKBTIHCAUQLhiABDIKCAYQLhjUAhiABDIHCAcQLhiABDIHCAgQABiABNIBCDU2NTVqMGo0qAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8">Carrizo Plain National Monument</a>, famous for its spring wildflowers, with the San Andreas Fault running through it. </p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_H6hoxqw5U0RYBo66Gxq3LBLugwaClblDlBJj1Au544EfrSf0sDXX4CJkk-bbausMfAs9J_MFS1VEkxWIv68Kpnpvq6Z-fn_7_Hksv54mw0RtELZlK0_b_Zo8x_0O9npqybIqSOam4zZcuB5dj3ueUVzdQDAEuyw9O8gwzKXi4yH5FChx0hU5gtPKEiI/s4032/Wilder%20Country%20sign%202024%2002.HEIC" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_H6hoxqw5U0RYBo66Gxq3LBLugwaClblDlBJj1Au544EfrSf0sDXX4CJkk-bbausMfAs9J_MFS1VEkxWIv68Kpnpvq6Z-fn_7_Hksv54mw0RtELZlK0_b_Zo8x_0O9npqybIqSOam4zZcuB5dj3ueUVzdQDAEuyw9O8gwzKXi4yH5FChx0hU5gtPKEiI/s320/Wilder%20Country%20sign%202024%2002.HEIC" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Interpretive sign noting that California <br />Condors live in the Valley </td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsEJA_usDZ1gwj8AXyRyip6nTiCDBwdMvSQRNGVpaTqg26nXDhL9d7DPwCJPdJhpHupFvKsoLBGhcuKX8m5T2n9xG0lQ17nXSGUA6egcfgFAG75YfEgP9JCrDiV00HsYEnhdJGpCQMU8jWfgd7LqekX2fQg7yZVfNSAAuykIqnXeXzEVS-tNadnixPmh4/s4032/C%20and%20H%20market%20New%20Cuyama.HEIC" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsEJA_usDZ1gwj8AXyRyip6nTiCDBwdMvSQRNGVpaTqg26nXDhL9d7DPwCJPdJhpHupFvKsoLBGhcuKX8m5T2n9xG0lQ17nXSGUA6egcfgFAG75YfEgP9JCrDiV00HsYEnhdJGpCQMU8jWfgd7LqekX2fQg7yZVfNSAAuykIqnXeXzEVS-tNadnixPmh4/w320-h240/C%20and%20H%20market%20New%20Cuyama.HEIC" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">U.S. Post Office, grocery store, and cafe, New Cuyama<br />(c) Lisa R. Pruitt 2024</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWrMMz4e5ryS7LAox0vEb-6cL-5ds8zgXHOKh0YAeodq4ifqDgU178tMEoZrw4_aJ1X24Vq7u9OY-QTY3g_nuu0LHjA6DDbWMlkWCPVUXqicsggxOOV2CJ4CTboLJxR5fChg1PF8MOFnyIlQIBKuWqtmhDx7eddRLKEWBAAFom8LZsK-yQU74rqnBGIYs/s4032/County%20Road%20Yard%20Cuyama.HEIC" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWrMMz4e5ryS7LAox0vEb-6cL-5ds8zgXHOKh0YAeodq4ifqDgU178tMEoZrw4_aJ1X24Vq7u9OY-QTY3g_nuu0LHjA6DDbWMlkWCPVUXqicsggxOOV2CJ4CTboLJxR5fChg1PF8MOFnyIlQIBKuWqtmhDx7eddRLKEWBAAFom8LZsK-yQU74rqnBGIYs/w200-h150/County%20Road%20Yard%20Cuyama.HEIC" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Coutny Road Yard<br />(c) Lisa R. Pruitt 2024</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9RPjsL9kc9_JEmaSuQfpAvuZUs-mnEJGQvhlpVGAyG4YMi3E0na1z8uuXyyjY6fM0O9ENp2JL8Ucjdm_CwkLWyt8gjfYwi9dSfvZ-OWtR9YijEfRxPjonXJlimVg8IaOoA4nmnn57Kt2sAkh32V6wpcBKKuS6AgMLiMLk9aZXSwmqW78xvk0WxiwODg4/s4032/Cuyama%20Buckhorn%20entrance%20sign.HEIC" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9RPjsL9kc9_JEmaSuQfpAvuZUs-mnEJGQvhlpVGAyG4YMi3E0na1z8uuXyyjY6fM0O9ENp2JL8Ucjdm_CwkLWyt8gjfYwi9dSfvZ-OWtR9YijEfRxPjonXJlimVg8IaOoA4nmnn57Kt2sAkh32V6wpcBKKuS6AgMLiMLk9aZXSwmqW78xvk0WxiwODg4/w300-h400/Cuyama%20Buckhorn%20entrance%20sign.HEIC" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cuyama Buckhorn motel and diner<br />(c) Lisa R. Pruitt 2024</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu_6BatVWX3RXBZcUQNeAK-1BrXP72I0SUu6bhay9ybkQ_1yA_Xo2usdqxTEmij5GmAvTnHwvaR_HYOA1BEElK81vk1fh_OQvRCM2ouOg_OkwZGtMOZevI1E1LoPnPdwuOSOHG4ozqOoGuiQwCKCJp4sqwBsRLZacfIwoX4RlaVEnuwSyBVPb5w8c6CSM/s4032/Cuyama%20Valley%20Recreation%20District.HEIC" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu_6BatVWX3RXBZcUQNeAK-1BrXP72I0SUu6bhay9ybkQ_1yA_Xo2usdqxTEmij5GmAvTnHwvaR_HYOA1BEElK81vk1fh_OQvRCM2ouOg_OkwZGtMOZevI1E1LoPnPdwuOSOHG4ozqOoGuiQwCKCJp4sqwBsRLZacfIwoX4RlaVEnuwSyBVPb5w8c6CSM/w320-h240/Cuyama%20Valley%20Recreation%20District.HEIC" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cuyama Valley Recreation District Office<br />(c) Lisa R. Pruitt 2024</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCyuvM5NPPxDf8UodqI5TxaqFqxvEMMxnlJhPuHMo5E8Q2FTChfoZ7iX7n9dFwaXeS780pptgBz-X6lpHGVHNH52k_XpeVynoZG6vOAimxIh-HXstLOjrStUrkCAE676AAFpcd-wj83FhueLIyXhve6hCHVHXdSAw__2fjDkVB21AijAUck0noIbTI-4s/s4032/New%20Cuyama%20Transfer%20Station%20Dump%20with%20pick%20up.HEIC" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCyuvM5NPPxDf8UodqI5TxaqFqxvEMMxnlJhPuHMo5E8Q2FTChfoZ7iX7n9dFwaXeS780pptgBz-X6lpHGVHNH52k_XpeVynoZG6vOAimxIh-HXstLOjrStUrkCAE676AAFpcd-wj83FhueLIyXhve6hCHVHXdSAw__2fjDkVB21AijAUck0noIbTI-4s/s320/New%20Cuyama%20Transfer%20Station%20Dump%20with%20pick%20up.HEIC" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">New Cuyama Transfer Station<br />(c) Lisa R. Pruitt 2024</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKMS5AHHrQltMO1eQCW0iv7a8CpoVX_u8UUbFZ-L88mbGPJieULdQJPPJHLred2031xVs9L03UgWlIFgYB6-eV8BzHu4sq4eqJW7OI9BVIw2T4rjMMM6qAX29qPWRGEDpm06ZIB-YfV5io1ex7-4pLxg8YjJdv7ZZ0JtNVEDuNi8kdyu4jnUiEiJCG2tY/s4032/Sign%20for%20Santa%20Maria%20and%20Guadalupe.HEIC" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKMS5AHHrQltMO1eQCW0iv7a8CpoVX_u8UUbFZ-L88mbGPJieULdQJPPJHLred2031xVs9L03UgWlIFgYB6-eV8BzHu4sq4eqJW7OI9BVIw2T4rjMMM6qAX29qPWRGEDpm06ZIB-YfV5io1ex7-4pLxg8YjJdv7ZZ0JtNVEDuNi8kdyu4jnUiEiJCG2tY/s320/Sign%20for%20Santa%20Maria%20and%20Guadalupe.HEIC" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">New Cuyama is about 50 miles east of Santa Maria<br />(c) Lisa R. Pruitt 2024</td></tr></tbody></table><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4TjVjYrgFkZsec4ShPwXHkWgyrCph9hCeDt_kZc0pmN6jWLy1GABIly8rcvWpddEfySbIZBNaIqcpZSjBMiQW2yLy5Gv4ZuRqE9PAYbMZgobf-FLnSMamidxp04IFEzw8Ydga4PdvZy9xF-xcqMyUP2tfMVQvObacq9338Bclj7_AEQJTw50ErWRWiuE/s4032/new%20Cuyama%20election%20ballot%20drop%20box.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4TjVjYrgFkZsec4ShPwXHkWgyrCph9hCeDt_kZc0pmN6jWLy1GABIly8rcvWpddEfySbIZBNaIqcpZSjBMiQW2yLy5Gv4ZuRqE9PAYbMZgobf-FLnSMamidxp04IFEzw8Ydga4PdvZy9xF-xcqMyUP2tfMVQvObacq9338Bclj7_AEQJTw50ErWRWiuE/s320/new%20Cuyama%20election%20ballot%20drop%20box.HEIC" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Santa Barbara County Ballot drop box<br />(c) Lisa R. Pruitt 2024</td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUoWCGTX1kxWz6448WgKWLMO2-dfBDtIGb8b0zOYs3AlkyZJCnpmTiQQmqwAiA6SMH3KQ12XRFb06uSBzJPSN1_TMvzN1iVlEnqtDdEcWqnqSCPwuZWMdqtEg_Tt3V6y7B4MEHQTT5q0EaKTpdcpUwBtFAGPdfF-eoilY19N7LIzf3lrpU7-eZ0xWXhIE/s4032/Cuyama%20Valley%20Family%20Resource%20Center%20closer%20up.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUoWCGTX1kxWz6448WgKWLMO2-dfBDtIGb8b0zOYs3AlkyZJCnpmTiQQmqwAiA6SMH3KQ12XRFb06uSBzJPSN1_TMvzN1iVlEnqtDdEcWqnqSCPwuZWMdqtEg_Tt3V6y7B4MEHQTT5q0EaKTpdcpUwBtFAGPdfF-eoilY19N7LIzf3lrpU7-eZ0xWXhIE/s320/Cuyama%20Valley%20Family%20Resource%20Center%20closer%20up.HEIC" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cuyama Valley Family Resource Center<br />(c) Lisa R. Pruitt 2024</td></tr></tbody></table><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja3CP9XVfn3hdCntp6KdVF9aBUT9HCH2XqqvMeUnR4cFySomqLI7l-gFrhjGKPKjsiyAiXVYiB0ybe0h9e1eRGje4GPMTtuwOoVZ3nfsMfnfRIewm-pgx7DXMWCn6Crs541AB12e3iBoaSxyQOiDuI6p-8k4MNS2I99dlzrh2BqeB4enUWKHFk-oeTBp4/s4032/Cuyama%20Valley%20Bears%20High%20School%20sign.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja3CP9XVfn3hdCntp6KdVF9aBUT9HCH2XqqvMeUnR4cFySomqLI7l-gFrhjGKPKjsiyAiXVYiB0ybe0h9e1eRGje4GPMTtuwOoVZ3nfsMfnfRIewm-pgx7DXMWCn6Crs541AB12e3iBoaSxyQOiDuI6p-8k4MNS2I99dlzrh2BqeB4enUWKHFk-oeTBp4/s320/Cuyama%20Valley%20Bears%20High%20School%20sign.HEIC" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cuyama Valley High School<br />(c) Lisa R. Pruitt 2024</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgogrp5GymvHfkMkEqX9AR7D_yVRoi26sBYoMnjpfyo1z2nRp33V_9Ft7ywVc0DBJlbvJU7VxhQIlgr9dbpGgwJ_jGkBTNZy-I0tT5qBEoYjYnxTw-1vdqBe_eKop-qfM02SHndd7x66SRMLL-kMz2lqOK0eAtODyui3j4GHWF3_b_gcgNK1BCnLWqRt_U/s4032/Tractor%20outside%20Methodist%20church.HEIC" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgogrp5GymvHfkMkEqX9AR7D_yVRoi26sBYoMnjpfyo1z2nRp33V_9Ft7ywVc0DBJlbvJU7VxhQIlgr9dbpGgwJ_jGkBTNZy-I0tT5qBEoYjYnxTw-1vdqBe_eKop-qfM02SHndd7x66SRMLL-kMz2lqOK0eAtODyui3j4GHWF3_b_gcgNK1BCnLWqRt_U/s320/Tractor%20outside%20Methodist%20church.HEIC" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">United Methodist Church, New Cuyama<br />(c) Lisa R. Pruitt 2024<br /><br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgsjPvFIl7EMeiElIUrpOxNUKV3dz0Rbl9QWKbQp58Buhtm65wNQHA73MPK9eLRyUURD2OiHYsqazodhOPxz_-Hm9rwBqjhBuH4vrLxvFJJoS7CukYFTiTK_j75f12bWYp8EmvUYkAk8FWZfvqQivVrnk_y5NXTjr2O9tNhp2-C-End_dZYjyuGne1JyU/s4032/Santa%20Barbara%20County%20Sheriff.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgsjPvFIl7EMeiElIUrpOxNUKV3dz0Rbl9QWKbQp58Buhtm65wNQHA73MPK9eLRyUURD2OiHYsqazodhOPxz_-Hm9rwBqjhBuH4vrLxvFJJoS7CukYFTiTK_j75f12bWYp8EmvUYkAk8FWZfvqQivVrnk_y5NXTjr2O9tNhp2-C-End_dZYjyuGne1JyU/s320/Santa%20Barbara%20County%20Sheriff.HEIC" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Santa Barbara County Sheriff and Fire Station<br />New Cuyama<br />(c) Lisa R. Pruitt 2024</td></tr></tbody></table><br />Lisa R. Pruitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16469550950363542801noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7171420941776673660.post-39063513499279021382024-03-13T21:36:00.000-07:002024-03-13T21:36:09.504-07:00On "non-rural rural" folks<p>That's the brain teaser in the title of Kristin Lunz Trujillo's latest paper in <u>Political Behavior</u>. The full title is "<a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11109-024-09915-z">Feeling Out of Place: Who Are the Non‐Rural Rural Identifiers, and Are They Unique Politically</a>?" Here's the abstract: </p><p></p><blockquote>Previous work suggests rural identity often stems from direct experience living in a rural area, and that categorical group membership occurs before social identification. Puzzlingly, however, some U.S. survey takers not living in a rural area indicate that being rural is part of their identity. Using ANES data from 2020 (N=8280) and 2019 (N=3165), as well as original survey data from YouGov (N=2615), I find that these non-rural rural identifiers are similar to rural identifiers in rural areas in terms of group-based affect and values, and are more right-leaning and populist than people who do not identify as rural (regardless of their location). Few consistent demographic differences between rural and non-rural rural identifiers exist. I conclude that: (1) rural identification has similar political, attitudinal, and demo- graphic tendencies regardless of respondent location, and (2) non-rural rural identifiers have either been socialized in a rural area but moved away, or they personally affiliate with values and norms of rural areas despite not categorically being part of the group. This study has implications for the study of urban–rural political behavior, and for our understanding of identity and politics more broadly.</blockquote><p>Here's the introduction to the article, which is more illuminating for a lay reader: </p><p></p><blockquote><p>There has been a widening urban–rural political divide over recent decades in the U.S. and elsewhere (Gimpel et al., 2020; Rodden, 2019). One explanation for this divide involves identity-centered considerations, including rural identity and its relationship with place-based grievances (Cramer, 2016; Lunz Trujillo & Crowley, 2022; Lyons & Utych, 2021; Munis, 2020). Recent work has found rural identity to be politically relevant in various ways and is predictive of anti-urban sentiment (Lyons & Utych, 2022), Trump vote (Lunz Trujillo & Crowley, 2022), support for anti-establishment candidates (Cramer, 2016), anti-intellectualism (Lunz Trujillo, 2022), and more.</p>However, in many of these survey-based studies, a nontrivial number of people indicate that being rural is part of their identity—that is, they say being rural is where they feel they belong or is important to their self-image—yet they are not actually from a rural area (e.g., Lunz Trujillo, 2022; Nemerever & Rogers, 2021). This poses a theoretical puzzle. First, ethnographic work argues that rural identity is a place-based identity stemming directly from lived experience of that place (Bell, 1992; Ching & Creed, 1997), e.g., rural identity comes from having lived and experienced rural life. Second, and relatedly, Social Identity Theory (SIT) suggests one is typically a group member (e.g., a rural resident) before socially identifying with the group (e.g., adopting a rural social identity) (Huddy, 2003; Scheepers & Ellem- ers, 2019; Tajfel, 1970). People who identify as rural but are not rural residents—the “non-rural rural identifiers”—also pose an issue in accounting for the urban–rural divide: if many non-rural people hold rural identities, then how rural is this identity really? <br /><br />Here, I investigate why some people indicate they are rural identifiers—strong ones even—but also say they do not live or have not grown up in a rural area. In addition, I examine whether rural versus non-rural rural identifiers differ in their political dispositions. This question is related to, but still distinct from, recent work investigating a similar puzzle: why do some non-rural individuals score high on rural resentment measures? (Dawkins et al., 2023). In the case of rural resentment, the survey questions used to measure rural resentment are conducive to “rural empathy” while not necessarily capturing the group identification aspect. For instance, one could think that rural areas do not get their fair share of resources in society while not indicating that rurality is important or central to their self-image. Rather, I examine why people adopt a rural social identity, which goes beyond simply empathizing with rural-based grievances into what constitutes ones’ self-view and identity. <br /><br />I argue that rural identifiers, regardless of where they live, should psychologically affiliate with the group’s perceived values and intergroup affect, which forms the basis for identification even if group membership is not achieved. Since non-rural rural identifiers should have a shared set of norms and affect, rural identity’s political correlates are similar regardless of current location. Relatedly, I expect most rural identifiers have either grown up in a rural area (e.g., socialized as rural) or currently live in a rural area.