President Biden gave $90 billion to red America. The thank-you went to spam.

Poor infrastructure, small number of customers, bottom of the list: That is the story of rural broadband in the United States. The situation is much more than an annoyance for the 7 million U.S. households that still do not have access to broadband internet — 90 percent of them in rural areas. Many times that number are “underserved,” with speeds below 100 mbps, or have high-speed broadband infrastructure but can’t afford service. For these tens of millions of rural residents without a tether to the Information Age, telemedicine, distance learning, telework and e-commerce are all but impossible. The Biden administration has launched the most ambitious federal program for rural areas since rural electrification. Programs are funneling $90 billion into high-speed internet over 10 years, with the goal of having universal broadband (defined as 100 mbps download speed and 20 mbps upload) by 2030. President Biden probably won’t be getting much thanks from the rural beneficiaries of his programs; nearly three-quarters of those in rural precincts voted for Donald Trump in 2020. Some Republican lawmakers condemned these bills as “socialism” and even applied the label “traitor” to those who supported the infrastructure bill. But the massive rural infusion makes good on Biden’s promise to be “a president for everybody.”