SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
rural new deal
This Progressive Democrat Could Help Improve Millions of Lives — and American Democracy
Jamie McLeod-Skinner is trailblazing the effort to forge a new path for the Democratic Party, with detailed plans to address the concerns of the many rural and small-town constituents in her district and far beyond.
May 17, 2024
Tuesday’s Democratic Party primary in Oregon’s vast 5th congressional district just might hold the key to defeating MAGA Republicanism and renewing American democracy.
Sounds like hyperbole, but it’s not. If one of the two top contenders in the race, Jamie McLeod-Skinner, wins next Tuesday and in November, she will transform the Democratic Party for the better – and, by doing so, alter the 50/50 balance that defines American politics.
The reason for this is simple, the Democratic Party has all-but-abandoned small town and rural America. This is evident to anyone paying attention, but it is still a somewhat absurd state of affairs. After all, on balance, things have not been going well across small town and rural America for many decades. So, you’d think that the more progressive of the two major partes would be responsive to the needs of so many people and communities in distress, but that simply hasn’t been the case. Rather, small town and rural America is effectively ruled by one party: the GOP.
The Democratic Party has all-but-abandoned small town and rural America. This is evident to anyone paying attention, but it is still a somewhat absurd state of affairs.
This is doubly confounding since things, on balance, have been going so badly for so long. For rural and small-town Americans, the past four decades have been defined by: the hallowing out of thousands of small towns, the precipitous decline in social services, widespread poverty, epidemics of drug addiction; and about as much free-floating anger and despair about the wholesale implosion of family farming from the 1970s onward that it matches the ire of the residents of industrial towns whose factories were offshored. When things are that bad, you’d think the party out of power would have a huge opportunity to suggest a different path. But nope, the “mainstream” of the Democratic Party seem content to continue writing off the vast majority of the country’s geography.
That is, until now. Jamie McLeod-Skinner is trailblazing the effort to forge a new path for the Democratic Party, with detailed plans to address the concerns of the many rural and small-town constituents in her district.
As it turns out, there are compelling proposals that address the myriad problems facing small towns and rural America. Yet there is no current Member of Congress or high-profile candidate elsewhere in the country who champions such ideas more than Jamie McLeod-Skinner.
Just a couple of weeks ago, Katrina Vanden Heuvel, publisher of The Nation magazine, one of the linchpins of American left-liberalism (and the progressive wing of the Democratic Party), wrote an article highlighting a recently published proposal designed to lift up the economies of small town and rural America, called The Rural New Deal. This detailed document speaks to the crises impacting tens of millions of Americans, and their root causes – and proposes a set of solutions, all of them readily achievable, drawn from listening to the concerns of actual small town and rural Americans.
Jamie McLeod-Skinner was a prominent consultant on the drafting of the Rural New Deal. I know because I helped draft the document.
The Nation summarizes the Rural New Deal’s transformational potential this way: by “championing bold solutions… Democrats could inaugurate a progressive renaissance in places that have been misconstrued as irretrievably lost—and bolster enthusiasm among core voters:
Imagine networks of family-owned farms, powered by solar panels, plowed by workers earning a livable wage, all organized around iconic small-town courthouse squares. Imagine students at the local school taking vocational courses to pursue a trade—future carpenters, mechanics, and electricians getting free training that they can supplement with online research via universally available high-speed broadband.
This is what life could look like after a Rural New Deal… (which) consists of 10 pillars of fearless but practical policy proposals.
If Jamie enters congress in January, she will find a broad base of support for the Rural New Deal; but currently, there is no Democrat in Congress as well suited to lead the effort than McLeod-Skinner.
In other words, right now, Jamie McLeod-Skinner is the key. This is not surprising. If you read Jamie’s campaign website, you’ll see that she’s the right person to carry this forward. Her entire career reflects a deep commitment to the hard-working people of small town and rural America, in the best tradition of American progressivism.
So, as you see, simply electing this one member of the U.S. House of Representatives could dramatically alter the entire Democratic Party’s approach to small town and rural America.
Detractors will counter by saying, there are many reasons why small town and rural Americans votes overwhelmingly Republican. But, at the end of the day, no reason is greater than the mere fact that the Democratic Party doesn’t compete there; and the mainstream of the party seems to have no impulse to even try.
Of course, there are other reasons, most notably what are usually referred to as “cultural issues.” These are real. But it is absolutely contemptuous of the people of rural and small-town America to hide behind cultural differences and effectively say there’s no point in addressing their economic hardships and proposing an agenda for revival and prosperity that matches the scope of the problems.
Let’s be real: Compared to what they’re doing now, the Democratic Party will attract support if it addresses the crises of small town and rural America in the manner of the Rural New deal and Jamie’s platform proposals – thereby reversing the ever-downward performance of the party across the American outback.
This would spark a compound victory of the highest significance: 1) it would generate hope that tangible improvements for the long-suffering communities of small town and rural America are possible and; 2) even a 5% shift in voting to the Democrats across small towns and rural America would swing the national balance in their favor—which would, in turn, almost certainly engender the demise of the MAGA GOP’s offensive against our democracy.
So, Democrats in Oregon’s 5tdistrict, please cast your primary ballot for Jamie McLeod-Skinner.
A victory for Jamie on Tuesday will pressure the Democratic Party to return to working for all Americans, thereby helping tens of millions of our fellow citizens and residents across this vast land, and, by doing so, preserve our democratic republic.