</blockquote><p>This reminds me of my long-standing theory that people one generation removed from a rural area still identify as rural, in part because they still have extended family like grandparents, even parents there. But, this excerpt suggests, it's also because they embrace what they consider to be rural values. </p><p></p>Lisa R. Pruitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16469550950363542801noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7171420941776673660.post-90582528205582099852024-03-11T13:54:00.000-07:002024-03-13T10:04:53.767-07:00Another authoritative rebuttal of Schaller and Waldman's "White Rural Rage" <p>Kristin Lunz Trujillo, a political scientist at the University of South Carolina, writes in <i>Newsweek</i> today under the headline, "'<a href="https://www.newsweek.com/white-rural-rage-cites-my-research-it-gets-everything-about-rural-america-wrong-opinion-1877917">White Rural Rage' Cites my Research. It Gets Everything about Rural America Wrong</a>." Here's an excerpt: </p><blockquote>Rural Americans' identity is much more about positive emotions they feel toward rural areas and much less about negative emotions toward others. The idea that white rural Americans in general experience unhinged levels of rage is laughable. If you want to see how ridiculous white rural Americans find the idea that they are enraged, they have been posting about their supposed rage <a href="https://twitter.com/PolitiBunny/status/1763678304488366275">on X</a> with pictures of benign, disarming, or exaggerated images, with the ironic caption: "How do you express your #whiteruralrage?"<br /><br />The thing is, political anger isn't restricted to white rural America. It's something that's actually a shared experience across different walks of life in the U.S.: Most Americans when prompted to think about politics become <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/718979">angry</a>, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/24583091">hateful</a>, and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Anxious-Politics-Democratic-Citizenship-Threatening/dp/110744148X">afraid</a> of the struggles of contemporary America, our current political climate, and people we perceive to be politically dissimilar. Partisan polarization based on strong <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/pops.12479">negative emotions</a> has become a <a href="https://news.arizona.edu/story/rise-negative-partisanship-and-how-it-drives-voters">harmful force</a> in society that <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13510347.2020.1818068">erodes democracy</a>, and it's found in spades on <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2022/08/09/as-partisan-hostility-grows-signs-of-frustration-with-the-two-party-system/">the Right and the Left</a>, and experts and intellectuals are no exception.</blockquote><blockquote>As political scientists and commentators in particular, we should be the most self-aware of this, not the ones who fall prey to it or make it worse. Yet because of White Rural Rage's lack of rigorous evidence that white rural Americans writ large are the greatest threat to U.S. democracy, the book starts to feel less like a carefully considered set of conclusions and more like an attack on a group of people who are the partisan other.<br /><br />On that note, the authors of White Rural Rage cite <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11109-022-09770-w">my own work</a> examining how people who feel that being rural is a strong part of their identity have a heightened distrust of experts and intellectuals. Why is this the case? There's a myriad of reasons, but White Rural Rage is a prime example of how intellectuals sow distrust by villainizing a group of people who are already disproportionately <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0966842X21001566">shut out from science</a>, higher education, and similar opportunities.<br /><br />Although the authors don't misrepresent my work, they do criticize rural Americans for their anti-intellectualism, building on tired tropes of rural people being backward, dumb, violent, and ignorant, while pushing a narrative that worsens such distrust in the first place.</blockquote><p>Nick Jacobs, a political scientist whose work is also cited in the Schaller and Waldman book, <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/commentary-white-rural-rage-which-came-first-the-title-or-the-research/2024/03/06/">made similar points last week on the Daily Yonder about how the authors of <u>White Rural Rage </u>misrepresent his empirical research</a>. </p>Lisa R. Pruitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16469550950363542801noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7171420941776673660.post-45289952330896872162024-03-10T13:27:00.000-07:002024-03-10T16:37:16.747-07:00Public defender crisis in Washington State afflicts both rural and urban counties<p>Daniel Beekman reported for the <i>S<a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/was-public-defender-system-is-breaking-down-communities-reeling/#:~:text=Staffing%20shortages%20and%20burnout%2Dinducing,from%20the%20same%20shallow%20pool.">eattle Times</a></i><a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/was-public-defender-system-is-breaking-down-communities-reeling/#:~:text=Staffing%20shortages%20and%20burnout%2Dinducing,from%20the%20same%20shallow%20pool."> late last month on the indigent defense (aka "public defense") crisis</a> facing Washington State, both its rural and urban sectors. A few days later, Marcy Stamper reported for the <i>Methow Valley News</i>, out of nonmetro Okanogan County in north central Washington, under the headline "<a href="https://methowvalleynews.com/2024/02/29/public-defenders-struggle-with-big-caseloads/">Public defenders struggle under big caseloads</a>." </p><p>Here's an excerpt from the <i>Seattle Times</i> story, which provides the big picture: </p><blockquote>Staffing shortages and burnout-inducing caseloads are squeezing urban areas like King County, rural areas like Asotin County and communities in between. Facing each other across the Columbia River, Benton and Franklin counties are struggling as they compete for attorneys from the same shallow pool.</blockquote><blockquote>There are consequences. In some instances, people presumed innocent are languishing in jail without counsel. In others, prosecutions have been delayed or dismissed because defendants lack representation, potentially putting crime victims and others at risk. In still others, defendants are getting shortchanged because their attorneys are too busy. It’s difficult to get a grip on the scale of such problems, because statewide data is lacking.<br /><br />Meanwhile, cash-strapped counties are watching their expenses soar with minimal support from the Legislature. Some counties are actually suing the state over that reality, and experts say it’s only a matter of time before an unrepresented defendant also sues, alleging their rights have been violated.</blockquote><p>As a further illustration of the problem and how it links to jail populations, Beekman writes that the director of the Washington Office of Public Defense (OPD) last year asked the Washington Supreme Court for a moratorium on attorney assignments for defendants who are not in custody so that backlogs of jailed clients could be cleared. The court denied the request. It did, however, ask OPD to survey the counties, which revealed that the highest shortages of public defenders are in rural counties. According to Stamper's story in the Methow Valley News, </p><blockquote>Okanogan County had the third-highest vacancy rate in the state, with 50% of spots unfilled at the time, surpassed only by Asotin County (67%) and Lewis County (56%). (Seven of the 39 counties didn’t respond to the survey.)</blockquote><p>The Washington Supreme Court is considering lowering caseload caps, to more aggressively limit how many cases each attorney can handle. Doing so too quickly, however, will aggravate the situation because too few attorneys are available to absorb the cases that the existing attorney work force would need to shed. Indeed, Beekman's story also considers the struggle to recruit attorneys to do this work, including in rural areas. </p><blockquote>Washington lawmakers are working on <a href="https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?BillNumber=5780&Year=2023&Initiative=False">a bill</a> that would establish a state-managed internship program to train law students and graduates as defenders and prosecutors in rural areas. But internships won’t reverse the shortages overnight, and a proposal to repay student loans for new recruits has been cut during the bill’s journey through the current legislative session. <a href="https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?BillNumber=5773&Year=2023">A separate bill</a> that would greatly bolster state funding for public defense is likely dead, with no action taken since the session began in January.</blockquote><p style="text-align: center;">* * * </p><blockquote>Fewer people are going to law school; young attorneys are choosing less-intense jobs with better pay; the COVID pandemic created backlogs; policing changes like body-worn cameras are making cases more time-consuming to handle. </blockquote><p>Beekman explains some of the consequences for defendants of not having a lawyer advise them: </p><blockquote>Defendants have no one to talk with about their options. To argue for their release so they can keep a job or custody of a child. To interview witnesses. To secure evidence, like surveillance video before a recording gets taped over.</blockquote><p>In neighboring Oregon, a federal district court in November ordered the "release anyone haled in jail without an attorney for more than seven days after being arraigned."</p><p>Beekman writes about rural areas in particular, and in doing so he references phenomena <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1599837">I and others have written about in other states</a>--including paying attorneys to drive from other counties to provide indigent defense in a county with too few attorneys or where the attorneys in that county have conflicts. ("Windscreen time" and the need for local governments to pay for it was an issue discussed a decade ago at the <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2480748">University of South Dakota symposium</a> kicking off Project Rural Practice, which became the Rural Attorney Recruitment Program). </p><blockquote>In some of Washington’s smallest counties, officials scramble to hire out-of-town contractors and pay them by the hour to represent defendants because there are so few local attorneys and even fewer who want the work. <br /><br />Ten counties in the state have no more than 30 residents practicing law of any sort, Dan Clark, a senior deputy prosecutor in Yakima County, wrote in <a href="https://wabarnews.org/2023/06/12/presidents-corner-the-rural-attorney-shortage-is-turning-into-a-crisis-in-washington-state/">a column</a> for the state Bar Association last year, noting that attorney shortages are resulting in vacancies on the prosecutorial as well as the defense side.<br /><br />“Most law school graduates tend to be in their 20s or 30s, and to be blunt, most rural areas simply do not offer the variety of restaurants, entertainment, and social opportunities that urban areas can provide,” Clark wrote. “Many law school graduates have significant student loan debt, and lower salaries in rural areas — particularly for governmental attorneys — can be a barrier to attracting and retaining new and young lawyers to rural communities.”<br /><br />Several defense attorneys under contract with Okanogan County in North Central Washington live elsewhere, including over the mountains in Western Washington, said Anna Burica, who leads the work and manages the roster. Judges allow them to appear in court via video, reluctantly.<br /><br />“You want that face-to-face contact before making a big decision, and a lot of people just don’t get that opportunity,” Okanogan Judge Robert Grim said.</blockquote><p>Here's what Stemper reports out of Okanogan County, leading with information about the caseloads there: </p><blockquote>For now, the workload is manageable and — crucially — within the limits set by the Washington State Bar Association. But if it continues at the current pace, some of the county’s public defenders won’t be able to take more cases, said Anna Burica of Burica Law, who holds the contract for public defense work for Okanogan County.<br /><br />Burica handles cases on her own and subcontracts with seven other attorneys to provide legal representation to indigent defendants in Okanogan County.<br /><br />Although the year started with an especially heavy load, the situation in Okanogan County is better than in some of Washington’s counties — no one is sitting in jail without an attorney, Burica said. But attorneys are overworked and struggle to find time to meet with clients, collect evidence, and prepare for defense.<br /><br />“We’re overloaded, but all within the state standards. I hope it will slow down,” Burica told the Methow Valley News in February.</blockquote><div><div style="text-align: center;">* * * </div><blockquote>While the state requires the county to provide indigent defense services, it pays just 5% of the county’s costs — even less if you consider that the county isn’t paying attorneys what they’re worth, Okanogan County Commissioner Andy Hover told the News. “It’s an unfunded mandate,” he said.<br /><br />Moreover, Okanogan County has a higher proportion of indigent defendants than wealthier counties, creating a disproportionate burden, Hover said.</blockquote>Washington is one of just 12 states in the country that provide only minimal funding for indigent defense. Here's more on the cost implications--including local taxes--of these attorney deficits, per Beekman in the <i>Seattle Times</i>: <br /><blockquote>In January, tiny Asotin County in Eastern Washington had only one attorney under contract to represent defendants charged with felonies, and he lived 100 miles away in Spokane, County Commissioner Brian Shinn said. Shelling out $150 per hour to other attorneys boosted the county’s defense costs (by about 43% last year), putting strain on an already-tight budget, he said.<br /><br />Although Asotin County is raising its sales tax rate this year, most stores in the area are located across the Idaho border, so the revenue bump will be modest, Shinn said, explaining why he’s glad the Association of Counties sued the state <a href="https://wsac.org/washingtons-counties-file-suit-against-the-state-of-washington/">in September</a>, claiming the Legislature should step in.<br /></blockquote><blockquote>"The state sends us $30,000,” while the county spent about $825,000 last year, the county commissioner said. “The state is really dropping the ball.”</blockquote><p>Stamper provides more details on the funding situation in Okanogan County, as they relate to the overall state budget to support these services. </p><blockquote>Public-defense expenses in Washington exceed $200 million annually, but the state provides just $5.9 million of that, which is distributed to counties based on a complex formula set out in state law. An additional $1 million supplements the allocation to cities, Hulsey [managing attorney for OPD] said.<br /><br />Of the $5.9 million, 6% is divvied equally among all counties. The remaining funding is allocated proportionately, half based on county population and half on the number of filings in each county’s Superior Court.