The Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin and the Rise of Scott Walker
Recommended by: Donna Murphy
Posted in: Rural/Urban Divide
Purchase →Katherine J. Cramer spoke with groups of Wisconsinites who met regularly, from a morning meet-up in a gas station to cooperative extension educators, over a five-year period. Her research provides keen insights into why rural Wisconsin voted for Scott Walker for governor and Donald Trump for president.
The rural/urban divide is front and center in Katherine J. Cramer’s research. Rural Wisconsinites felt that city people did not respect them and were oblivious to the economic hardships they suffered. They believed in hard work rather than social welfare programs, and that employees who sit behind desks have it easy compared to those who work with their hands: “They shower before work, not afterwards.”
Even though rural areas receive more tax dollars per capita than urban ones, perceptions are important: “Tax dollars aren’t coming here. I can’t afford to pay for my own health care. Why should I pay for it for people who aren’t working half as hard as I am?” Moreover, Kramer found that support for limited government was driven not by principle but by negative attitudes about a particular program’s recipients, such as their “lazy” white neighbors, public employees, and urban people of color.
Kramer found people were voting not on the basis of issues, but on the basis of identities. She noted that there was a need to find a way to prevent resentment from dominating the perspectives through which people make sense of politics.
This research helped me to “hear” the voices of those living in rural Wisconsin, and my vision has been broadened because of it.