OFI 213: Reflections Of The Simple Folk From The Countryside | My Response To The Characterization Of Rural And Agricultural People As Unsophisticated And Easily Manipulated

As I sit down to write this we are 2 days removed from the 2016 presidential election.  The dust is still settling and there is stunned reaction from Democrats and Hillary Clinton supporters.  I probably should be smart enough not to read a lot of what is being written on social media in response to Donald Trump being elected president.  And I definitely should be smart enough not to engage.  Apparently, I am neither.  Actually, it is my job to comment on these things as they pertain to us in agriculture.

I have been seeing a recurring theme on social media and now as I research it, in print, that compels me to speak out.  The people writing and saying this are, or have been for some time, baffled by support for Donald Trump.  Now they are absolutely astonished that he is our nation’s president-elect.

It is obvious that their paradigm of America and American politics has been completely destroyed, and they are left looking at a wisp of smoke that was once their political identity.

The theme that is bothering me so much and is compelling me to engage is this thought that Trump’s support comes from rural people who are not smart enough to know better.  Basically the scapegoats for this detestable outcome in a presidential election are rural people who are too simple and “slow-witted” to know better.  If only these country folk were more sophisticated than the outcome of this election would have come out correctly.

I am neither a politician nor a political writer.  So, this article is not about where the Democrats went wrong or where the Republicans went right.  Although, I cannot resist going there just a little bit.  Rather, this article is about this condescending view of rural Americans, people involved in agriculture and those who choose to live their lives differently than “sophisticated” city people as unintelligent and easily manipulated.  Before you say I have mistaken how rural people are being characterized you must read the posts and articles so you can get the context.  It think you will agree at that point.

This characterization of rural people first appeared in a comment of the wife of a friend of mine.  I read it, and I probably should not have.  She stated that she cried after realizing the outcome of the election, not because Hillary Clinton lost, but because of what the “simple folk from the rural and suburban areas thought they had elected.”  I am not showing you the whole post because this was written by an individual having an emotional reaction to the election, and it was only intended for the people she chose to share things with.

However, this reference to the “simple folk from the rural and suburban areas” really bothered me.  There are three things about this that I really don’t like:

• The characterization of rural people as being unintelligent or less sophisticated because of their choice of lifestyle.
• The implication that people in rural environments are easily manipulated and cannot exercise critical thinking skills.
• The further polarization of our country that statements like this cause.

One day after reading this I saw an article that a relative of mine who was an adamant Hillary Clinton supporter posted.  The article was published in Cracked Magazine, and it was titled “How Half Of America Lost It’s F**king Mind” – literally they did not put the full expletive in the title.  The third sentence of this article starts making the argument about the “simple folk from the countryside.”

The author of this article is a Hillary supporter who now lives in the city but is from rural Illinois.  He describes a really narrow segment of rural populations, and he has a very jaded view of rural living.  To his credit, he is defending the segment he is describing.  But while doing this he is still falling into the trap of describing rural people as unsophisticated.  He basically describes us as people who just react to a stimulus, like a horse kicking when you walk behind it.

After seeing the article from Cracked I went to look for more.  I then found an article from the New York Times published in August of 2016.  This was published in an opinion section of the paper, and it was titled “What Do The Simple Folk Do?”  Ultimately, this came across as a defense of rural people and dispelled the idea that we are not aware of “sophisticated” issues due to some form of social isolation.  While this article did not contribute to this stereotype it definitely demonstrated that it exists.

Next in line in my internet voyage was as article in the The Economist titled “Normalising narcissism”.  Here is a direct quote from the August of 2016 article:

Back when the people behind Reagan were strategizing about how to put their man in the White House, someone realized that targeting simple folk was a winning ploy. This is because simple folk are easier to capture (all they want is a few simple ideas they can grasp; it doesn’t matter if the ideas make no sense in the real world) and once captured they tend to stay captured (because absorbing new information and changing your mind accordingly is difficult and effort-intensive and largely beyond their capacity).

While all of these characterizations of rural people offended me, they were also a painful reminder that I had done the same thing once in my life.  I have spoke about my step-father a number of times on my podcast or in interviews when discussing how I came to be involved in agriculture.  Here is a story I have never told.

To begin, my step-father would definitely be considered “simple country folk” by all involved in what I have been reading.  He grew up in Oklahoma and then moved to the Central Valley of California with his family to escape the Dust Bowl and Great Depression.  Everything his family owned and was important enough to take was packed on a truck.  The rest was sold or left.

Mom, Dad and daughter rode in the cab of the truck.  My step-father and his brother rode on a mattress that was strapped to the top of the tall load for three days if I remember it correctly.  They were able to buy a piece of land to farm on in the Central Valley, and they were always working.  Milking cows in the mornings and evenings.  Picking fruit for neighboring farms during the day if they were not in school.