<br /><br />Although Okanogan County’s 2024 budget provides about $1.3 million for public defense, less than $50,000 of that comes from the state — in 2024, the county got $48,532, which will cover just 3.7% of the county’s costs, Hover [Okanogan County Commissioner] said.</blockquote><p>Again the strain on county budgets echoes what I found in <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1599837">my deep dive in 2010 into how indigent defense is funded in Arizona</a>. There, too, the state makes meager contributions to a constitutionally mandated function that is thus largely the fiscal responsibility of county governments. </p><p>On the theme of spatial inequality, here are two more revealing data points from Stamper's story:</p><blockquote>The state funding formula is not only inadequate, but it results in inequities. For example, in 2021, Grant County got less than 3% of its total spending from the state, while Garfield County got about 20%, according to a lawsuit filed against Washington by WSAC [Washington State Association of Counties].<br /><br />Per capita spending on indigent defense services varies widely across counties. In 2018, Whitman County spent $6.71 per capita on public defense, whereas Skagit County spent $48.15, WSAC said.</blockquote></div><div><div>Both of these deeply reported stories are well worth a read in their entirety. Another terrific story about Washington State's court system--including the struggle of litigants to access its courthouses--is <a href="https://www.law360.com/pulse/courts/articles/1770081/a-mountain-to-climb-the-inaccessibility-of-rural-courts">here</a>. </div></div>Lisa R. Pruitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16469550950363542801noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7171420941776673660.post-67184600506606506572024-03-08T21:34:00.000-08:002024-03-09T08:57:16.765-08:00"Small Towns. Big Opportunities." Georgetown University's Center for Education and the Workforce recently published <a href="https://cew.georgetown.edu/cew-reports/ruralgoodjobs/">Small Towns, Big Opportunities</a>. The subhead is: "Many Workers in Rural Areas Have Good Jobs, but These Areas Need Greater Investment in Education, Training, and Career Counseling." <br /><br />Here's part of the summary:<div><blockquote>Rural America has long been perceived as “left behind” by policies that leave it struggling while benefiting bustling urban cities and suburbs. That narrative holds some truth: rural America has a declining population, along with lower educational attainment and lower workforce participation than urban America. But while rural America certainly faces challenges, it also has its own strengths and assets.<br /><br />Small Towns, Big Opportunities: Many Workers in Rural Areas Have Good Jobs, but These Areas Need Greater Investment in Education, Training, and Career Counseling counters some of the negative stereotypes and finds that working adults in rural America are almost as likely (50 percent) as working adults in urban America (54 percent) to have a good job. </blockquote><p>Under the heading "Rural America's Assets" is this: </p><blockquote>The rural workforce represents 13 percent of the total 25-to-64-year-old working population in the US and holds 12 percent, or a roughly proportionate share, of the country’s good jobs. In particular, the blue-collar economy in rural America is strong, as blue-collar occupations employ 31 percent of rural workers compared to 21 percent of urban workers. Due to this strong blue-collar economy, workers with lower levels of educational attainment fare better in rural areas than in urban areas. For example, workers with a high school diploma as their highest level of attainment hold 26 percent of good jobs in rural areas, compared to 15 percent of good jobs in urban areas. </blockquote></div>Lisa R. Pruitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16469550950363542801noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7171420941776673660.post-48651758767272546402024-03-01T04:48:00.000-08:002024-03-01T05:12:51.574-08:00Colleges reach out to serve rural communities, aiming to counter negative perceptions of higher education<p>Liam Elder-Conners of Vermont Public Radio <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/02/20/1232605867/colleges-counteract-a-lack-of-public-confidence-in-higher-education-with-outreac">reports for NPR</a>. Here's the summarizing blurb:</p><blockquote>University of Vermont students are providing hands-on help to rural towns in the state. It's part of a trend to help build bridges between higher education and rural communities.</blockquote><p>And here's an excerpt, with the lead in by A Martinez: </p><blockquote>Towns in rural Vermont faced lots of challenges - housing shortages, struggling downtowns and too little disaster preparedness. College students are stepping up to help, though. From The Hechinger Report and Vermont Public, here's Liam Elder-Connors.<br /><br />LIAM ELDER-CONNORS, BYLINE: KTP mobile home park in Bristol, Vt., is nestled in a convenient place - right next to the high school and about a mile from the small downtown. And it's affordable. The monthly lot rent is $375. But a recent windstorm hit the park hard. KTP property manager Chris Ouelette pointed to a home in the park with plywood nailed around the bottom.<br /><br />CHRIS OUELETTE: It looks like they just had to replace some skirting. We have a roof that was ripped off a house over there. We have a couple sheds that have been lost.<br /><br />ELDER-CONNORS: Ouelette, who's in charge of rent collection and some park maintenance, tries to keep the budgets manageable for the 96 mostly low-income residents. But with more extreme weather, Ouelette says mobile home parks need help.<br /><br />OUELETTE: It's very challenging because we don't have the people. The funding also is not there to be able to have - you know, have more staff on board to be able to tackle these bigger projects.<br /><br />ELDER-CONNORS: The University of Vermont is stepping in. UVM senior lecturer Kelly Hamshaw, along with her students, are helping KTP and other parks tackle overdue projects, like assessing flood risk and developing emergency plans for when natural disasters strike.<br /><br />KELLY HAMSHAW: So when you're knocking on people's doors and saying, hi, I'm a student from the University of Vermont, people would be like - they'd look at you a little perplexed at first. And then, you know, what do you want to know?<br /><br />ELDER-CONNORS: UVM isn't the only college doing this. Auburn University in Alabama and the University of Wisconsin received money from the same federal program that funds UVM's work. Glenda Gillaspy at the University of Wisconsin says they're setting up weather stations to help cranberry farmers time their harvests, which involves flooding their fields. </blockquote>Lisa R. Pruitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16469550950363542801noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7171420941776673660.post-3740963474487445332024-02-27T19:13:00.000-08:002024-02-29T19:50:31.601-08:00Krugman strikes again, this time calling out the "whiteness" of an alleged "rural rage"<p>Paul Krugman wrote yesterday in the <i>New York Times</i> under the headline, "<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/26/opinion/white-rural-voters.html">The Mystery of White Rage.</a>" His column seems to have been inspired by a new book by Tom Schaller and Paul Waldman, <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/734507/white-rural-rage-by-tom-schaller-and-paul-waldman/">White Rural Rage: The Threat to American Democracy</a>. Here's an excerpt from Krugman's column, which draws heavily from the book: </p><p></p><blockquote><p>Technology is the main driver of rural decline, Schaller and Waldman argue. Indeed, American farms produce <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/fredgraph.png?g=1hjiH">more than five times</a> as much as they did 75 years ago, but the agricultural work force declined by about two-thirds over the same period, thanks to machinery, improved seeds, fertilizers and pesticides. Coal production has been <a href="https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=44155">falling</a> recently, but thanks partly to technologies like mountaintop removal, coal mining as a way of life largely disappeared long ago, with the number of miners <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/fredgraph.png?g=1hosi">falling</a> 80 percent even as production roughly doubled.</p>The decline of small-town manufacturing is a more complicated story, and <a href="https://sccei.fsi.stanford.edu/china-briefs/china-shock-and-its-enduring-effects">imports</a> play a role, but it’s also mainly about technological change that favors metropolitan areas with large numbers of highly educated workers.</blockquote><div style="text-align: center;">* * *</div><blockquote>So why don’t rural workers go where the jobs are? Some have. But some cities have become unaffordable, in part because of restrictive zoning — one thing blue states get wrong — and many workers are reluctant to leave their families and communities.</blockquote><p>Krugman closes the column: </p><p></p><blockquote>But the truth is that while white rural rage is arguably the single greatest threat facing American democracy, I have no good ideas about how to fight it.</blockquote><p>It's an interesting ending in light of his speculation earlier in the column that so many rural folks have lost work and the dignity associated with it. I tend to agree with Krugman on importance of work, <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/06/24/democrats-white-working-class-00041807">as I wrote here</a>. I'd also note that rural folks, like the working class generally, are being deprived of social esteem (term coined and concept defined by Michael Sandel in <i>The Tyranny of Merit)</i> by elites like Krugman. </p><p>One last thought: Krugman has been <a href="https://legalruralism.blogspot.com/search?q=krugman+rural+rage">writing about "rural rage" periodically for a while</a>. With this column, he adds the modifier "white," following a trend on the left and in the academy. Of course, Krugman is quoting the title of the new book, and the inclusion of "white" is a political statement, with consequences among voters who don't understand this relatively recent turn to whiteness and the negativity associated with it. </p><p>Postscript: Here's a review of the Schaller and Waldman book by Jeffrey Bloodworth, published in The Daily Yonder. I like these quotes in particular: </p><blockquote>This is what makes Tom Schaller and Paul Waldman’s new book, <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/734507/white-rural-rage-by-tom-schaller-and-paul-waldman/">White Rural Rage</a> so predictable—and maddening. Rather than listen and understand complicated, three-dimensional rural Americans, they stereotype. Their analysis is an amalgam of our collective ills. Unwilling to reach across the divide, Schaller and Waldman gorge themselves on the negative and nihilistic. Then they regurgitate every rural, red America stereotype imaginable.</blockquote><p>And I like that he clips from the Kirkus Review of the book: </p><blockquote>A view of rural America as a font of white privilege—and of resentment that the privileges aren’t greater.</blockquote><p></p>Lisa R. Pruitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16469550950363542801noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7171420941776673660.post-5266529597936878732024-02-25T22:09:00.000-08:002024-02-26T05:22:19.418-08:00More from The Rural Voter (Jacobs and Shea), this time from Politico Nightly<p><a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/politico-nightly/2024/02/22/they-surveyed-10-000-rural-voters-heres-what-they-learned-00142795?nname=politico-nightly&nid=00000170-c000-da87-af78-e185fa700000&nrid=0000014e-f0ee-dd93-ad7f-f8ef0bf40001&nlid=2670445">Politico Nightly recently featured a short interview </a>with Nicholas Jacobs and Daniel Shea, authors of <u>The Rural Voter</u> (2023). I've earlier blogged about <a href="https://legalruralism.blogspot.com/2024/01/who-is-rural-voter-book-builds-on-old.html">the book</a> here (well, in truth I picked up the Daily Yonder's review of the book). Here's an excerpt from the interview with Politico: </p><b></b><blockquote><b>Question: Donald Trump won large majorities among rural voters in 2016 and 2020. What explains a Manhattan billionaire’s strong appeal in rural America?</b><br /><br />Jacobs: You have to get beyond Trump’s persona. You have to look beyond this idea that Trump is a typical Manhattanite. I think that’s where people try to carve out this disconnection: How could this billionaire living in his Manhattan skyscraper identify with these people? But the truth of the matter is he never pretended to be a rural person. He didn’t go around making a whole to-do about being born in Scranton like Joe Biden or chumming up with coal miners like Hillary Clinton. It made him not authentically rural, but authentic as a non-typical politician. And when he would speak about rural issues, like taking pride in mining coal, it was more empathy than anything. … A politician or a leader like Trump doesn’t necessarily have to pretend to be rural to play into rural identity politics. Just like progressives on the left don’t have to be a certain demographic to speak the language of identity politics.<div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">* * * </div><br /><b>Question: What are some of the implications of your research for the 2024 presidential election?</b><br /><br />Shea: I hope Democrats appreciate the size of the rural voting bloc. This is a group of voters that is more important for the Republican Party than either Black voters or young voters are for the Democratic coalition. This is a big important group, and if the Democrats can’t chip away and make some inroads, it is not good on a national level and it’s going to be very bad at the state-level. … One of the reasons it may be hard for Democrats to go into rural areas is that they’ve come to believe these are bastions of crazy Trumpers. … But what we show in this book is that there are genuine concerns that pre-date Donald Trump by decades. Take the anxiety that all Americans feel about the future, double it, and extend it back extra decades. That’s the story of rural America.