We’ve been told a lie about rural America

There’s a story Republicans tell about the politics of rural America, one aimed at both rural people and the rest of us. It goes like this: 'Those coastal urban elitist Democrats look down their noses at you, but the GOP has got your back. They hate you; we love you. They ignore you; we’re working for you. Whatever you do, don’t even think about voting for a Democrat.' That story pervades our discussion of the rural-urban divide in US politics. But it’s fundamentally false. The reality is complex. Let’s talk about just one area that has been of particular interest to Democrats, and to rural people themselves: high-speed internet access, a problem that’s addressed by hundreds of millions of dollars in funding coming from the Biden administration. The problem is straightforward: The less dense an area is, the harder it is for private companies to make a profit providing internet service. Laying a mile of fiber-optic cable to reach a hundred apartment buildings is a lot more efficient than laying a mile of cable to reach one family farm. So you need the government to fill the gaps. That’s because the lack of high-speed service makes it harder to start and sustain many kinds of businesses, and have schools access the information students need. The Biden administration has now rolled out $759 million in new grants and loans for building rural broadband. This money comes from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, but the other big spending bills President Biden signed, the American Rescue Plan Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, also had a wealth of money and programs specifically targeted to rural areas. And, of course, when that federal money provided by Democrats over the objection of Republicans comes to red states, Republican officials rush to take credit for it. So if nothing else, we ought to give Democrats credit for working to improve the lives of rural Americans. Even if the people who benefit probably won’t.