Authentic Rural Politics Means Ditching the Stereotypes
John Peace's essay about Democratic Party failures in rural America contains important insights, but his approach undermines his own cause by perpetuating outdated stereotypes that prevent honest conversation about policy solutions.
There is no viable third party, so his central argument—that Democrats must compete seriously in rural areas—is correct and urgent.
But here is the rub: effective rural political strategy requires moving beyond the tired caricatures Peace embraces toward genuine engagement with the complex realities facing rural communities like southwest Virginia, and beyond.
As someone who grew up on the far edge of Washington County near Whitetop Mountain, I appreciate Peace's passion for our region. Like him, I've watched Southwest Virginia struggle with economic devastation and political abandonment. But as an Army veteran who left after high school, I've gained perspective that Peace's argument sorely lacks. His essay reads like rural-urban divisions on repeat: authentic country folk versus fake city transplants, hardworking people with dirty boots versus disconnected elites. These tired stereotypes don't just misrepresent our communities—they actively harm the cause Peace claims to champion.
The Democratic Party has indeed made strategic mistakes, nowhere more evident than in Southwest Virginia's 9th District. For two decades, Democrat Rick Boucher understood how federal investment could transform rural communities. Among other investments, he brought $2 million in federal money to develop the Virginia Creeper Trail, which opened in 1987 and spurred tourist development that grew to over 200,000 users per year by the late 1990s. This created substantial economic opportunity in the aftermath of NAFTA, which Boucher voted against.
Republican Morgan Griffith, who beat Boucher during Obama’s presidency and the Tea Party rise, has done little to directly help constituents. Hell, this guy voted to cut Medicaid and SNAP, which are programs that tens of thousands of adults and children in his district depend on, and claims this will spur economic growth. And yet enough voters come out to keep this fool in office every election cycle.
But it is not just those voters. On the other side of the coin, when Democrats do campaign here, like when Karen Baker ran against Griffith in 2024, voters I spoke to in Whitetop didn't even know there was a Democrat in the race—including my dad, a registered Democrat! The abandonment of the 50-State Strategy created this invisibility and that was a strategic mistake.
Peace's insistence on "real rural Democrats" versus "rich city folks who buy a farmhouse" creates an exclusionary definition that ignores how dramatically our region has changed, and suggests he’s missing the bigger picture.
Appalachia is more diverse now than perhaps any time in its history. Many of us left these mountains for education, military service, and jobs. We lived in cities, suburbs, and small towns across the country, and even the world, and returned with broader perspectives. Are we less authentic because we've lived beyond the mountains? Southwest Virginia now includes college towns, retirement communities, military families, and increasingly diverse populations. Dad’s new neighbors is a retired military family last stationed in Florida. Peace's monolithic vision—church-going, boot-wearing, multi-generational families—erases a sizable and growing chunk of the population who don't fit his narrow template.
More fundamentally, Peace's grievance-based narrative stops at assigning blame rather than grappling with structural policy failures that have impoverished Appalachian communities for generations. Yes, as he notes, tobacco buyouts and the opioid crisis devastated our region. But these were symptoms of bigger problems: extractive economic models that shipped wealth away, infrastructure neglect, educational disinvestment, and healthcare system collapse.
The challenges facing rural America—economic diversification, broadband access, healthcare delivery, educational funding, environmental remediation—require serious policy solutions, not just better messaging. Rural development won't happen by relying on markets in areas that corporations either abandoned decades ago with NAFTA or failed to develop in the first instance. The private sector simply doesn't have incentives to invest in isolated communities with small populations and aging or nonexistent infrastructure.
Historically, we know what works. Targeted federal investment—the kind that built interstate highways and rural electrification – rooted in local livelihoods is one tried and tested avenue. Rick Boucher understood this when he secured Virginia Creeper Trail funding, creating an economic engine that benefitted the surrounding communities in the aftermath of NAFTA.
Instead of cultural translation, Democrats should lead with tangible needs: roads, bridges, high-speed internet, water systems. Republican budget policies are going to further gut the meager and generally lower quality resources and infrastructure that rural regions, like Central Appalachia, have. In the aftermath of this policy enforced cruelty, voters may well be open to serious federal investment. Frame rural hospital closures as moral abominations, yes, but also economic development issues—no business relocates without adequate healthcare. Present environmental remediation of abandoned mine sites as federally-funded job creation, not abstract environmental protection left to market forces.
The path forward requires genuine partnership that respects rural intelligence, acknowledges rural diversity, and builds coalitions based on shared policy goals rather than shared grievances. This means partnering with existing local institutions—volunteer fire departments, farm bureaus, community colleges, veterans' organizations—rather than parachuting in consultants. It means establishing permanent field offices year-round, not just during elections. Most importantly, it means advocating for sustained federal investment that rural communities need to rebuild after decades of extraction, abandonment, and extreme weather disasters.
Rural America deserves political representation that takes our communities seriously without patronizing us. That means acknowledging our diversity, respecting our intelligence, and engaging with real structural challenges—from coal extraction legacy costs to the digital divide limiting connections.
As someone who's never stopped coming home to these mountains—nearly every month since 1996—I share Peace's love for this region and frustration with political neglect. The Democratic Party should compete everywhere and, when governing, invest in rural infrastructure. But successful rural strategy requires recognizing that rural America includes military veterans, college graduates, entrepreneurs, retirees, and young families attracted by evolving opportunities.
Our communities deserve better than reduction to stereotypes, even sympathetic ones. We deserve political representation that sees us as complex, diverse, and capable of engaging with complex policies. We need politicians who understand that Appalachia's future depends not on nostalgic appeals or faith in market solutions, but on serious engagement with policy challenges requiring sustained public investment. Appalachia has always been more complicated than outsiders understand—and more capable than insiders sometimes believe.