The book “White Rural Rage:  The Threat to American Democracy”  by Tom Schaller and  Paul Waldman brings together a huge amount of information to discuss rural areas, their problems, and potential solutions as well as the current political situation which contributes to these problems and presents a threat to American democracy.   I think that may be the longest and most complicated sentence I’ve written lately, so let me explain.

First, why just talk about Rural Whites.  About 25% of rural residents are non-white.  So in rural areas the whites pretty much control the majority of votes.  And white voters are the one expressing rage at the government because they feel disempowered.

However they have more power than any minority group.  They are a large minority but still a minority.  The authors call them the “essential minority” since they are often in control.   This is because of the original design of our government which was never changed.  The Constitution gives each state 2 Senators.

In my  review of Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point I put it like this:

This  leads to situation where California with 39 million residents and Wyoming with less than 600 thousand residents are equally represented in the Senate. To make matters worse the Senate has a filibuster rule where a minority of 41 of 100 Senators can block a bill. So the minority of Senators, often representing a very small percentage of the population can defeat a bill favored by a majority of Senators and a much larger majority of citizens.

The Electoral College is another problematic institution. In recent years, it has often resulted in the candidate with fewer votes of the citizens winning the Presidency by winning the most electors.

Rural regions have many problems and these are discussed at length in “White Rural Rage”.  However failure to address them seems to be the fault of Republicans who keep getting re-elected by stoking rage rather that attempting to fix the problems. In many cases Republicans chose to act to benefit big-money benefactors at the expanse of rural residents. It I=is feared that this Rage could lead to another insurrection as happened on January 6, 2021 or worse.

The authors have several suggestions to improve the response of politicians to rural needs.   My favorite is to elect better Republicans.  Or make Republicans and Democrats compete for votes.  Rural residents deserve much better.

I thank NetGalley and Random House for allowing me read this before publication.   The book is scheduled to go on  sale  February 27