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Opinion | A Policy Renaissance Is Needed for Rural America to Thrive [1]

['Tony Pipa']

Date: 2022-12-27  

In what has become a postelection tradition, there has been no shortage of analysis the past several weeks about rural voters and their role in determining the outcome of the midterms.

Yet during a visit to Shamokin, Pa., I asked a former mayor and the current one, both Republicans, whether differences between Republicans and Democrats were affecting local efforts to revive their town. They both agreed: not really. They don’t think about it.

This does not fit the conventional narrative about a former coal mining town of some 7,000, where nearly 70 percent voted for Donald Trump in 2020. The town’s decline was already bad enough 30 years ago to warrant a New York Times article with the headline “In a Gritty Town, Hope Outlives the Prosperity.”

The question then was whether the construction of a prison there would help. It didn’t. The town has lost almost 25 percent of its population since, and the poverty rate now hovers above 30 percent.

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[1] Url: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/27/opinion/rural-america-left-behind-places.html

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