</blockquote><p>I have read nearly the entire book at this point and am very much a fan of the work these scholars have done. I expect to be writing more about the book during this election cycle. </p>Lisa R. Pruitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16469550950363542801noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7171420941776673660.post-41070225199349685732024-02-22T03:30:00.000-08:002024-02-23T06:29:13.648-08:00Literary Ruralism (Part XLV): Heather Cox Richardson's Democracy Awakening <p>Here's an excerpt from Heather Cox Richardson's 2023 book <u><a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/717588/democracy-awakening-by-heather-cox-richardson/">Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America</a></u>, about rural and urban power in relation to the founding of the United States and the structures the "founding fathers" put in place: <br /></p><blockquote>States ratified the Bill of Rights on December 15, 1791, and the framework for the United States of America was in place. The principles behind it were democratic—that every citizen should have an equal say in the government and that every citizen would be equal before the law—although its practice was almost exclusively limited to white men. <br /><br />It was a “great experiment,” as first president George Washington called it shortly after he took the oath of office, but it had a crucial flaw: the Framers did not foresee the rise of political parties. They figured that, having thrown off monarchy, Americans would all agree on their form of government. To the degree that they disagreed, Framer James Madison argued in the famous essay “Federalist No. 10,” they would break into small factions and so cancel each other out, much—as the presence of many religious sects in the country ensured that none gained the upper hand over the others. <br /><br />But partisanship appeared almost immediately. Southern leaders opposed Washington’s policies, conceived by Treasury secretary Alexander Hamilton, that strengthened the hand of northern businessmen in the national government. Virginians like Madison and Thomas Jefferson maintained that their opposition to such national power made them the true defenders of the Constitution. <br /><br />Partisanship turned out to be an important innovation. It engaged ordinary voters and provided oversight of lawmakers, but it also weakened the nation’s framework, hampering representation and many of the checks the Framers had built into the system<br /><br />The first thing to go was fair representation. By 1796, political leaders had divided into two camps, and Jefferson saw that he would have won the presidency if only Virginia's electors had all voted as a bloc in the Electoral College rather than splitting their votes between him and John Adams of Massachusetts. Jefferson urged Virginia to adopt a winner-takes-all system that would give all of the state’s electoral votes to whichever candidate got a simple majority. It was a stunning change and one that appalled Madison, who wanted to amend the Constitution to prevent it. He died before he could get such an amendment ratified, and other states quickly followed Virginia, manipulating the new system to give their own top candidates a leg up. Today, only Maine and Nebraska still split their electoral votes, with the result that candidates campaign almost exclusively in states with large electoral vote counts. <br /><br />The Framers also did not foresee—although this, perhaps, they should have—that <b>eventually, politicians desperate to keep their party in power would add new, sparsely populated states to the Union, as the Republican Party did when it brought six new states into the country between 1889 and 1890. </b>They were quite open that their goal<b> </b>was to make sure they controlled the Senate in order to stop legislation they didn’t like, even if the American people wanted it.<br /><br /><b>The Framers also did not foresee the growth of vast cities, possible thanks to modern industry—including steel—and transportation. They could never have imagined the astounding size differences that would develop in the modern era between states like California, which according to the 2020 census has almost forty million people, and Wyoming, which has fewer than six hundred thousand.<br /></b><br /><b>Living in small, largely rural states, the Framers put a lower limit but no upper limit on representation. When the 1920 census revealed that urban Americans outnumbered rural Americans for the first time, the House in 1921 capped its numbers at 438 to keep power away from those urban dwellers, including immigrants, whom lawmakers considered dangerous, thus skewing the Electoral College in favor of rural America. </b>Today, the average congressional district is 761,169 individuals, which both makes representation less effective and reduces the power of states with more people.<br /><br />The government that the Framers designed, hammered out by fifty-five young white men sweltering in Philadelphia in summer 1878 to permit individuals to have an equal say in their government without succumbing to tyranny, was an astonishing feat, but it was not perfect.<br /><br />Fortunately, the Framers recognized that their work would need adjustment. They wrote into the Constitution that future generations could amend it. </blockquote>(pp. 185-186; emphasis mine).<p></p>Lisa R. Pruitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16469550950363542801noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7171420941776673660.post-84848441517724621432024-02-20T20:56:00.000-08:002024-02-23T06:30:23.264-08:00Humboldt County, California judge under fire for ethics violations as election loomsThe headline from<a href="https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/humboldt-county-judge-accused-of-sexual-harassment-and-wide-ranging-ethical/"> <i>The Press Democrat</i> </a>(of Sonoma County, California but covering the north coast up through Humboldt), is "Humboldt County Judge Greg Kreis accused of sexual harassment, drunken bullying, throwing curveball into his reelection bid." Here's an excerpt from the deeply reported story by Andrew Graham and Marisa Endicott: <br /><blockquote>The commission that oversees California’s judiciary has served presiding Humboldt County Superior Court Judge Gregory Kreis a<a href="https://kymkemp.com/2024/02/09/sex-drugs-cronyism-and-lies-judge-kreis-in-the-hot-seat-as-commission-on-judicial-performance-details-alleged-judicial-code-violations/"> 35-page notice </a>charging him with 19 ethical violations including drunken bullying of attorneys, lewd behavior toward women, poor courtroom behavior, cronyism and abuse of power.<br /><br />The <a href="https://cjp.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/40/2024/02/Kreis_NFP_02-02-24.pdf">allegations outlined by the commission</a> on Feb. 2 stretch back years and have thrown his reelection campaign into turmoil just weeks before the March 5 election.<br /><br />In one case, in May 2019, he is accused of using an antisemitic slur against a deputy public defender, insulting his manliness and then pushing him fully clothed off a pontoon boat into Lake Shasta.<br /><br />A 2015 allegation from before he became a judge states that he took two attorneys with him to buy cocaine, then used the drug in the car as he drove back from the purchase.<br /><br />Another accusation alleges he sneaked into a sleeping woman’s bedroom, exposed his genitals and tried to wake her.</blockquote><div><div>Here are <a href="https://legalruralism.blogspot.com/search?q=humboldt">more posts about Humboldt County</a>, which is metropolitan, but sparsely populated. I'm just thinking about the presumably helpful role of this state commission in providing oversight of a sensitive matter like this one. It seems far preferable to local oversight--and, to my mind, is even preferable to letting the voters decide in a couple of weeks. </div></div>Lisa R. Pruitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16469550950363542801noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7171420941776673660.post-53417410358379356042024-02-19T04:00:00.000-08:002024-02-20T16:58:53.031-08:00Billing indigent defendants for provision of constitutionally provided legal counsel<p>Lauren Gill and Weihua Li <a href="https://www.themarshallproject.org/2024/02/12/miranda-rights-indigent-defense-iowa?utm_campaign=opening-statement&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=3542-the-high-cost-of-your-right-to-counsel&utm_source=TMP-Newsletter&utm_campaign=195032db4c-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2024_02_12_12_00&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_5e02cdad9d-195032db4c-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D">reported last week for the Marshall Project</a> under the headline, "If You Can’t Afford an Attorney, One Will Be Appointed. And You May Get a Huge Bill." The subheading is "In Iowa, people too poor to pay for a lawyer are on the hook for big fees they can’t afford. So-called “free” lawyers aren’t free." Here is an excerpt that highlights problems in states other than Iowa: </p><div><blockquote>This summer, the American Bar Association <a href="https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/administrative/legal_aid_indigent_defendants/ls-sclaid-ten-princ-pd-web.pdf">released guidelines</a> recommending that poor people shouldn't have to pay for a lawyer in criminal cases. But in Dothan, Alabama, for example, people charged with Class C and D felonies, which commonly include low-level drug charges, must pay a flat fee of $2,000. In rural Anderson County, in East Texas, <a href="https://tidc.tamu.edu/IDPlan/ViewPlan.aspx?PlanID=264">people are charged $750 to plead out to a third-degree felony</a>. If they choose to go to trial, they must pay $750 a day for legal counsel.</blockquote></div><div>And here are some excerpts about the Iowa system--highlighting differences between rural and urban places, or what sociologists and geographers call spatial inequality. </div><div><blockquote>Iowa legislators recognize they have a constitutional obligation to cover indigent defense, which is paid for by budget appropriations, said state Rep. Brian Lohse, a Republican who chairs the Justice System Appropriations Subcommittee. But the fees are meant to deter repeat offenders, he said. “I think the purpose of that is simply to kind of hold them accountable a little bit,” he said of defendants. “So they just don't see it as a kind of gift.”<br /><br />David Carroll, executive director of the Sixth Amendment Center, an organization focused on indigent defense, disagreed. “The right to counsel is both a foundational American value and a 14th Amendment obligation of states owed to each and every defendant — it is not a ‘gift.’”</blockquote><div style="text-align: center;">* * *</div><blockquote>Out of Iowa’s 99 counties, <a href="https://spd.iowa.gov/about-us/office-locations">just 13 have</a> public defenders, who receive a state salary. Their offices are located in the state’s most populated cities. Iowa requires clients of public defenders to repay the costs of their defense, but these lawyers say that they often do not charge for all the time they work on a case. Public defenders had much higher caseloads than lawyers in rural counties.<br /><br />Residents of the 86 more rural counties mostly rely on private lawyers who contract with the state to perform indigent defense work. Judges can also appoint other lawyers in certain circumstances. Iowans who accept contract lawyers are on the hook for the full amount of their services unless they can convince a judge to reduce the bill by filing a lengthy document within 30 days of sentencing. <a href="https://spd.iowa.gov/main-navigation-page/fee-claim-process">Current rates</a> for contract lawyers are $73-$83 an hour, depending on the seriousness of the charge; paralegal time costs $25 an hour.<br /><br />People who live in counties without a public defender are more likely to be assessed higher attorney’s fees, data shows. For example, in the decade between 2012 and 2022, Iowa charged an average of $391 per case. People in counties with a public defender’s office were billed an average of $312; those in rural areas were billed an average of $506.<br /><br />Black Hawk County Judge Melissa Anderson-Seeber, a former public defender, said that she does not usually assess court debt against people who are incarcerated. When someone is free and working, she said, “I may not make them pay the full amount.” For people who are not employed, she makes them perform community service to pay back their court debt.<br /><br />Another judge in the same county, Joel Dalrymple, has a different approach. A former prosecutor, he said he tends to consider whether people can make payments under a payment plan rather than one lump sum.</blockquote><p>The billing indigent defendants for the cost of their defense is an issue I first became aware of more than a decade ago, <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1599837">when I was writing this</a> about provision of this constitutionally guaranteed service in Arizona. In short, it's not a new issue. Since then, I've seen some coverage of the issue elsewhere, but without the attention to rural difference that is featured here. </p></div>Lisa R. Pruitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16469550950363542801noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7171420941776673660.post-13880557144854144342024-02-14T03:30:00.000-08:002024-02-16T16:55:04.624-08:00Biden's investments in rural America Farah Stockman wrote in the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/02/13/opinion/thepoint#biden-rural-investment"><i>New York Times</i> blog </a>yesterday about the Biden administration's investment in rural America. <blockquote>Frustration in rural America, which has long felt left behind in federal attention and dollars, has been a major driver of right-wing populism. To counter that, the Biden administration has <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/bidens-big-bet-on-place-based-industrial-policy/">bet literally billions</a> on the idea that federal investments can turn those places around. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/15/us/politics/biden-signs-infrastructure-bill.html">The infrastructure act</a>, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/10/technology/us-computer-chips.html">CHIPS and Science Act</a> and the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/05/opinion/climate-inflation-congress.html">Inflation Reduction Act</a> all contained special incentives aimed at improving the economic prospects of rural towns and small cities across the country.<br /><br />It’s too early to tell whether it worked.</blockquote><p>Stockman then notes a recently published <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/strategic-sector-investments-are-poised-to-benefit-distressed-us-counties/">Brookings Institution Report </a>seeking to assess just that--whether these investments are working. In particular, it tracks "$525 billion in private investment in advance technologies like clean energy and semiconductors" and "found that a significant portion has gone into economically depressed places that hadn't seen those types of investments before." Here's a bullet point form the Bookings Institution Report: </p><blockquote>So far, economically distressed counties are receiving a larger-than-proportional share of that investment surge relative to their current share of the economy. With comparatively low prime-age employment rates and median household incomes, these counties account for about 8% of national GDP but have received 16% of announced strategic sector investments since 2021.