Liberals Sneer at Rural Idaho but Need You to Survive

I took a drive Saturday morning because my mind needed a rest.  I decided to meander around parts of southern and eastern Twin Falls County.  At one point, I ended up in downtown Murtaugh, or what’s left of the place.  There are some developments going up not far away, but Murtaugh proper has clearly seen better days.  As has much of the country.  Murtaugh isn’t unique.  A couple of weeks ago, I watched a YouTube series on Middle America.

The host drives through small towns between Appalachia and the Cascades and documents what he sees through his camera.  There are a lot of similar towns and they stretch from West Virginia to the Cascades.  From the Dakotas to Texas.

American liberals, if not oblivious to the plight, like to say you should move if times are bad where you live.

When I was in college some big city friends came home with me one weekend and thought they were in Mayberry.  They were shocked when we kept driving by houses and I would say that’s where a cousin lived.  I was including the distant as well as immediate.  What people who live in cities and suburbs don’t have is the social network extended family delivers.  People who look out for each other.  They’re telling people to pack up and leave a home that’s ancestral.  Going back five or even a dozen generations.

Never mind that the center of the country was hollowed out by elites who suggested you could salvage your future by “learning code”.

I came across a story from a sneering lefty over the weekend.  You can see it by clicking here.  Do these people ever drive by a public works garage and know that they depend on the people who work there?  Do they know who grows their arugula?  Can they fix the engine in a lawn mower (I learned that skill in a high school shop class)?  What would happen if America’s working class didn’t show up for three days?

For all the condescension from the people who brag about their advanced basket weaving degrees, they would be SOL in the event of a general strike.

Murtaugh has an advantage a lot of similar towns lack.  The downtown will eventually get a new life if housing development and Idaho’s population growth keep rolling along.  But I fear many of the newcomers believe they’re somehow doing everyone else a favor.  They said as much as they shipped tens of millions of jobs overseas.

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