About half of Americans live in the suburbs, which is how I would describe my Upstate neighborhood. And I’ll tell you, it felt like a slide into luxury when we came in from 15 miles further east about two decades back. We made the move partly because there weren’t any babysitters out in the hills, nor a store nearby to pick up a quart of milk. And I was tired of chopping through seven cords of wood each winter to heat our place. Maybe the breaking point, though, came on the night we called an ambulance and waited 25 minutes for a couple to show up in a Chevette with an oxygen tank under the hatch.
All that is to say that I’m pretty familiar with the challenges that go along with making your home in rural America — that is, the share of the United States that comprises 97 percent of our land mass but that is home to only 19 percent of the population.
There are benefits to country living that many people cherish: freedom from urban congestion and light, for starters, and fresh air. But a lot of the folks who found their way Upstate during the pandemic are finding that rural life has its drawbacks.
One of those disadvantages is a lack of political power — because most of the people elected to represent rural America aren’t helping fix what ails their constituents.
A couple of years back, AARP New York issued a report that labeled life for people over age 50 in rural areas a “crisis.” It’s not unique to my state, by a long shot, but it’s acute here: Among older New Yorkers, rural residents are sicker and more disabled than their counterparts in cities and the suburbs, and they don’t have equal access to such services as hospitals, telehealth and reliable broadband. Nor are things getting any better: Limited economic opportunities are prompting younger residents to abandon the countryside to find work elsewhere. That’s dividing families by generation, and it’s leaving rural areas older and sicker.
A couple of stunning details from that AARP study: Rural residents are more likely than city dwellers to die prematurely from all five leading causes of death. And diabetes is 17 percent more prevalent in rural areas than in cities. There are half as many hospitals for critical care for rural New Yorkers as there are for residents of New York City, and the number of doctors available to rural residents is shrinking — even as access to telehealth in rural communities is more limited than it is elsewhere.
You would think that this would present an opportunity for smart politicians to respond to such obvious needs. Yet rural America has become increasingly uncompetitive in politics. The share of rural voters who say they would even consider voting for a Democratic candidate is shrinking.
Problem is, rural voters aren’t numerous enough on their own to influence policy much, regardless of which party is in power. And if they’re not swing voters, neither party needs to court them energetically to win national elections. That leaves rural communities all but powerless nationally.
But what’s really killing rural Americans, research reveals, is the same thing that ails America generally over the past four decades. As the rich have gotten richer since 1980, working class wages — affecting most of the people in rural areas — have stagnated. That has left ordinary citizens without the resources to support their families and maintain their health. So to help rural America, we need to improve housing, get a bigger share of tax revenue from the rich and control medical care prices; we need to lower the cost of education and energy. In short, we need to pass laws to rectify America’s inequality.
This sounds a lot like an agenda that a progressive Democrat might push. It’s not what Republicans are talking about in this election year – which makes you think that rural America’s political problem is really a communication problem. After all, you might imagine that hiking wages, cutting healthcare costs and improving housing would appeal to people in all parts of the country.
So the same issues that confront rural areas are key to urban improvement. The opportunity to address those issues is in the hands of the Congress, and it ought to be seized by the representatives of the suburbs and cities, for they will at the same time be helping their constituents and the rural communities so in need.
America was founded, after all, as a rural nation. Thomas Jefferson predicted that our government would remain, in his words, “virtuous… as long as there shall be vacant lands in any part of America.” The land is still there, and its residents are desperate for our help. For a virtuous future, indeed, we need to support rural America, by supporting all Americans.
Rex Smith, the co-host of The Media Project on WAMC, is the former editor of the Times Union of Albany and The Record in Troy. His weekly digital report, The Upstate American, is published by Substack.
The views expressed by commentators are solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this station or its management.