</blockquote><p>The <i>NYT </i>blog post focuses on Haywood County, Tennessee and Matagorda County, Texas, which are seeing the benefit of these investments. </p>Lisa R. Pruitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16469550950363542801noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7171420941776673660.post-73789398966880409112024-02-08T03:00:00.000-08:002024-02-08T03:00:00.141-08:00Literary Ruralism (XLIV): Merge Left: Fusing Race and Class, Winning Elections and Saving AmericaIn his 2019 book, <a href="https://thenewpress.com/books/merge-left">Merge Left: Fusing Race and Class, Winning Elections, and Saving America</a>, Professor Ian Haney Lopez explores the best messaging to achieve cross-racial coalition building to support progressive causes. Here's the beginning of Chapter 9: The Race-Class Approach:<blockquote> The Right’s core narrative urges voters to fear and resent people of color, to distrust government, and to trust the marketplace. The Left can respond by urging people to join together across racial lines, to distrust greedy elites sowing division, and to demand that government work for everyone. This is, to repeat, a core narrative, not a recommendation regarding precise language. This is the foundational scaffolding the Left can use to build a multiracial movement for racial and economic justice. The first box puts the core narrative into visual form. The next puts flesh on the bones, offering three versions of the race-class message. How did the race-class messages perform compared to dog whistle racial fear? We tested nine versions of the race-class message. Persuadables found all nine race-class messages more convincing than the dog whistle racial fear message. It’s an impressive result for a first run. Recall that familiar messages typically do better simply because they’re familiar. Those in the middle hear racial fear messages every day, and yet even when first exposed to the race-class messages, this group found all of them more convincing.</blockquote><p>And here's the part that specifically references rural folks and their receptivity to the so-called race-class narrative: </p><blockquote>While much more research remains to be done and the race-class messages will certainly evolve, we’re confident the early positive results were not a fluke. Other groups subsequently tested versions of the race-class message and also report strong findings.<b> Rural Organizing</b>, a progressive group focused on rebuilding rural America, surveyed their constituents in 2018. Unsurprisingly, they found rural-specific messages to be very popular. For instance, this message garnered approval from 94 percent of respondents: “The <b>rural</b> and small-town way of life is worth fighting for.” Now compare how the novel race-class arguments did. <b>Rural Organizing</b> also tested this message: “In small towns and rural communities we believe in looking out for each other, whether we’re white, Black or brown, tenth generation or newcomer.” Almost nine out of ten, 89 percent, agreed. And this message: “Instead of delivering for working people, politicians hand kickbacks to their donors who send jobs overseas. Then they turn around and blame new immigrants or people of color, to divide and distract us from the real source of our problems.” Three-quarters of all respondents, 76 percent, agreed.3<br /><br />In the summer of 2018, Latino Decisions polled more than 2,000 registered voters in the 61 most competitive House districts. They tested this statement: “Today, certain politicians and their greedy lobbyists hurt everyone by handing kickbacks to the rich, defunding our schools, and threatening our seniors with cuts to Medicare and Social Security. Then they turn around and point the finger for our hard times at poor families, Black people, and new immigrants. We need to join together with people from all walks of life to fight for our future.”4 More than 85 percent of respondents agreed. <br /><br />These high levels of agreement are heartening, <b>especially coming from rural areas and competitive districts where one might expect a more lukewarm reception</b>. <br /><br />We’ve also seen the race-class approach picked up in campaigns and by politicians across the country.</blockquote>Lisa R. Pruitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16469550950363542801noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7171420941776673660.post-25157591896994331752024-02-07T03:30:00.000-08:002024-02-07T03:30:00.135-08:00Extraordinary story of French farmer behind recent blockade in Southern FranceCatherine Porter reported for the <i>New York Times</i> last week under the headline, "<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/31/world/europe/spark-french-farmer-protests.html?searchResultPosition=1">The Farmers' Protests Have Become a Wildfire. He was the Spark.</a>" The "he" is Jerome Bayle, and this story is largely about the 42-year-old former professional rugby player who has been running his family's farm since his father died by suicide in 2015, at age 61. <div><br /></div><div>The story's lede is catchy, for sure, and presents a real contrast between rural and urban: </div><blockquote>Jérôme Bayle had spent seven nights on a major French highway, leading a group of aggrieved farmers in protest, when the prime minister arrived, dressed in his Parisian blue suit and tie, to thank them for “making France proud” and announced he would meet their demands.<br /><br />Before camera flashes and outstretched microphones, Mr. Bayle told Prime Minister Gabriel Attal that he had seen the standoff as a match between two teams — the revolting farmers, led by Mr. Bayle, and the government, led by Mr. Attal.<br /><br />“I don’t like losing,” said Mr. Bayle, dressed decidedly more casually, with a baseball hat on his head, turned backward. The thick crowd around him chuckled. It was clear his team had won.</blockquote><p>Then there is this bit, which provides a wider-angle perspective: </p><blockquote>More broadly, not just in France but all around Europe, farmers are complaining about rising costs from inflation and the war in Ukraine. Those burdens have been exacerbated as the governments look to save money by shaving farm subsidies, even as the European Union heaps more regulations on farmers to meet climate and other environmental goals.</blockquote><p>You can hear Porter's further commentary on Bayle and his victory on the NYTimes audio of this story. </p><p>Regarding the wider European angle, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/spanish-farmers-blockade-roads-joining-eu-peers-protests-2024-02-06/">here's news yesterday</a> of a Spanish farmer blockade. </p>Lisa R. Pruitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16469550950363542801noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7171420941776673660.post-57413972876690269962024-02-06T03:30:00.000-08:002024-02-07T20:20:10.215-08:00Rural(ish) straight white guy becomes California senate's speaker pro temMackenzie Mays brings us <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-02-05/mike-mcguire-is-everywhere-can-he-harness-his-high-energy-as-californias-new-senate-leader">this feature</a> of Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg) in yesterday's <i>Los Angeles Times</i>. Here's the lede: <blockquote>On a foggy January morning in his hometown nestled in Northern California wine country, state Sen. Mike McGuire was at an elementary school doing a dance called the “wheelbarrow” and explaining insurance policy to children who were more eager to talk about their 4-H pigs.<br /><br />The Sonoma County Democrat then rushed off, driving past rolling green hills and dewy vineyards, to have coffee with firefighters who are banking on him to help a region that has been repeatedly devastated by wildfires and often feels overlooked by state leaders.<br /><br />At the Healdsburg Fire Department, a staffer struggled to get McGuire out the door in time so that he could make it to a Chamber of Commerce event three hours north in Eureka. There, he would partake in a hobby perfectly suited to his sense of urgency and penchant for squeezing as much as he can into the time he has: auctioneering.</blockquote><p style="text-align: center;">* * * </p><blockquote>[I]n some ways, McGuire’s appointment comes as a surprise. He represents a rural district in a powerful position long held by senators from major cities. He is a straight white man helping lead a state that is predominantly Latino amid calls for more diversity in Democratic politics.</blockquote><p>A prior post about McGuire is <a href="https://legalruralism.blogspot.com/2023/08/new-california-state-senate-pro-tem.html">here</a>. Some other posts mentioning him and his vast coastal district are <a href="https://legalruralism.blogspot.com/search?q=mike+mcguire">here</a>. </p><p>Here is an excerpt from <a href="https://calmatters.org/politics/capitol/2024/02/mike-mcguire-senate-leader/">CalMatters coverage</a> of McGuire's ascension to speaker pro tem; it focuses on the rural-urban angle--and how long it's been since someone from the north coast has led the Senate:</p><blockquote>But the optics of McGuire’s ascension are notable: It’s the first time since 1866 that a lawmaker from the north coast leads the Senate, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/california-state-senate-mcguire-pro-tem-rural-81146640eb80e882917e268b4b61f71c">the Associated Press reported</a>. Alongside his Assembly counterpart, Speaker <a href="https://calmatters.org/legislator-tracker/robert-rivas-1980/">Robert Rivas</a> of Hollister, both legislative leaders now hail from more rural, agricultural areas of California — a shift in the epicenter of power. McGuire <a href="https://calmatters.org/newsletters/whatmatters/2023/08/parental-rights-california-2/#wm-story-2">succeeds Toni Atkins</a> of San Diego, while <a href="https://calmatters.org/politics/capitol/2023/06/robert-rivas-assembly-speaker/">Rivas replaced Anthony Rendon</a> of Los Angeles County last summer.</blockquote><p>I find myself skeptical that the balance of power between rural and urban will shift because of the presence of McGuire and Rivas, but we shall see.</p><p>The <a href="https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/holding-his-3-year-old-son-with-one-hand-mcguire-takes-oath-for-powerful-s/?artslide=2"><i>Sonoma Press-Democrat</i> coverage</a> includes a photo of McGuire hugging Pat Sabo, the chair of the Sonoma County Democratic Party--who was also his 8th grade math teacher. Like the coverage I heard on Capital Public Radio, it mentions McGuire's grandmother, on whose prune farm he worked growing up. McGuire was raised by his single mother and his grandmother, and he credits them for his work ethic. </p>Lisa R. Pruitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16469550950363542801noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7171420941776673660.post-73743376456111986692024-02-05T21:41:00.000-08:002024-02-05T22:24:38.887-08:00Racism in rural Vermont: 1890s<p>Vermont Public published a great story a couple of weeks ago regarding the 1890 disappearance of a Black preacher, John Harrison, in Norwich, Vermont and the failure to charge the man who confessed to his murder. It also details a place name with racist origins that may have derived from his presence in the community. You can read (or listen) to the story <a href="https://www.vermontpublic.org/local-news/2024-01-22/john-harrison-norwich-vermont-1890-murder" target="_blank">here</a>. It serves a nice follow up to my previous piece on racism in North Carolina during the same period and a good reminder that racism wasn't the exclusive province of the South. </p><p>This piece touches on a few interesting artifacts of history:</p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>The outmigration of people from rural New England in the 19th century. I've touched on this in previous writings but this article does a great job of illustrating the opportunities created by the holes that are left when people leave. In this story, Mr. Harrison ends up in Norwich to serve as a preacher, a job which had become less coveted because of the declining population. It is unfortunate that racial prejudice prevented him from fully taking advantage of the opportunity. </li><li>The racism that people of color faced outside of the rural South. The heart of the Abolitionist movement was in New England, but that doesn't mean that Black people were welcome in those communities. People wanted them to be free, but free elsewhere. </li><li>The erasure of records, which is a national problem for people of color and historically lower-income people. </li></ol><div>As a student at Dartmouth in Hanover, New Hampshire, I spent four years living across the Connecticut River from Norwich. The Upper Valley (as the area is known locally) is a beautiful community with an interesting history. I'm happy to see my former Sociology of Law professor, Deborah King, quoted in this piece and I am excited to see her research into Dartmouth's role in the transatlantic slave trade. </div><p></p>Christopher D. Chavishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06517238097719620659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7171420941776673660.post-32837809833968648372024-02-05T03:00:00.000-08:002024-02-05T11:31:23.086-08:00Literary Ruralism (Part XLIII): GOP pollster Ruffini's Party of the People <div>In late 2023, GOP pollster Patrick Ruffini published his first book <u><a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Party-of-the-People/Patrick-Ruffini/9781982198626">Party of the People: Inside the Multiracial Populist Coalition Remaking the GOP</a></u>. It's got quite a few references to the rural vote, and I'm going to highlight here some of the ones from Chapter 1, also titled "Party of the People" (emphasis mine). </div><div><br /></div><div>The chapter leads with the assertion that political parties used to come down to class. Increasingly, however, the key axis is between those with a college degree and those without one: </div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p><blockquote>The choice to finish college and to not finish (or event start) is now the choice that says the most about who you are and what you value in life—between self-actualization in a competitive professional field or an honest day’s work mainly as a way to provide for your family; between acquiring knowledge for its own sake or staying close to the people and places you knew growing up.