That’s of, by, and for the people, exactly what we always need in America.Keep ReadingShow Less
Progressive Groups Unveil 'Rural New Deal' to 'Reverse Decades of Economic Decline'
"Addressing the problems and concerns of rural America, isn't just the right thing to do, it is essential for the health of our nation," said the head of Progressive Democrats of America.
Sep 13, 2023
"A Rural New Deal is urgently needed to build and rebuild local economies across rural America, reverse 40 years of wealth and corporate concentration, restore degraded lands, reclaim land and ownership opportunities for those whose land was taken by force or deceit, and ensure that communities and the nation can and do meet the basic needs of its people."
That's the opening line of a report released Tuesday by Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) and the Rural Urban Bridge Initiative (RUBI), which recognizes that "for too long, we've neglected, dismissed and underinvested" in rural U.S. communities, and offers "a broad policy blueprint to help steer progressive priorities" in such regions.
"Addressing the problems and concerns of rural America, isn't just the right thing to do, it is essential for the health of our nation. Progressives have ignored rural for too long," said PDA executive director Alan Minsky in a statement. "The Rural New Deal will change that."
"Rebuilding and renewing supportive social and economic connections across rural and urban lines, empowering rural people and communities, moving away from extractive relationships of the past, is the course we must chart together."
The report provides principles to guide development and implementation of a Rural New Deal (RND), asserting that all policies must be worker-focused as well as "flexible, adaptable, and locally driven to the greatest degree possible," and should "encourage and invest in innovative, effective solutions."
The principles section stresses that "farmers and business people, nonprofit innovators, union and worker advocates, and community and political leaders must be part of the design of specific initiatives for their communities—rather than simply being recipients or implementors of top-down programs."
The section also highlights goals that should be woven into the 10 "pillars" of a Rural New Deal: reversing corporate concentration; focusing on real and durable wealth; addressing generations of racially based discrimination; restoring degraded landscapes to their full productive and ecological potential; and investing in the organizational infrastructure and local leaders that sustain rural programs.
The RND pillars—which each include up to eight recommendations for primarily federal action—are:
- Rebuild farm, forest, and food economies;
- Reward work and ensure livable wages;
- Dismantle monopolies, empower and support local business;
- Invest in community and regional infrastructure;
- Rebuild small town centers;
- Cultivate self-reliance and resilience;
- Invest in rural healthcare;
- Fully fund rural schools;
- Make rural and small town housing affordable; and
- Re-localize rural and small town banks.
Policy proposals include supporting regenerative farm, forest, and fishery businesses; adopting a federal jobs guarantee with a living wage and essential benefits; making broadband access universal; expanding Medicaid and Medicare access; incentivizing installation of solar technology on buildings and non-prime farmland, over parking lots, and in vacant spaces; and enacting reforms to rein in private equity's "unbridled power," such as eliminating the carried interest tax loophole.
"At the heart of a RND is the recognition that rural places are fundamentally different from urban and suburban areas, not only culturally and politically, but physically. They are 'rural' because they are expansive and land-based," the report emphasizes. "This does not mean that all efforts to rebuild rural economies and communities should revolve around farming or other land-based sectors. However, it does mean that land-based (also including rivers, lakes, and oceans) enterprises must still play a central role in rural development, even as internet access, virtual work, and the tech sector grow in importance."
While different, rural and urban communities are "deeply intertwined," with rural businesses often relying on urban markets and capital. Thus, the document adds, "rebuilding and renewing supportive social and economic connections across rural and urban lines, empowering rural people and communities, moving away from extractive relationships of the past, is the course we must chart together."
The RND report comes as a potential government shutdown looms and as far-right members of the U.S. House of Representatives open an impeachment inquiry into Democratic President Joe Biden, despite a lack of any proof of wrongdoing.
The politically divided Congress has passed few pieces of legislation this year, and the nation only narrowly avoided a catastrophic U.S. default because Biden struck a controversial deal with GOP economic hostage-takers to temporarily suspend the U.S. debt ceiling. As Common Dreams reported during that fight in May, Fix Our House released an analysis arguing that "Congress lacks the incentive structure necessary to responsibly handle crucial tasks like raising the debt limit."
While "gerrymandering is a huge problem," polarization is also an issue, as "rural voters are increasingly trending more to the right, and urban voters more to the left," the Fix Our House report says. Members of Congress elected in uncompetitive districts fear primaries, so they focus on their voting base and refrain from working with "the enemy."
RUBI director Anthony Flaccavento said Tuesday that "the extreme political divide in our country robs rural communities of the resources and opportunities they need, while making it nearly impossible to address the biggest problems we face as a nation."
"The Rural New Deal will help break that stalemate," he suggested, "because it is both comprehensive and bottom-up in its approach, focusing on strategies that we know from experience will work."
In a Newsweek op-ed, Flaccavento noted that "some will argue that we can't afford the investments proposed in the Rural New Deal, or that the federal government should not be 'picking winners' by supporting small businesses, clean energy providers, or family farmers. We don't buy it. The United States currently has 756 billionaires with an estimated collective net worth of $4.5 trillion. If we include U.S. millionaires, this tiny slice of our population holds over $190 trillion of wealth."
"The federal government has been picking winners for decades, and most of them are among that group," he declared. "It's long past due for our elected representatives to level the playing field between the rich and the rest of us and to support the long-term resilience that investment in rural people and places will help bring about."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular