In response to something in What 'electability' question? Trump loses to both Biden AND Warren.
Specifically this part, which seems to be driving a lot of what’s considered political wisdom around here.
...So we can focus on who best inspires us, rather than worry about who is best able to, supposedly, win back the white rural voters we don’t need to win. “
And that is the part that’s completely, blindingly stupid. We may not win rural white voters in truly rural areas but in 2016, we lost non-rural white voters in historically Democratic areas, and not only due to lower turnout for Clinton and higher turnout for Trump overall:
But [in Michigan] at a county-by-county level, some of the counties with large, Democratic-leaning population centers -- including Wayne, Genesee and Saginaw counties -- showed large decreases in turnout compared to 2012. By contrast, many rural counties throughout the state showed modest or significant increases in voter turnout that by and large benefited Trump.
Wayne (Detroit), Genesse (Flint), and Saginaw (Saginaw) counties contain urbanized areas. Genessee and Saginaw demographics are pretty much in line with other mixed urban/suburban/rural areas in the state.
But given that in my own home county of Macomb — population 840,978, you can look up the other demographics, but it’s probably more urban/suburban than rural — overall turnout in 2016 actually higher by about 16,500 voters than in 2012. It’s just that the turnout wasn’t for Clinton; Obama/Romney went 52/47 while Clinton/Trump went 42/53. That shift represents a lot of (mostly white) natural-Democratic-constituency-working-class voters in just one county. Enough to flip Michigan.
Similarly, in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania — home of Scranton — Obama/Romney went 63/36 while Clinton/Trump went 50/46. Given that turnout was relatively flat — roughly 2000 more voters in 2016 than 2012 — that’s about 10,000 fewer votes for Clinton and approximately 14,500 more votes for Trump.
So, yes, there’s a case for not blowing off ‘white rural voters’ — whether it’s not visiting those cities and areas because you think they are either lost causes or safe votes and there’s no need for a candidate to pitch themselves and their policies to those constituencies — because when you do that, you’re also blowing off non-rural white voters, whose personal situations (as measured by income, poverty rate, opportunity) align with their less-urban counterparts, live in the same areas where Democrats have won, and maybe even watch Fox News on occasion.
*Now, none of this is saying that we should be shying away from discussing issues that affect women and communities of color and possible solutions; we need to be able to chew gum and walk at the same time. But to repeat the mistake Clinton made in 2016 by essentially blowing off working class white people is to allow the possibility for history to repeat itself in 2020.