We love living in our rural communities and very rarely do we envy those folks who choose to find their way into claustrophobic urban areas, disconnected from the land and more apt to spend hours a staring at license plates in bumper-to-bumper traffic than to enjoy the American landscape.
And as more people make the shift toward city living, some news pundits have noted that that will create an imbalance in representation in the U.S. Senate, where the states with largely rural populations will have equal voice in that governmental branch as do higher-density states. That foreshadowing is the source of a tweet by MSNBC’s Joy Reid, the host of “AM Joy.” In it, she lashed out at the rural minority as “the core threat to our democracy.”
This is the core threat to our democracy. The rural minority — the people @JYSexton just wrote a long thread about — have and will continue to have disproportionate power over the urban majority. https://t.co/fzBHaZ9kzR
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) November 26, 2017
Yes, you read that right: “This is the core threat to our democracy. The rural minority — the people @JYSexton just wrote a long thread about — have and will continue to have disproportionate power over the urban majority.”
It’s probably no surprise in a political environment that has been particularly divisive and antagonistic over the past decade that this would be someone’s viewpoint. If you live in a rural area, you’ve probably felt some of this disdain before on the national level. But don’t be ashamed of the values and perspectives you hold. The melting pot of all ideas are what make this country great, and the fact that the Founding Fathers created a Senate structure guaranteeing that each state would have equal representation in the chamber was an intentional effort not to let power pool in our urban sectors.
AGDAILY columnist Amanda Zaluckyj explains it well in her column, “Respect, don’t revile, rural American voters,” which she wrote immediately after the last presidential election.
