Why are rural people conservatives?

Post Reply New Topic

Yes I am sure you can cherry pick examples of farmers needing financial assistance (I can do the same here in Australia) but the bulk of them own land and have equity so are more cashed up than the average person.

BTW the financial aid these farmers seek is because in the 1980s/90s banks offered loans for many of them to expand and they got greedy so when the GFC hit they were unable to pay back their loans so tried to offset their debts against the taxpayers (us).

No other small business can get away with what farmers get away with....they get tax write-offs for flood, fire and bank loans . Worst case they sell off take their millions and buy property.

I'm not cherry picking anything. I just know Farm Aid presently exists, which indicates farmers in general are not wealthy.

But what you're saying lends to the dichotomy I've seen of on one hand stereotyping conservatives as indigent hicks, while simultaneously stereotyping them as wealthy fatcats.

But this doesn't really have much to do with my original statement that; Rural people, as in those who work farms and ranches, are self reliant hard working individuals, so they're likely to have conservative views.

I am capable of seeing them as all three. To live off the land you need to work hard (I am not disputing that) but it doesn't exclude you being a "indigent hick" or a "wealthy fatcat" hiring out cheap labour to keep your profits up.

One thing I have noticed that is that there are a lot more liberal people in Universities, and friends of mine who use to be more conservative, went to University and came out more liberal in the end.

But why is that though? Are conservative people just against education and university, and just prefer blue collar work more so? But if so, why?

I grew up mostly in rural areas, and I turned into a socialist. I guess perhaps growing up with my undiagnosed autism I learned rugged individualism doesn't work for everyone and it leaves you at quite a disadvantage if it doesn't work for you, in the sort of society conservatives seem to want.

Seems a lot of conservatives work for the sake of work, and think everyone else should be happy to do the same. Longer over-time hours seems a treat to some of them, I guess time off is for babies or something.

You said that they became more "liberal" (I assume Left) after going to university. Rather than assuming only that conservative people are against education, you conclusion is that people become more Left as they become more educated, thus the more Left opinion is general more educated, and thus conservatives don't like education because it is the more Left opinion.

I don't like using the word "liberal as a catchall because it can refer to social liberalism and economic liberalism, where social liberalism is what Americans generally refer to, but economic liberalism is generally a conservative position, which you could even connect to the conservative preference of blue collar work. Blue collar work can require a lot of physical effort, which fits an economic liberal position that one could be more successful by just working harder.

Well I didn't use the word left because I am Canadian and we just use the word liberal more so hear, but I didn't think that education and liberalism have anything to do with each other. For example, if you go to university to become a doctor, what does being a doctor have to do with liberalism. Nothing, I don't think?

So how are education and liberalism, or leftism related, when you are training to do a job, that has nothing do with politics?

When you get higher education in general, you are going to learn a whole lot of things that would question what might be initial thoughts that might have had you go "that sounds about right". Conservative opinions are generally based on these sort of ideas of things sounding about right before you have research that actually looks at things. Even a doctor that studies will probably learn about being skeptical of how things appear from initial appearances while the importance of good evidence. Looking at this pandemic, you are more likely to see people on the right not believe in the science and will say it is a hoax and even they have no plans of taking a vaccine.

It is a sad fact conservatives have to be anti-science and fact, leaving the educated onion as "liberal".

Oh okay, but I didn't think that whether covid was a hoax or not, had anything to do with political views. Is it a conservative thing not to believe in illnesses or something of that sort, or to be anti-science?

Pay attention to the world. What side of politics is more likely to think covid is a hoax? What side of politics are people who protest it more likely to be? I should be able to just point at Trump.

Conservativism has been fighting against science in favour of the bible for ages. And they have always preached that they know better than the experts.

Yeah I guess, I am just not around people that are so backwards that they do not believe in diseases, even if it's a newer one. So when you say conversatives think it's a hoax, is it paranoia that causes that perhaps?

As someone from a rural area they tend to me more conservative because, conservatives tend to be more blue collar and working class friendly. They reach out to farmers, construction workers, miners, mechanics, truck drivers, small business owners etc. I didn't support Trump but I could relate to his ideas more than Obamas or Hilary Clinton as a farmer and small business worker. Trump actually talked to small business owners about what could be done to repair their businesses. Conservatives are more likely to be free thinker voters.
After the 2008 recession lots of Republicans flipped their ticket for Obama in 2008 his appeal being the opposition party wasn't going to cause the recession.
Joe Biden won on the idea he wasn't a Left wing radical and one of his priorities was to work with both parties to solve issues and not have another COVID 19.

How can ANYBODY take Trump seriously now?

He's not rallying the country. All he's doing is claiming he "won the election by a lot." He's acting like a moron.

Oh okay. I'm surprised people voted for Biden for that reason, as it seems that republicans and democrats were at each other's throats more than ever in the election, so I didn't think the majority was not interested in coming together to solve issues.

I feel people voted for Biden BECAUSE he is less "liberal," less "progressive" than many present-day Democrats.

There's absolutely no way Bernie Sanders could have won the Presidency, in my estimation. He would be a great candidate in a European country, though.

By the same token, I believe most people voted for Trump because he was the Republican candidate. It's not because, in many cases, there was any love for Trump personally.