The Democratic Party’s left wing and centrist establishment are doing plenty of finger-pointing over which group was primarily responsible for the party’s losses this year.
But one thing should be glaringly obvious to the Democrats in their post-election analysis: They must do a better job of addressing the needs of the working class, including in rural America.
As President-elect Joe Biden’s team prepares to enter the White House and with a new session of Congress coming up, here are some areas where the Democrats should concentrate their efforts to better serve rural communities.
• Improving health care. More than 175 rural hospitals have closed in the past 15 years, with most of those closures happening since 2010. And of the nearly 100 that have shut down in the past 10 years, about one-third were critical access facilities.
That’s stranded many rural residents dozens upon dozens of miles away from the nearest medical center, many well over 100 miles removed. Nevada has not been immune, as Tonopah’s hospital closed in 2015. And the health care situation on Native American reservations is even more severe than the general rural health care crisis and must be addressed as well.
Democrats should lead the way in supporting the array of existing federal programs that foster support for existing medical facilities, and should be on the forefront of innovative policies to establish new ones. Improved telehealth should also be a priority.
The Affordable Care Act has helped millions of Americans in both rural and urban settings get medical coverage. But now, Democrats need to be just as bold in re-establishing convenient access to health care in remote locations, and in enhancing incentives for health care providers to live and work in those areas.
Today, there are many counties with no ICU beds — at a time when COVID-19 is ravaging communities. In three counties in Nevada, there are zero certified physicians. That’s unacceptable. Leaders on both sides of the aisle must rectify the situation.
The need for better access applies to mental health as well: There’s a growing gap between suicide rates in rural and urban areas that urgently needs to be addressed.
And needless to say, Democratic leaders must work to protect the ACA, repair the damage it incurred under the Trump administration, and expand coverage.
• Focus on the economic needs of small farms and small communities, which Democrats have not been consistent about. In an excellent column for Politico, a rural Democratic Party leader in Wisconsin urged leaders to break the stranglehold of multinational agribusiness corporations on the farm economy. He said that when the Obama administration presided over the Kraft-Heinz and JBS-Cargill mergers, the county’s residents saw it as a betrayal of Obama’s election promises.
“I have spoken with supporters of (President Donald Trump) who were well aware of his shortcomings or admitted to disliking his leadership style, but who nonetheless believed he was willing to stand up to ‘elitist’ Democrats and fight for citizens like them,” wrote the columnist, Bill Hogseth. “For years, rural people have heard they are voting ‘against their own self-interest’ when they elect Republicans, or that they vote the ‘wrong way’ because they are uneducated. These are arrogant and damaging messages that are not easily forgotten. The reality, as I saw in my conversations with voters this year, is that many rural people have lost trust in the Democratic Party.”
Democrats should provide a check on corporations devouring rural America while also using tax policy to support small or midsize farms that earn a living on agriculture. Investments in infrastructure and green energy in rural areas are also a must, as is undoing Trump’s disruptive tariffs.
Where Biden will go with trade policy isn’t entirely clear. He recently told The New York Times he wouldn’t immediately dial back Trump’s tariffs on China but would develop a “coherent strategy” with Asian and European trade partners. But whatever the administration does, a key consideration must be returning stability to the ag economy.
Meanwhile, Democrats should wholeheartedly support Biden’s plans for infrastructure improvements, job creation and development of renewable energy, all of which have a focus on improving rural communities.
• Expanding broadband access. Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto has set a good example for Democrats on this issue, as a prominent advocate for expanding access in rural areas. Many rural residents face a significant deficit in this realm, leaving them behind in education, telehealth, business development and other areas where good access is critical.
• Reducing the income gap. The Republican Party’s 2016 tax cuts proved unpopular among voters of nearly all stripes, and helped lead to significant gains by the Democrats in the 2018 mid-terms. Although a course correction likely hinges on the outcome of the Senate runoffs in Georgia, Democrats must level the playing field by, among other things, delivering an increase in the federal minimum wage and new rules on corporate governance to deter companies from using profits to buy back stock — which is funneling $800 billion a year in corporate profits to further enrich the ultrawealthy instead of being invested in the companies’ workforces, research and development, financial reserves, etc.
• Bolstering Native American communities. Not all tribal members live in rural communities, of course, but many do. The Democrats must work to address shameful deficiencies in federal government resources for education, infrastructure, health care, and other areas on Native American lands while also addressing forms of systematic racism such as voter suppression and inequities in the justice system in those communities.
Again, these are only some of the areas where the Democratic Party needs to focus as part of an all-out effort to help members of the working class regardless of where they live. But the needs of rural communities must be a leading part of the equation.