<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><b>Among whites, this basic cultural divide translated to a modest political divide in the 2000 election—when the concept of rural red versus urban blue first came into view—and a big one in the 2016 election, when one candidate intuited a path to power that involved making implicit cultural differences between the parties very, very explicit.</b><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">* * *</div></blockquote><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;"></span></p><blockquote> Since a college diploma translates readily to higher incomes, the new education divide has upended the class divides that defined twentieth-century politics. As a result, the Republican Party now has more people in it who are in the bottom half of the income distribution than it ever has, while it bleeds votes among the wealthiest.<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span></blockquote><p></p></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;"><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> * * * </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;"><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><blockquote>Signs of the class role reversal are also present among Black and Asian American voters, where those in higher-income brackets voted a few points more Democratic than their lower-income counterparts in 2020. The crucial exception to this trend are Hispanics, the group where Donald Trump made his biggest gains in the 2020 election. On the margin, higher-income Hispanics voted 11 points more Republican in 2020 than lower-income Hispanics. In this, they resemble the white voters of the 1970s and ‘80s, a time when there was no appreciable education divide and higher-income members of the group were more likely to support Republicans. </blockquote></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;">* * *</div><blockquote>How did the class role reversal actually happen? Right in the title, Thomas Frank’s What’s the Matter with Kansas? talks about the phenomenon as one might talk about an unwell relative. <b>In 2000, the country saw a hard shift to the right among rural voters, powering Bush victories in a raft of Clinton-voting border states or those on the fringes of the South, from Louisiana all the way up to West Virginia, a coal-mining state once considered the most Democratic in the country. Liberal readers craved answers about how poor, rural Americans could be tricked into voting against their economic self-interest.</b> Frank’s story centers around his home state of Kansas, where Republicans had morphed from the party of the country club into the party of Sunday service—banking the votes of lower-income, deeply religious white voters opposed to abortion and gay marriage. In Frank’s telling of the story, it was the Republican bankers and donors in the wealthy Kansas City suburb of Mission Hills—where Frank Grew up—pulling the strings. “Vote to stop abortion; receive a rollback in capital gains taxes,” Frank riffed. “Vote to make our country strong again; receive deindustrialization…Vote to get government off our backs; receive conglomeration and monopoly everywhere from media to meatpacking…Vote to strike a blow against elitism; receive a social order in which wealth is more concentrated than ever before in our lifetimes.” <b>Mission Hills donors might grumble about the rural riffraff entering the party, but that was a small price to pay for a Republican majority that would deliver on their desired economic agenda.</b></blockquote><div style="text-align: center;"><b style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 48px;">* * * </b></div><blockquote>In Wisconsin, Clinton improved Democratic margins in the Milwaukee area, most prominently in the suburbs, but turnout in Milwaukee proper dropped by more than ten points, which meant fewer votes to hold back the rural red tide for Trump.</blockquote><div><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p><div style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px; text-align: center;"><b style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">* * * </span></b></div><div style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;"><blockquote><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Trump had surged all along the Mexican border with Texas, including a 55-point swing in rural Starr County in the Rio Grande Valley, nearly winning a county that Clinton had captured four years earlier by 60 points.<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">He won next-door Zapata County, the first Republican since 1920 to do so. Votes were slower to report in California, but the surprise election to the House of two Asian American Republicans in Orange County, Michelle Steel and Young Kim, indicated a surprising shift in immigrant-heavy communities that was broad-reaching and not limited to Hispanics. With Trump’s coalition adding more working-class nonwhites and subtracting more college-educated whites, the pro-Republican Electoral College skew became more pronounced.<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></blockquote><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;"><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"></span></span></div><div style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px; text-align: center;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 12pt;">* * * </span></div></span></span><span style="line-height: 17.12px;"><blockquote>It needs to be repeated that Trump lost the 2020 election. Neither his gains in key groups nor his false narratives about a stolen election change this fact. But Trump’s performance was testament to the resiliency of a Republican coalition built around the working-class voter, which in 2020 had grown to include more nonwhite voters. The rise of multiracial working-class conservatism, once on track to merit but a small footnote in the story of a landslide Trump defeat, instead became a crucial reason why the election was so close.</blockquote></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"><div style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;"><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px; text-indent: 0px;"><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space">* * * </span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt;"></span><blockquote><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The challenge for Republicans in 2023 is to show that they can reap the structural benefits of Trump’s realignment of the American electoral without Trump’s chaotic persona at the top of the ticket. Post-Trump elections show this is possible.</span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space" style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><b style="font-size: 12pt;">Glenn Youngkin’s victory in the 2021 race for the Virginia governorship, for example, represented a wide-ranging advance from Trump’s 2020 vote in counties across the state—including a stronger performance than Trump in the state’s rural, working-class southwest.</b><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space" style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Youngkin deftly threaded the needle in 2021, running on a genial business-savvy reminiscent of Mitt Romney, while meeting the populist moment with a campaign against a left-wing, “woke” agenda in the schools and a pledge to suspend the sales tax on groceries.</span></blockquote><span style="font-size: 12pt;"></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt;">This is just a smattering of the book's attention to rural voters and their role in this re-alignment. Indeed, Chapter 9 is entirely about realignment in the largely Latino Rio Grande Valley, which has significant pockets of rural population. </span></div></span></span></div></span></span></div>Lisa R. Pruitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16469550950363542801noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7171420941776673660.post-4375581378655966152024-02-04T11:08:00.000-08:002024-02-04T11:08:30.138-08:00Art Cullen on how Trump came between him and his long-time, small-town friend Cullen is the Pulitzer Prize winning editor of the Storm Lake Times Pilot, and his <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/04/opinion/politics-friends-trump-pandemic.html">column in today's New York Times is titled</a>, "<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/04/opinion/politics-friends-trump-pandemic.html">We were friends for years. Trump tore us apart</a>." Cullen leads with some background on his relationship with a group of men in his home-town, men he's known since Little League and often fished and played pool with. Here's the part where things start to go wrong, amidst politics and the pandemic--and the politics of the pandemic. <br /><blockquote>One of my old friends, or shall I say acquaintances, recently said on Facebook that I lacked integrity after I posted an <a href="https://www.stormlake.com/articles/editorial-a-chilly-wind-blows/">editorial</a> from our newspaper complaining about Mr. Trump’s contempt for the democratic process and rule of law.</blockquote><div><div style="text-align: center;">* * * </div><blockquote>You would think we could see around our differences. We can’t. We’ve been programmed by nonstop propaganda, especially those of us in Iowa besieged by presidential campaigns and the wedge issues they drill home. Instead of trying to hash things out, I just quit trying. My bad. I got tired. <br /><br />Small-town hacks learn who their friends are. We publish uncomfortable facts of public interest and opinions that often go against the grain. Businesses stop advertising because you wrote about their lawsuit. That I get. It’s a hazard of the occupation that I regret every day. You pledge to do better even when you have done nothing wrong.<br /><br />The ad hominem attacks have become the norm, especially since Mr. Trump took center stage and refuses to exit. We went from Iowa Nice to Iowa Nasty. We’re stuck there whether Mr. Trump leaves or hangs around. That’s my lament.</blockquote></div><div style="text-align: center;">* * * </div><div><blockquote>I know where I live. Northwest Iowa is a frozen slice of Texas, one of the most conservative places in the country. I guess I am what you call woke because I don’t think immigrants are the problem; I think income — lack of it — is the problem. All this talk about bathroom bills and book bans is one giant distraction from how global corporations have stolen our franchise. I am not the enemy of the people, dude — we were in Cub Scouts together.</blockquote></div>Lisa R. Pruitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16469550950363542801noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7171420941776673660.post-73385553013005716232024-02-02T13:04:00.000-08:002024-02-02T13:04:40.202-08:00Democracy Lost - Jim Crow Comes to Rural North Carolina<div>What would the fall of American democracy look like? </div><div><br /></div>The Jim Crow South provides us with a blueprint of how democracy can fall in America and the role that the media can play in making that a reality. Telling this story helps us understand the history of rural Southern communities and their relationships with access to justice. <div><div><br /></div><div>Any person of color with ancestral roots in the rural South has ancestors who both lived through the fall of democracy and dealt with the aftermath. It would be difficult to argue that the Southern states were functioning democracies during the era of Jim Crow. After all, it was a single party region where leaders were often chosen by party bosses and where a substantial portion (in some cases more than half) of the population was systemically excluded from the democratic process. My ancestral roots are in North Carolina so I will focus on our experience with the matter, but you can find similar stories across the South. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Post-Reconstruction North Carolina</b></div><div><br /></div><div>North Carolina in the late 19th century was primarily an agrarian society. The largest city, Wilmington, was not even among the 100 largest in the country. It was also a reasonably politically balanced state. While the Democrats monopolized the governor's mansion after the end of Reconstruction in 1877, the Republicans usually put-up strong showings in statewide elections. Republican strength in the state was buoyed by the newly enfranchised Black population and rural whites in the mountainous parts of the state. The Democratic Party was openly the party of "white supremacy." In 1892, the <i>Wilmington Star</i> even referred to white supremacy as the "corner stone of Southern society" in their plea to voters to support the Democrats. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>White Supremacist Rule Is Threatened</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Democratic rule in North Carolina came under threat in the late 1880s, when a national recession helped birth the Farmers Alliance, which later led to the Populist Party in North Carolina. This chain of events presented an opportunity to Republicans, who frequently came close to toppling Democratic governors but needed an extra boost in order to do so. The Populist movement in North Carolina was driven by disgruntled farmers who were unhappy with the economic conditions that threatened their livelihoods. In the 1892 North Carolina's governor race, Democratic candidate Elias Carr won the election with just 48.3% of the vote. For the first time since Reconstruction, the majority of North Carolina voters had voted to reject the Democrats.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Republicans saw opportunity, but the Populists were reluctant. The August 8, 1893 edition of the <i>Progressive Farmer</i> (which was founded by the Farmers Alliance) addressed rumors of a Republican-Populist fusion by saying that such rumors were unfounded, even going so far as to say that a Republican-Democrat fusion was more likely. Contemporary reporting also bears out that some Black leaders in the Republican Party were skeptical of the Populists and worried about their power being diluted. Their fears weren't entirely unfounded, North Carolina was the only Southern state in which the Populists were not working with Democrats. </div><div><br /></div><div>Despite the reluctance of the parties involved, the Republicans and Populists ultimately formed a Fusionist ticket and took control of the General Assembly in 1894. This victory also allowed them to elect one Republican and one Populist to the United States Senate. In 1896, the Fusionist ticket elected Daniel Russell, a Republican, as governor of North Carolina. