Barn Raiser

03/02/2025

Democrats need a new organizing strategy, not just better messaging

Democrats need to innovate and organize to reach rural voters. Could the party do this by building coalitions with independent voters?

03/02/2025

Last year, the state of New York announced it would eliminate the 600-plus local agencies that administer its $9 billion consumer-directed home health care program and replace them with a single corporation. In many rural parts of the state, the program is the only form of home care available due to the worker shortage.

The state's plan for corporate control of home health care is chaotic, dangerous and a scandal in the making.

31/01/2025

Myth-making in the early American republic

In the early American republic, new political myths helped shape American individualism. But those myths could also challenge its legitimacy.

31/01/2025

Representatives from three tribes discuss how their communities have learned to endure by celebrating connections

As the world braces for a second Trump term, Native leaders share ancient resources that have helped their communities to persevere.

30/01/2025

“Dodge County, Inc.” exposes the brutal costs of Big Ag

Sonja Trom Eayrs tells the story of who pays the real price for the corporate takeover of rural America in a memoir about her family’s farm.

30/01/2025

Last September, Matt Hildreth, the founder of RuralOrganizing.org, was handed an unenviable task. As the Harris-Walz campaign’s new rural outreach director, he and his team had 65 days to devise and implement a strategy that would cut into Republican margins and help deliver battleground states to the Democrats.

Although the campaign ultimately lost, Hildreth thinks the national media has drawn the wrong conclusions. In his interview with Barn Raiser, Hildreth reveals what it was like to work inside the Harris-Walz campaign and how he thinks Democrats can win back rural voters. https://buff.ly/4aFIdr1

We'd love to hear from you. We want to learn more about what's happening at the local level in your school district, city council, county, and any other local issues that are important to you. Your feedback will help us shape our plans for the future.

29/01/2025

Reflections on the post offices of Benzie County, Michigan, as a living map

The rural postal network serves as a living map of relationships and historical narratives, a legacy under threat by new austerity measures.

29/01/2025

The United States will need nearly 8 million new caregivers over the next decade, and rural economies, facing aging workforces and declining populations, have relied on migrant labor to fill such labor shortages. The crunch could get even worse under Trump’s immigration crackdowns, which threaten to paralyze key industries from farming to long-term care.

Is the nation about to see the magnetic poles of this conversation reverse? It may seem unlikely in the short term, given Donald Trump’s return to the White House. Immigration formed a major talking point in his campaign, and he wasn’t focused on the positives, saying illegal immigration is “p...

29/01/2025

The director of the Appalachia People’s Union on why the South is ready to stand up to Trump

Divide-and-conquer tactics are what has led to MAGA’s success and power. Here’s what we can to do not fall into this trap.

28/01/2025

The inclusion of “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance was a sectarian move whose exclusionary effects are increasingly evident in today’s religious landscape

Seventy years ago, "civil religion" helped mainline Christian protestants lay a foundation of religious exclusivity still evident today.

28/01/2025

One mountain lion’s 800-mile journey to the heart of Chicago offers a window into the Midwest’s changing ecology

The story of one mountain lion’s 800-mile journey to the heart of Chicago offers a window into the Midwest’s changing ecology.

27/01/2025

At a DNC Rural Council forum, candidates made their case for fix the party’s leadership turnover and empower year-round rural organizing

https://buff.ly/3C9Sn6r

27/01/2025

The GOP’s immigration crackdown could have surprising implications for rural economies

Is the nation about to see the magnetic poles of this conversation reverse? It may seem unlikely in the short term, given Donald Trump’s return to the White House. Immigration formed a major talking point in his campaign, and he wasn’t focused on the positives, saying illegal immigration is “p...

27/01/2025

What Pete Hegseth’s record says about where he would lead the Department of Defense

Pete Hegseth, Trump's nominee for Secretary of Defense in an advocate for a revolutionary theocratic vision that would undo the Constitution

24/01/2025

‘Those of us who speak for the country (“rural America”) must never give up’

If Mr. Krugman was serious about having good ideas about rural America, he would get to know the people who live there.

23/01/2025

Creative entrepreneurs are getting needed support to grow and sustain their businesses after Hurricane Helene

The nonprofit organization Nest is helping Appalachia’s craft economy after Hurricane Helene by providing creative entrepreneurs grow local economies.

23/01/2025

TONIGHT: Join a broad coalition of rural organizations at 8 pm ET for a virtual post-inauguration call where we’ll talk about the stakes of this moment for rural people, hear stories of rural resistance, and share how you can show up to take care of our communities. https://buff.ly/4jo1mBp