Dear HCN,
The recent debate between
Ed Marston and Thomas Power (HCN, 8/2/99) over low wages and living
standards touches on one of the biggest issues facing the West
today: i.e., Why has the rural West become so reactionary, and what
can be done about it?
My wife and I recently
cancelled our plans to move to rural eastern Washington because we
concluded we would feel like foreigners amid the right-wing
attitudes that dominate that region now. The message is clear:
Unless you’re for guns and property rights, keep out.
How much of the resentment and instability of
the rural West is because its residents feel that more decisions
affecting their lives are made somewhere else, and they have little
say in them? Is the root of this reaction in one-man-one-vote,
which accelerated the transfer of power from country to town? I’m
not advocating a return to the old system, but it would be useful
to understand how much that has spawned today’s
attitudes.
Dave
Knibb
Bellevue,
Washington
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline The Right rules the rural West.
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