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>White Supremacists Strike Back</b></div><div><b><br /></b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihpR74tNkCKOdLWIjx43G42APjiBPH_1ATJTyz6_f0VMebNyTO3VKVal2X1hYlp5iOUXfbRDdzKY2dY876xAygIm1K7njv7j2VwJBYszZlA31NQhajAbOuLfDzdU22pQbzkltiS6nlUFhuNajm3n2ggsHHqm2oZgep3OlhEaPT1QnrbQoRhO9AhWvHq5It/s9064/Fayetteville_Observer_Fri__Jan_7__1898_.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="9064" data-original-width="4233" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihpR74tNkCKOdLWIjx43G42APjiBPH_1ATJTyz6_f0VMebNyTO3VKVal2X1hYlp5iOUXfbRDdzKY2dY876xAygIm1K7njv7j2VwJBYszZlA31NQhajAbOuLfDzdU22pQbzkltiS6nlUFhuNajm3n2ggsHHqm2oZgep3OlhEaPT1QnrbQoRhO9AhWvHq5It/s320/Fayetteville_Observer_Fri__Jan_7__1898_.jpg" width="149" /></a></div></div><div>In their coverage of Governor Russell's January 1897 inaugural address, the Raleigh <i>News and Observer</i> wrote that the governor "hates democracy because democracy stands for white supremacy." This was a preview of the tactics that Democrats would use to regain power in 1898. White farmers had aligned with Populists because of economic concerns and the White Supremacists hoped to bring them back to the Democratic Party by using race baiting. </div><div><br /></div><div>In the lead up to the 1898 election, newspapers across North Carolina extolled the virtues of white supremacy and its "essentialness" for democracy. A common tactic was to follow the lead of the <i>News and Observer</i> and equate white supremacy to the preservation of democracy and call it the "natural order." The <i>Fayetteville Observer</i> even ran advertisements (see right) saying that they were the leading advocate for "white reunion against black fusion."</div><div><br /></div><div>This messaging was also prevalent in small town and rural newspapers. In late 1897, my hometown paper, <i>The Robesonian</i> (in Robeson County, North Carolina), which is located in a county with large Indigenous and Black populations, reprinted an article that said that white supremacy "is the child of necessity." In Craven County, the <i>Goldsboro Weekly Argus</i> printed an editorial in which it decried the fact that every deputy sheriff in the county was Black and blamed the Republican-Populist Fusionists. </div><div><br /></div><div>Throughout the year, articles were printed around the state that depicted individual Populists leaving the Fusionist cause over the race issue. In October 1898, the Craven County Populist Party formally renounced Fusionism, threw their support behind white supremacy, and encouraged their fellow Populists to follow suit. The <i>Progressive Farmer</i> held out hope that people would not be persuaded by such arguments. </div><div><br /></div><div>There was also the looming threat of violent voter suppression, especially at the hands of South Carolina's Senator (and former governor) Ben Tillman and his Red Shirts, which prompted Republican Senator Jeter Pritchard to ask President William McKinley to deploy federal troops to the state to ensure that everyone had access to the ballot. His request was denied. </div><div><br /></div><div>As you might expect, the white supremacist Democrats utilized a combination of violent voter suppression in predominantly Black districts and race baiting to whites to win back the General Assembly. </div><div><br /></div><div>Just two days after the election, white supremacists in Wilmington overthrew the city's majority Black government in the only successful coup in American history. The wheels of Jim Crow were in motion. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>And Jim Crow Begins...</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>Upon regaining power, the White Supremacist Democrats sought to keep Black voters from regaining power in the state. At the time, the Governor of North Carolina had no veto power so Governor Russell (who still had two years left in his term) could only sit idly by. To cement themselves into power, the Democrats proposed Constitutional Amendments that would create a poll tax and literacy test. It would require a popular vote in order to pass these Amendments. </div><div><br /></div><div>Democrats deployed many of the same tactics they had used in 1898 to win the passage of these amendments (and the governor's mansion). Tillman and Red Shirts were once again deployed, and the media once again resorted to race baiting. The <i>Semi-Weekly Messenger</i> in Wilmington even attributed the city's recent economic growth to "white supremacy." Not long after this, Wilmington lost its perch as the largest city in the state. </div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY6UA_C8kcepjiVpY434jQNi7XFn__LuGOJ8aIkpxpF58p6olHdb1hvyX1ZslG2YgMZFg3DeGnpmfXdrpJ9C1IYQvGOUikJIRbqAhgmK4wHhlRtlY9nN6JbgWXpgAu0vok7j0SgBION9HYpYBjbHfW68nKqbaQnprOdYj8uM8aiuR63aVye9jl_gODTZgE/s5275/The_Robesonian_Tue__Jun_19__1900_.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3033" data-original-width="5275" height="128" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY6UA_C8kcepjiVpY434jQNi7XFn__LuGOJ8aIkpxpF58p6olHdb1hvyX1ZslG2YgMZFg3DeGnpmfXdrpJ9C1IYQvGOUikJIRbqAhgmK4wHhlRtlY9nN6JbgWXpgAu0vok7j0SgBION9HYpYBjbHfW68nKqbaQnprOdYj8uM8aiuR63aVye9jl_gODTZgE/w223-h128/The_Robesonian_Tue__Jun_19__1900_.jpg" width="223" /></a></div>My local newspaper openly championed white supremacy. In June 1900, a "white supremacy club" (see right for announcement in <i>The Robesonian</i>) was even organized to promote the cause. <br /></div></div><div><br /></div><div>Unsurprisingly, the white supremacists were successful in their endeavor, Jim Crow became enshrined in the North Carolina Constitution, the white supremacists took back the governor's mansion, and democracy fell in North Carolina. </div><div><br /></div><div>North Carolinians of Color in 1900 woke up in a world where they were largely excluded from institutional life and forced to become observers of their state government. </div><div><br /></div><div>Understanding systems of power in the Rural South requires understanding the paradigm that dominated it in the first half of the 20th century. Democracy in North Carolina fell because of voter suppression and media-aided race baiting. These legacies don't die overnight. </div><div><br /></div><div>Communities of color in rural North Carolina are still dealing with the impacts of Jim Crow. In a future post, we'll dive into historic poverty levels in Eastern North Carolina, home to most of North Carolina's rural POC population. </div>Christopher D. Chavishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06517238097719620659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7171420941776673660.post-24794454306119294232024-02-01T08:00:00.000-08:002024-02-03T07:08:33.336-08:00This NYT story about the youth criminal justice system in Maine screams "rural" <p>Callie Ferguson's story in the <i>New York Times,</i> "'<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/01/us/maine-prison-juvenile-justice.html">Shame on Us': How Maine Struggles to Handle Troubled Youth</a>" uses the word "rural" only once, but the facts and circumstances are signaling rural, in particular the struggle to deliver services in rural places. Clearly implicated in the problems are rural deficits in the services necessary to support and rehabilitate youth. Here's a key quote: </p><p></p><blockquote>In Maine’s rural northernmost county, for example, certain intensive services that help steer adolescents from entering the justice system are not offered. The wait-list for another behavioral health program can reach 200 days. Getting in to see a therapist can take a year.</blockquote><p>And here's a big picture comment: </p><p></p><blockquote>“The heartbreak of Maine,” said Lindsay Rosenthal, a criminal justice policy expert, “is that they have done so much on juvenile legal system reform to keep kids out of the system. Yet there just hasn’t been any action on building out the community-based continuum of care recently, or not enough action.”</blockquote><p>This entire story is worth a read, especially for those who care deeply about young people.</p><p></p>Lisa R. Pruitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16469550950363542801noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7171420941776673660.post-10243523167209562102024-01-31T22:18:00.000-08:002024-01-31T22:18:11.844-08:00Rural New York prisons closing, tooLegal Ruralism has featured s<a href="https://legalruralism.blogspot.com/search?q=California+prison">everal posts in recent years about the closure of prisons in rural California and the implications for host communities</a>. Now <a href="https://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/story/49140/20240118/hochul-says-she-could-close-up-to-five-prisons-north-country-politicians-strongly-oppose-that">North Country Public Radio (NPR) is reporting that some prisons in upstate, rural communities in New York state are also closing</a>--and for some of the same reasons: declining rates of incarceration. Here's an except from the story: <br /><blockquote>Earlier this week, Governor Hochul released her proposal for the 2024-2025 budget. In it, she proposed closing up to five state correctional facilities.<br /><br />Local North Country politicians on both sides of the political aisle have expressed dismay and frustration over the proposed closures.<br /><br />Democratic Assemblyman Billy Jones told the<a href="https://www.pressrepublican.com/news/correction-officer-union-upset-about-planned-prison-closures/article_98191e36-b4aa-11ee-88ee-c30009332cd9.html"> Plattsburgh Press-Republican</a> that he was “highly disappointed” by the governor’s decision to close more correctional facilities, and said the closures would not “mitigate the rise in crime or increase safety in prisons.” </blockquote><div style="text-align: center;"> * * *</div><blockquote>Jones also expressed concern about how closures could impact communities in the North Country “who support these correctional facilities and depend on them.” State prisons provide hundreds of good-paying jobs to North Country communities.<br /><br />In his own statement, Republican State Senator Dan Stec echoed similar concerns. “I represent several correctional facilities and the men and women that work there,” said Stec. “Closing them [correctional facilities] would mean a loss of good-paying jobs and have a devastating effect on our community.<br /><br />There are 44 prisons in New York. Eleven of them are in the North Country.<br /><br />That’s a lot fewer than there used to be. Since 2009, the state has closed eight correctional facilities in the region. </blockquote>Lisa R. Pruitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16469550950363542801noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7171420941776673660.post-23429989945363910312024-01-22T12:28:00.000-08:002024-01-22T12:28:05.964-08:00The Relevance of the New Hampshire Primary<p style="background: repeat; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">On Tuesday, voters across New Hampshire will head to the polls to cast their ballot in the first official primary of the 2024 election season. </span></p><p style="background: repeat; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></span></p><p style="background: repeat; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">New Hampshire Democrats are holding their primary in defiance of the Democratic National Committee's decision to move the first primary to South Carolina. For all intents and purposes, the New Hampshire primary will not count for the Democrats, and incumbent President Joe Biden isn't even on the ballot. For reasons we'll discuss later, this isn't entirely the fault of the New Hampshire Democratic Party. </span></p><p style="background: repeat; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></span></p><p style="background: repeat; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">The Republicans are holding a contested primary, with former President Donald Trump seeking to become the first candidate since Grover Cleveland to receive a major party nomination in three consecutive elections and the first President since Cleveland to serve two non-consecutive terms. Trump's most notable challenger is former South Carolina governor and UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, who finished third in the Iowa Caucuses behind Trump and Florida governor Ron DeSantis (who quit the race mere minutes before I started writing this piece). Trump is the odds-on favorite - but Haley is mounting a strong campaign in New Hampshire. A Haley win in New Hampshire is plausible, even if unlikely. </span></p><p style="background: repeat; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></span></p><p style="background: repeat; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><strong style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">....But does any of this matter in 2024? </strong></p><p style="background: repeat; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><strong style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></strong></p><p style="background: repeat; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">The "First in the Nation" New Hampshire primary has long been a staple of the nominating process. For decades, candidates, their campaigns, and the media have decamped to New Hampshire for months on end, campaigning for the hearts and minds of voters across the Granite State. New Hampshire is a small state, both in population and geography. Candidates have historically taken advantage of this by holding smaller events, even going to people's homes to personally appeal to voters and their neighbors. It is not uncommon to see candidates marching in small-town parades.