Friday, August 5, 2022

One more piece (for now) on the Kansas abortion vote, this one on how it defies rural and red-state stereotypes

Author Sarah Smarsh published in the New York Times a few days ago an essay titled, "Why the Defense of Abortion in Kansas is so Powerful."  She's a Kansan and the author of Heartland:  On Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth.   Here are the excerpts most salient to rural folks and the stereotypes about them:  
Despite red-and-blue maps suggesting that the political fault line of our era runs between urban and rural areas, much of the countryside joined cities like Wichita and Kansas City in voting down the amendment. Fourteen Kansas counties that went for Mr. Trump in the 2020 presidential election, as well as all five that went for Joe Biden, saw majority votes against the amendment. Even in counties where most voted yes, sizable numbers voted no.

* * *
One dismal aspect of our political climate is the ease with which many liberals and progressives dismiss and disdain whole states and regions — as though every Kentucky flood victim voted for Mitch McConnell, as though ideology should be a litmus test for assistance amid acute suffering, as though such places are undeserving charity cases rather than rural landscapes from which resources are extracted to make possible the lives of urban dwellers who sit in judgment.  (emphasis mine) 

Prior posts on the Kansas abortion vote are here and here.   

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