The Democrats' Grandma from Montana Problem

I just returned from a weeklong trip with my father to his home town of Lewistown, Montana. It is a small bump in the road along the Big Spring Creek, a scenic agricultural town of around six thousand snuggled between the Judith Mountains to the northeast and the Big Snowy Mountains to the south. And it is, in fact, smack dab in the middle of the Big Sky state with the official marker designating the exact spot located in the basement of a local cowboy saloon.

And before you ask, no we didn't go hunting and fishing like a superannuated Andy and Opie, though the weather was perfect for it. We instead spent most of my limited vacation away from Silicon Valley in a twenty by twenty, overheated senior center apartment trying to convince an eighty-five pound, ninety-six year old, stubborn as hell old lady, also known as my grandmother, to move to an assisted living center in California near my parents. Think of the old lady in American Gothic but with less of a sense of humor and a more severe wardrobe.

After a marathon session of high volume but respectful cajoling (she is mostly deaf and blind), plenty of tears (only a few of them hers), several glasses of wine with dinner, and a stealthily strong huckleberry lemonade, I think we achieved our goal, though she could still change her mind at any minute.

Not surprisingly, grandma threw every old person obstacle in our way from, "California is too expensive," to, "I don't want to change my doctor," to the oldie but goodie, "I'm too old to change and am just waiting to die." Needless to say, we are all totally spent.

It struck me that the Great Convincing of Grandma can be seen, in part, as a metaphor for the entire State of Montana, and the difficulty of prying it and many red states from the clutches of the Republican Party.

Montana is a stereotypical rural red state in some ways, with the ubiquity of guns and churches, and the dominance of outdoor pursuits like hunting, fishing, diving in the local swimming hole, and snowmobiling. It also holds many of the cliche'd charms associated with small town living like people greeting you sunnily as you walk down the biking path around the town and enthusiastic service from smiling waitresses at the Yogo Inn.

That is to say, the people are far more, religious, down to earth, courteous and pleasant that the current playboy in the White House. One would think that he would be rejected as the epitome of the vile east coast elite, drunk with power and money and stewing in a thick steamy broth of libertinism, sex, and scandal. Yet, they stick with him, despite this fact, and because the Democratic Party is also seen as part of that elite.

So if it isn't his charm, personality or values that bind them to him, then it must be the dire economy and dwindling population, you say, with residents clamoring for a lifeline from a sympathetic administration. But here too you would be wrong. The population, though less than in the nineteen fifties, has been stable for the past thirty years, and the economy, while at the mercy of grain, cattle, and oil prices is by no means struggling. It is a middling town with a middling to good economy.

So what is it? Well, I'm sure some of Trump's nativism and fear mongering resonate, though Montanans don't much go for the overt, fly the rebel flag kind of racism. Rather, it is suspicion of the outsider, like the southern carpetbagger, but in a modern, western form aimed at any brown, Muslim, gay, or progressive person. In other words, people that are not like them. It is a fear born not of conflict but of lack of exposure, as the state is 89% white-even more in small towns like Lewistown.

But the underlying reason that they are drawn to Trump, is fear of change and of being disrespected, just like grandma. The fear is that the know-it-all coastal liberals are trying to destroy their way of life and force them to join them in their latte drinking, college educated, white collar lives while abandoning their rural heritage. Like grandma, they don't want to be told that they are living their lives incorrectly or need to change.

Trump doesn't ask them to change. He may not tangibly address their issues or may even camouflage destructive trickle down economic policies in populist rhetoric, but people vote their values, and these proud people value respect shown by their leaders for their way of life. And while Trump may not truly respect them deep down, he at least doesn't have moral standing to judge or change them.

The upshot is the Democratic Party doesn't need to change its policies to win, as they have always been the ones most supportive of the unions and working class on which rural America depends. Nor does it need to abandon efforts to prepare all Americans for the automated, high tech future. Rather, it is a shift in Democrats' attitude, posture and voice that is needed, one that doesn't overtly and verbally depreciate middle America's way of life and shows deference to their culture of self-reliance, faith and patriotism. Democrats need to reaffirm it, at least verbally, as much as they do coastal America's values.