Bipartisan Policy Center

• Although there is no uniform definition of “rural,” and even federal agencies cannot agree on a single standard, roughly 20% of Americans live in rural communities, according to the Census Bureau’s definition.
• The unfortunate fact is that polls suggest many rural white people’s commitment to the American political system is eroding.
• Even when they are not members of militant organizations, rural white people, as a group, now pose four interconnected threats to the fate of the United States’ pluralist, constitutional democracy.
• Although these do not apply to all rural white people, nor exclusively to them in general, when compared with other Americans, rural white people:

Let’s examine a few data points.

Xenophobia

• That’s a lower proportion than urban and suburban dwellers and even nonwhite rural residents.
• In addition, Cornell researchers found that rural whites reported feeling less comfortable with gay and lesbian people than urban whites do.

Conspiracism

• Polls in 2020 and 2021 indicated that QAnon supporters are 1.5 times more likely to live in rural areas than urban ones, and 49% of rural residents – 10 points higher than the national average – believe a “deep state” undermines Trump.
• Rural residents are also more likely than urban and suburban residents to believe the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, according to 2021 polling by the Public Religion Research Institute.

Antidemocratic beliefs

• In addition, more than half of rural residents surveyed by the Public Religion Research Institute said being a Christian is important to “being truly American” – 10 percentage points more than in surburban or urban areas.
• This is one of several signals that rural residents are disproportionately likely to support white Christian nationalism, an ideology that reaches beyond Christian ideas of faith and morality and into government.

Justification of violence

• And 27% of Americans who say Trump should be returned to office even if “by force” are rural residents.
• Those are minority views, but both proportions are significantly higher than the rural proportion of the overall population.

Thomas F. Schaller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• GREENCASTLE, Ind., Jan. 9, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The DePauw University Board of Trustees has voted unanimously to extend President Lori S. White's contract through June 30, 2028.
• "The Board of Trustees has the highest confidence in President White, who has demonstrated exemplary leadership since she joined DePauw," said Douglas I. Smith, DePauw board chair.
• President White joined DePauw from Washington University in St. Louis, where she was vice chancellor for student affairs.
• Before joining Washington University in 2015, she was vice president for student affairs and clinical professor of education at Southern Methodist University; associate vice president for student affairs at the University of Southern California; associate vice president for student affairs and dean of students at San Diego State University; and assistant vice provost for undergraduate education and director of undergraduate advising at Stanford University.

• All signs are pointing to a federal shutdown on Oct. 1, the first day of the new fiscal year.
• What do both national and local reporters need to know about what happens next?
• Join Shai Akabas, executive director of the economic policy program at the Bipartisan Policy Center, to learn answers to these questions.
• Registration is open for a National Press Club Journalism Institute webinar on Friday, Sept. 29, at 12 pm ET.

• The ad features the competitors coming together to call on Congress to reauthorize the Small Business Administration (SBA) and suggests that both kickers and small businesses are under-appreciated, yet essential, for success.
• “Supporting small business is something we should be able to agree on, Republicans and Democrats, Longhorns and Crimson Tide fans,” said Kristen Heaney Clark, Founder of Yard Bar in Austin, TX and member of Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Voices.
• According to a 2023 survey by Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Voices, 70% of small business owners gave the federal government a C-grade or below for the effectiveness of programs, services, and tax credits available to small businesses.
• Earlier this year, Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Voices and the Bipartisan Policy Center released a policy report with recommendations to modernize the SBA for the small businesses of today.