About the book
White rural voters hold the greatest electoral sway of any demographic group in the United States, yet rural communities suffer from poor healthcare access, failing infrastructure, and severe manufacturing and farming job losses. Rural voters believe our nation has betrayed them, and to some degree, they’re right. In White Rural Rage, Tom Schaller and Paul Waldman explore why rural Whites have failed to reap the benefits from their outsize political power and why, as a result, they are the most likely group to abandon democratic norms and traditions. Their rage—stoked daily by Republican politicians and the conservative media—now poses an existential threat to the United States.
Schaller and Waldman show how vulnerable U.S. democracy has become to rural Whites who, despite legitimate grievances, are increasingly inclined to hold racist and xenophobic beliefs, to believe in conspiracy theories, to accept violence as a legitimate course of political action, and to exhibit antidemocratic tendencies. Rural White Americans’ attitude might best be described as “I love my country, but not our country,” Schaller and Waldman argue. This phenomenon is the patriot paradox of rural America: The citizens who take such pride in their patriotism are also the least likely to defend core American principles. And by stoking rural Whites’ anger rather than addressing the hard problems they face, conservative politicians and talking heads create a feedback loop of resentments that are undermining American democracy.
Schaller and Waldman provocatively critique both the structures that permit rural Whites’ disproportionate influence over American governance and the prospects for creating a pluralist, inclusive democracy that delivers policy solutions that benefit rural communities. They conclude with a political reimagining that offers a better future for both rural people and the rest of America.
About the authors
Tom Schaller is a professor of political science at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. A former columnist for The Baltimore Sun, he has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times. He is the author or co-author of four other books, including Common Enemies, The Stronghold, and Whistling Past Dixie.
Paul Waldman is a journalist and author or co-author of five books on media and politics, including The Press Effect and Being Right Is Not Enough. A former columnist for The Washington Post, The Week, and The American Prospect, he is currently an MSNBC columnist, writes The Cross Section newsletter, and co-hosts the Boundary Issues podcast.
News coverage and media appearances
Response to our critics in The New Republic, April 11
Delving in with Stuart Kelter, September 23
Review in Boston Review, September 5
The Great Battlefield podcast, May 1
Refuse Fascism podcast, April 28
Politics in Question podcast, April 26
Who What Why podcast, April 12
Article in Forward Kentucky, April 10
Article on The Conversation, April 4
New Republic podcast with Michael Tomasky, April 11
Article on The Hartmann Report, April 8
Lincoln Project podcast with Reed Galen, March 28
The Bulwark podcast with Tim Miller, March 22
I Hate Politics podcast, March 22
Interview on Rural Voices USA, March 19
The New Abnormal podcast, March 15
Interview in Semafor, March 15
Review in The Washington Post, March 7
Nicole Sandler podcast, March 6
Interview in Mother Jones, March 5
Review in The Daily Beast, March 1
Excerpt in The Washington Monthly, February 28
The Roundtable, WAMC radio, February 28
Paul Krugman column, New York Times, February 26
Morning Joe (MSNBC), February 26
Background Briefing with Ian Masters, February 25
The Chuck Todcast, February 23
The Breakdown with Tara Setmayer and Rick Wilson, February 22
Baltimore Sun op-ed, February 15
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Representation by Will Lippincott, Aevitas Creative Management