Claire Carlson, “Rural America Did not Push Donald Trump to Victory in 2024”:
This data speaks for itself: Trump won because Democratic turnout in the core counties of major cities crumbled. Yet the urban resentment toward rural America is back.
Also, see this.
Wendell Berry, A World Lost:
From Dick I learned that the countryside was inhabited not just by things we ordinarily see but also by things we ordinarily do not see—such as foxes. That it was haunted by old memories I already knew.
Foxhunting with Dick, he on my grandfather’s mare and I on Beauty the pony, I first came into the presence of the countryside at night, and learned to think of it as the hunters knew it, and learned there were foxes abroad in it who knew it as no human ever would. There would be an occasional dog fox, Dick said, who would venture up almost to the yard fence to invite the hounds to run, and who, when the hounds accepted the challenge, knew how to baffle them by running in a creek or along the top of a rock fence. I had from Dick a vision of a brilliant fox running gaily through the dark over the ridges and along the hollows, followed by hounds in beautiful outcry, and this to me was a sort of doctrineless mystery and grace.
But what I remember most, and most gratefully, is Dick’s own presence, for he was a man fully present in the place and its yearly round of work that connected hayfield and grainfield and feed barn and hog lot, woods and woodpile and the wood box behind the kitchen stove, well and drinking trough. When the work was to be done, he was there to do it. He did it well and without haste; when it was done he took his ease and did not complain.
Remember when I built a house for our sickly neighborhood cat Morty? He came by on Halloween but we haven’t seen him since…
This is an excellent, excellent post by Donny. The Jonah Goldberg piece he links to is also worth your time. What we need is some sympathetic imagination. Maybe it’s too soon to ask for it, but we’ll need to get around to it quickly. The lack of it is one of the sources of our present troubles.
I could go on a rant about these crap junction boxes, which we tried to work on at my mom’s house today. Suffice it to say that it’s yet another example of building with no regard to future repairability. It’s mind boggling, especially when a simple 2x4 instead of that metal bar would be far better.
Worth your time: An hourlong documentary covering four seasons in the life of a 76 year old horse logger. That channel has several good videos on traditional skills, if you have an interest in that.
There’s nothing like having your preferred candidate unexpectedly trounced for making you re-evaluate your news sources. Some recent posts from people doing such a re-evaluation:
I already don’t consume a lot of news and I don’t plan to start now. It’s tempting to have my employer pay for an Economist subscription under the guise of keeping up to date on financial news–but I doubt I would read it. But if you’re looking to take the periodicity route, don’t forget your local library. I stopped in at mine this morning to see what newspapers and magazines they have available. Of the ones I have any interest in, they only had The Atlantic. Still, it’s a small town library; yours may have more options.
Don’t miss @dwalbert’s woodcarving sale from now until November 17. Some truly beautiful work available.
Worth your time: “The Abandoned Americans” by Peter Savodnik.
I am not fragile.
I am one of a species evolved over millennia to be survivors. We have survived every climate and government. We have survived famines and fools. We are adaptable.
I live in a time of rapid change and rampant anxiety. Yet I get up every day and do what must be done. Perhaps through stress and uncertainty and fear, but done nonetheless. I have faced difficult times and yet here I am.
I am a shard of the living cosmos. I am the cosmos conscious, carrying the light forward. I am a light bearing witness to other lights and experiencing darkness.
I may be many things, good and bad, but I am not fragile.