Read on Twitter
I live in one of those “rural areas where #DefundThePolice hurt us.” I can tell you that the people who show up to vote Democrat in rural America are fully aware of the defund movement and my 80 yo neighbor still asked me for yardsigns. He’s got access to Facebook, Fox News, OAN.
Secondly, rural is different in every state. In Missouri and every other state in the nation, rural should not be used as a substitution for white. We have sizable immigrant and refugee populations in rural Mo, and 26% of the population of Pemiscot co. in the Bootheel is Black.
We can counter racist narratives in rural Mo. These tactics have always been used to divide and control poor white people to prevent class solidarity. Are poor white folx affected by white supremacy the same way? oh hell no. That’s the whole point. That’s a feature, not a bug.
Do we need to do persuasion? Yes, but it’s the work of persuading my other neighbors to support these movements. Rural police are militarized & often lack crisis intervention training. The drug war has shattered rural lives too. Not the same, but the issue can be brought home.
No knock warrants and civil asset forfeiture are violations of our constitutional rights everywhere. If you think the people in my neighborhood are comfortable with the police being armed and empowered to be able to lay siege to their homes, you are wrong.
Ending cash bail is something rural Missourians want to talk about too. Every single rural Missourian I’ve spoken to about #closetheworkhouse supported closing it down. People here support COVID early release. Don’t completely count rural Missouri out of having a heart and a mind
We need to show up in rural Mo, but we do not need to let others down to do it. We do not need to chase the mythical persuadable Trump supporter the way some are discussing. We can care about foreign ownership of farm land AND the school to prison pipeline.
Lastly, do not blame rural America for not showing up. Many of those states, specifically the southern states with large Black populations, are so highly gerrymandered & have so much voter suppression going on you wouldn’t believe it. It’s insulting to voters and organizers.