</span></p><p style="background: repeat; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></span></p><p style="background: repeat; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">And voters have historically rewarded this personal outreach. New Hampshire has revived previously thought-dead campaigns and placed candidates on the path to their party's nomination. Any follower of New Hampshire primary lore is familiar with Jimmy Carter's 1976 primary victory, which was powered by Carter (and his campaign volunteers from Georgia), who vigorously went to every corner of the state. There's also John McCain's victory in 2008 and Bill Clinton's stronger-than-expected performance in the 1992 primary (who earned Clinton the moniker "The Comeback Kid"). There are other examples of candidates over-performing in New Hampshire against establishment candidates, even if they failed to win the nomination (McCain and Bill Bradley in 2000 and Pat Buchanan in 1992 are two examples that come to mind immediately). </span></p><p style="background: repeat; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></span></p><p style="background: repeat; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">The First in the Nation primary is so embedded within New Hampshire's political culture that its very existence is codified in state law. </span><a class="editor-rtfLink" href="#" style="background: repeat; color: #4a6ee0; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;" target="_blank"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">New Hampshire state law</span></a><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> provides that, "[t]he presidential primary election shall be held on the second Tuesday in March or on </span><strong style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">a date selected by the secretary of state which is 7 days or more immediately preceding the date on which any other state shall hold a similar election, whichever is earlier, of each year when a president of the United States is to be elected or the year previous."</strong><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> Given the existing state law, New Hampshire Democrats had no choice but to defy the DNC and hold their primary as scheduled. </span></p><p style="background: repeat; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></span></p><p style="background: repeat; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">For those of us who care about rural issues, the New Hampshire primary holds a special significance. New Hampshire has a higher-than-average percentage of its population living in rural areas and is bordered by two of the four states with a majority rural population (Vermont and Maine). These facts have positioned the New Hampshire primary as a suitable venue for candidates to learn more about issues that uniquely impact rural spaces, which is important for candidates who may represent or govern predominantly urban constituencies. </span></p><p style="background: repeat; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></span></p><p style="background: repeat; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><strong style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">The Emergence of Trump </strong></p><p style="background: repeat; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><strong style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></strong></p><p style="background: repeat; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">However, the emergence of Donald Trump has challenged many of our assumptions about the New Hampshire primary. He won the 2016 primary despite engaging in a negligible amount of retail politics. He held large rallies, not house parties. He didn't march in small-town parades, and he did not go to people's homes. He didn't hold town halls, didn't take questions from voters, or open himself up to the traditional vetting process that New Hampshire has long prided itself on having. </span></p><p style="background: repeat; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></span></p><p style="background: repeat; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">While John Kasich's strong second place (by far his best performance in 2016) indicated that </span><em style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">some</em><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> voters still rewarded personal outreach and engagement, Trump's victory challenged many conventional assumptions about how to be successful in New Hampshire.</span></p><p style="background: repeat; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></span></p><p style="background: repeat; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">The emergence of social media and the increased access to voters that it provided played a huge role in Trump's victory and the upending of the New Hampshire primary's "norms." Through social media, Trump and his surrogates could reach voters like never before. With social media, you do not have to be physically present in someone's home. You could visit them "digitally" by sending a tweet, and your surrogates could use Facebook groups and pages to speak to voters directly. Trump did not have to march in a small town parade because he commanded the attention of those in the virtual town square. Through social media, Trump could reach out to voters from New Hampshire to California with the click of a button. </span></p><p style="background: repeat; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></span></p><p style="background: repeat; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Trump also benefited from the nationalization of politics. One of the advantages of the New Hampshire primary has long been the fact that it isn't dominated by one media market. New Hampshire's communities are divided into the media markets in Burlington, Vermont, Portland, Maine, and Boston, Massachusetts. With only television news outlet historically serving the state (WMUR-TV in Manchester), there were few opportunities to utilize media in any kind of macro way. This placed an onus on candidates to do personal outreach and utilize local print media. However, print media circulation in New Hampshire has been </span><a class="editor-rtfLink" href="#" style="background: repeat; color: #4a6ee0; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;" target="_blank"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">declining</span></a><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> and people are increasingly turning to national news sources, a process that social media has facilitated. This fact has created a de-emphasis on local issues and an increased importance on national issues, which benefits a candidate like Trump. </span></p><p style="background: repeat; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></span></p><p style="background: repeat; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Donald Trump proved that you could win a New Hampshire primary without doing anything that it was thought you needed to do to win. That is a seismic shift. </span></p><p style="background: repeat; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></span></p><p style="background: repeat; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">If candidates can win in New Hampshire without engaging on local issues, is it still relevant for teaching candidates about rural issues? </span></p><p style="background: repeat; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></span></p><p style="background: repeat; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><strong style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">The New Hampshire Primary's Influence</strong></p><p style="background: repeat; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><strong style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></strong></p><p style="background: repeat; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">The other side is whether or not the New Hampshire primary is even still influential for voters in other states. Now-President Joe Biden finished 5th and garnered only 8.4% of the vote in 2020. That kind of performance would have killed a campaign in previous cycles. But yet, Biden managed to win the Democratic nomination. The New Hampshire primary also failed to lift the campaign of second place finisher Pete Buttigieg or expand the base of winner Bernie Sanders. After Biden's win in South Carolina, it was almost as if the New Hampshire primary never </span><em style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">even</em><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> happened. </span></p><p style="background: repeat; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></span></p><p style="background: repeat; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Even in 2016, you could argue that John Kasich should have gotten a bigger boost from his second place finish. In 1992, Pat Buchanan parlayed his strong showing in New Hampshire into strong showings in other states. John McCain followed up his second place showing in 2000 with a strong second place in South Carolina and wins in other states. Kasich failed to receive any boost from his performance in New Hampshire. </span></p><p style="background: repeat; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></span></p><p style="background: repeat; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">The question for Tuesday is whether or not a strong showing for Nikki Haley will even matter. Recent history indicates that it may not. </span></p><p style="background: repeat; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></span></p><p style="background: repeat; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><strong style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">So....does it matter?</strong></p><p style="background: repeat; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><strong style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></strong></p><p style="background: repeat; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">The New Hampshire primary is certainly less relevant than it has been in decades past. Candidates can now bypass the traditional means of reaching voters and rely on nationalized outlets such as social media to "personally" reach out to voters. The impact of this is two-fold. Candidates no longer rely on the increased media coverage from a strong showing in New Hampshire to carry them forward in other states, and candidates can win in New Hampshire without pursuing traditional retail politics. They can also win in New Hampshire without engaging on local issues, missing an opportunity to learn more about issues that rural voters face. These facts have fundamentally reshaped the New Hampshire primary and I would argue that the primary's relevance has significantly declined as a result. </span></p><p style="background: repeat; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></span></p><p style="background: repeat; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">All of that said, there is still a place for New Hampshire as the First in the Nation primary. Just last year, I wrote a piece in </span><a class="editor-rtfLink" href="#" style="background: repeat; color: #4a6ee0; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;" target="_blank"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">The Daily Yonder</span></a><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> in which I called for the pairing of New Hampshire and South Carolina at the top of the calendar. The two states represent stark contrasts in the rural experience. South Carolina has more racial diversity and its agricultural past has been dominated by large scale agriculture. They also have deeper and more persistent poverty; thirteen of South Carolina's forty six counties are </span><a class="editor-rtfLink" href="#" style="background: repeat; color: #4a6ee0; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;" target="_blank"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">persistent poverty counties</span></a><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">. New Hampshire has no persistent poverty counties and small-scale, subsistence farming dominate its agricultural past. Both states have similar population densities, though New Hampshire has a larger share of its population living in rural spaces. </span></p><p style="background: repeat; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></span></p><p style="background: repeat; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background: repeat; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Candidates can still benefit from the exposure to rural concerns, even if the electoral importance of the First in the Nation primary has declined.</span></p>Christopher D. Chavishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06517238097719620659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7171420941776673660.post-81780258599236710432024-01-21T13:21:00.000-08:002024-01-21T13:21:00.354-08:00Chris Chavis Returns to Legal Ruralism<div>For the first time in four years, I am back on Legal Ruralism! It is a tremendous honor to be able to return to my former blogging home and contribute to the collective knowledge of rural access to justice and continue advocating for solutions.</div><div><br /></div><div>Where I have been for the last four years? </div><div><br /></div><div>In December 2019, I was fortunate enough to land at the National Indian Health Board in Washington, DC where I was able to directly advocate for access to health care for rural Tribal populations. My specialty was Medicaid policy, which exposed me to politics in a variety of states. One of my first projects was advocating against Medicaid work requirements, which given their impact on rural populations was a dream come true. As we all know, March 2020 changed everyone's world and I was thrown head first into the world of health policy during a once in a century global pandemic. I conducted policy research and led advocacy efforts to preserve and expand access to health care for rural Tribal populations (who were hardest hit by the pandemic). I started out as a Policy Analyst and left in the Summer of 2022 as the Policy Director. This experience was transformative.</div><div><br /></div><div>I left NIHB so my wife and I could move to her hometown of Los Angeles to start our family. Our daughter was born in October! In December 2022, my wife and I began working on what has become <a href="http://www.chavispolicygroup.com" target="_blank">Chavis Policy Group</a> - where we provide BIPOC and rural serving non-profits with policy research, advocacy, and campaign planning support. We also provide policy research and education on matters that impact rural and BIPOC populations, including the historical underpinnings of many of the systemic inequities that we see manifested daily in our communities. My return to Legal Ruralism is part of the latter initiative. </div><div><br /></div><div>I grew up in rural Tribal community in southeastern North Carolina and spent five years in Washington, DC. During my time in DC, one of the consistent themes that I saw was a lack of representation of impoverished rural and BIPOC interests in policy discussions. Chavis Policy Group seeks to change that. It makes no sense for the vast majority of the small nonprofits that serve rural and BIPOC populations to employ a policy staff, but it does make sense for them to be engaged in the policy process. </div><div><br /></div><div>I am looking forward to being active in this space again and going back to contributing (what I hope is) top-notch policy research and commentary. </div>Christopher D. Chavishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06517238097719620659noreply@blogger.com0