When my mother started dating Chuck and it was getting serious she wanted me to meet him.  Chuck is a quiet person and was not the type of step-dad that was going to force a relationship on me just because he was dating my mother.  So, my mom had him over for dinner one night when I was home so we could meet and get to know each other.

There was not a lot of conversation between us, and Chuck looked blue collar and simple.  He worked for a utility company as a lineman/troubleshooter.  He was in the “trades” and both my mother and father had an expectation that I would go to college.

After Chuck left that night my mom asked me what I thought of him.  I remember replying that he was nice enough but I did not think he was smart enough for her.  That kind of ended the conversation, and I went on about my business.

A few days later my mom sat me down to talk about Chuck again.  It was obvious she was serious about him, and she wanted to defend him from what I had said.  She laid out a lot of reasons why he was a very intelligent person.  I was 13 or 14, and I just kind of shrugged, said “okay” and went outside to play.

Chuck has been a part of my life ever since then and still is today even though my mom passed away 14 years ago.  Over the years with him I came to realize just how little I actually know, and how smart he really was.  This was not demonstrated with titles, degrees, fancy cars or big houses.  But learning about his investing strategies, his purchases of loans and investment properties and having actual conversations with him showed me different.

By the way, Chuck is a person who has never taken from society.  But he pays his taxes right on time, every year and has worked his whole life.  He is a contributor.

My ignorant attitude back then, and what I have been reading about the ignorant attitudes of city people towards “simple folk from the countryside” is was compelled me to write this post.  There is a lot of sophistication in the rural areas of our country.  It is just displayed in different ways, and if you have never been exposed to it you probably do not know how to recognize it.

My wife Autumm grew up in Buhl, a town in Southern Idaho very near Twin Falls.  She has a friend named Ron from high school who went to work in a diesel repair shop right there in Buhl, right after high school.  College was not his path.

After working there for a number of years the owner, who we also know, decided to retire.  He started looking for a buyer as neither of his sons wanted to follow that path.  Ron had worked there for probably 12-15 years at that point.  He bought the business.

Today Ron is likely one of the most successful (financially speaking) people in Buhl as a business owner.  We got to sit down with him last spring and catch up.  I asked him how business was going, and his reply was that it allows him to play in the stock market.  Ron is very active in Buhl, coaching and donating to youth sports.  His life is simple, but the man is not.

If you listen to my podcast, you know that I am not only a podcaster but a fan of other people’s podcasts.  One podcast that I have shared with my listeners since the beginning is “Farm and Ranch Country”.  The host is Bill Graf.

Bill is a farmer from Central Illinois and a huge Trump supporter.  He is the epitome of what people are referring to as “simple folk from the countryside.”  There are times when I listen to Bill discuss agriculture, markets and government policy and I cannot keep up.  He is extremely sophisticated and intelligent, but has chosen a different life than the people in cities who classify him as a rube because he supported Trump.

Ever since I learned my first lesson about underestimating blue collar and agricultural people with my step-father I have appreciated the talent and intelligence of rural people.  The mistake that seems to get made by people in the city is placing too high of a value on formal education.  I say this as a person who has a master’s degree and has taught as an adjunct professor at a four year university and community college since 2007.

The ability to obtain degrees, to be well read and to be up to date on current geo political issues demonstrates a talent, but it does not demonstrate sophistication.  This could not have been demonstrated any better than during the Occupy Wall Street protests that took place a few years back.  I remember watching interviews with the self-identified “99%ers” as they literally cried because they had gone into debt to obtain a degree with no market value and could not find a high paying job right out of college.

The “99%ers” had talent, the ability to obtain a degree, but lacked sophistication or the ability to organize their talent with other needed skills to obtain success.  Skills like marketing, networking and paying their dues to reach the jobs they felt entitled to right after graduation.  What they were lacking was the complete package.

So often in business, public service, sports and politics the person with the most talent is not the person who finds the most success.  It is the person who combines that talent with leadership, good people skills and a little luck that sees the success.

What you see in rural communities are people are well rounded and who have the complete package.  The difference is that they live their lives simply.  What I mean by simply is that their focus is on solving the problem at hand.  Their focus tends to be where it needs to be.  But when an issue like a presidential election comes about nobody should doubt their sophistication and just believe they have been led by a masterful manipulator.

The same critical thinking and problem solving skills that go into their everyday decision making goes into who they support for president or any other political office.  To ignore this is to severely underestimate and marginalize a significant portion of our population and to further the polarization that already exists in our country.

Links To Articles:

How Half Of American Lost Its F**king Mind

Normalising Narcissim

What Do The Simple Folk Do?

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