Hello Rapp Up! Readers. This month we scoured news sources for surprising stories that affect rural residents. So enjoy!  And please pass along to your friends or encourage them to subscribe or follow us on Facebook.

$31 trillion versus $50 trillion: you do the math…

This month we start out by looking at two very big national numbers: $31 trillion and $50 trillion. The first one, of course, is the size of the national debt. And the $50 trillion? That is the staggering size of the wealth transfer from the bottom 90% of the American population to the top 1% over the last several decades, according to a study by the nonpartisan Rand Corporation. And what was the source of this wealth transfer? One key source was decades of Republican-sponsored tax cuts that have allowed the nation’s wealthiest to take an ever-larger chunk of the national pie. And yet, in the current debate over the debt, the Republicans have adamantly refused to even consider tax increases on the richest among us. Indeed, Rep. Bob Good insists that tax cuts are “incentivizing the right things.” Incentivizing what exactly? You do the math…

To learn more, read the Time Magazine article here and this Center for American Progress article on why the wealthy pay lower taxes than the rest of us. And see MSNBC’s interview with Bob Good here: (Twitter)

How to build trust with rural Virginians: candid advice for Democrats running for governor

It's not too soon to think about the Governor's race in 2025. Rural Virginians lean heavily Republican of course and the likely Republican candidates have already run and won in rural Virginia. That will be an enormous challenge for Democratic candidates. Dwayne Yancey has some candid suggestions for them, including: “Parts of the Democratic message seem tone-deaf in rural Virginia” and “Spend time out here”. See his full message here: Yancey, Cardinal News, May 17, 2023

Darn, we’re winning - must be a conspiracy. ….So let’s get rid of our election officials?

Seems that even winning won’t stop the radical right from mistreating nonpartisan election officials. Take Buckingham County, Virginia: Donald Trump in 2020 and Bob Good in 2022 both easily won there. But that didn’t stop a conservative group in the county from claiming election fraud — and harassing the non-political election staff so outrageously (even using the word treason) that the entire office quit! The result: chaos and politicization in the election office that, ironically, truly does threaten the integrity of the next election in Buckingham County. Hounded by baseless voter fraud allegations, an entire county’s election staff quits, NBC news, April 10, 2023; A local election office thrown into dysfunction by right-wing conspiracy theories, Virginia Mercury, May 19, 2023

If the Governor really worries about voter roll integrity, why did he just throw away a key tool?

Speaking of voter roll integrity, Virginia just took a step to weaken it. Since 2020, seven Republican-led states have left the Electronic Information Registration Center (ERIC), a national privately-funded non-partisan database that helps states keep voter rolls accurate and up to date. Now Gov. Glen Youngkin has withdrawn Virginia too. This, despite the vital role that ERIC has long played in keeping voter rolls accurate. In fact, in 2016, according to Virginia’s own Elections Handbook, nearly 38,000 voters were identified as potentially having registered in another state after their last date of activity in Virginia. How will Virginia identify these very real problems in our voter rolls now that the Governor has pulled out of this non-partisan data base? Very unclear. Learn more here: Jim Swift, The Bulwark, May 15, 2023; Virginia Mercury, May 12, 2023

The Family Leave Bill is back

Polling of American families consistently shows that the lack of paid leave to take care of urgent family crises is at the very top of their day-to-day concerns. Moreover, lack of access to family leave is not only bad for families but for the economy too — it is a leading reason why women in particular lag workforce participation in the U.S. compared to other countries. That is why two Democrats (Senator Gillibrand and Representative DeLauro), have again introduced the Family Act that would ensure 12 weeks of paid family leave. Will it pass? Certainly not this year, as Republicans still oppose mandated paid leave. And that opposition of course will hurt most middle and lower income workers. That doesn’t stop us, however, from saluting these two women who are continuing to fight for what American families really need. Senate Democrats reintroducing paid family leave bill, Axios, May 17, 2023

More Dead if Red? The Surprising Geography of Gun Violence in America

It is an article of faith among conservative pundits that the most dangerous places in America are (Democratic-run) big cities. On a state-to-state level, however, the data tells a very different story. In fact, according to the nonpartisan Pew Center, it turns out that gun deaths are far more prevalent in states with loose gun laws than in states with stricter enforcement: red-state Mississippi led the list with 33.9 gun deaths per 100K residents in 2021, while on the other end, blue-state Massachusetts had only 3.4 gun-related deaths. Moreover, easy gun access is the key driver in an unprecedented rise in youth deaths. And here, the state-by-state differences are enormous, with red-state Montana winning the dubious distinction of most dangerous state to be young (28 deaths per 100K from all causes in 2021, while Massachusetts (once again) has the best record with only 2 deaths per 100K. So is the data suggesting that parents move to a blue state to protect their kids? Learn more here: What the Data Says about Gun Deaths, Pew Center, April 26, 2023, The Surprising Geography of Gun Violence, Politico, April 23, 2023; Gun Deaths Drive Historic Rise in Youth Deaths, Stateline, April 18, 2023; Gun Deaths in America, Fareed Zakaria, Washington Post, May 12, 2023

Workers too demanding? Just gut child labor laws…

Across the country, Republican-controlled state legislatures are passing new laws that undermine protections against unfair child labor, in some cases allowing children as young as 15 to work nights shifts and in others simply eliminating altogether age verification for child workers (thus making it easier to employ children for dangerous work or take easier advantage of immigrant children). The instigator?: an obscure group with a glorified title, the Foundation for Government Accountability, that is in reality heavily funded by ultra-conservative groups working to eliminate government protections for child workers. Will there be pressure to do this in Virginia? Washington Post, May 1, 2023 (firewall)

Corporate “Greedflation” responsible for inflation

It turns out that it is corporate profiteering that is a primary cause of inflation, according to the leading business publication The Wall Street Journal. While Republicans are blaming Democrats for creating inflation by pumping too much money into the economy, the Wall Street Journal argues that corporate price gouging has played a key role. As New Rural Virginia previously reported, business monopolies have been making record profits, taking advantage of the fact that consumers will blame supply chain problems, high energy prices and President Biden. Learn more here: Wall Street Journal, May 2, 2023 (firewall); New Rural Virginia, August 27, 2022

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