It’s the Internet, Stupid
Tags: Infrastructure, Jobs And Training, Democratic Party, Messaging, Politics

Watching the Sunday morning news shows after a week of traveling through the back roads of northern Georgia and Appalachia left me dumbstruck with frustration and awe.

The prevailing opinion of pundits seemed to be that in the wake of Youngkin’s victory in Virginia and GOP wins or near wins elsewhere the Democrats are hopelessly adrift and without a compelling message to unify their ranks and inspire voters.

While they weren’t wrong, I wondered, why all the dour outlooks in the wake of their party passing the largest (and long overdue) infrastructure spending bill since the New Deal era?

It struck me suddenly that Democratic operatives, campaign strategists, and most of all, members of Congress need to get out of the beltway and hit the road to visit the hamlets they’re losing to the GOP to learn why rural America apparently has no use for the party that’s actually fighting to improve their quality of life.

My wife and I are avid campers, and we visit at least two state parks a month. We take every opportunity we can to enjoy hiking a mix of trails and soaking up the breathtaking scenery that comes with them. We often camp next to families who, to judge from the stickers on their windows of their truck cabs, don’t vote for the same candidates we do. But we don’t hate each other.

When they pass our campsite on the way to the shower house, or we pass theirs, we wave, or stop to chat about the weather or compare notes on the places we’ve visited. Our state and national parks are literally common ground where people of all political persuasions gather to admire the same vistas.

Besides being a refuge from the forces that divide us, state and national parks offer a tangible example of the return America receives when the government invests in our infrastructure — dividends that include but are not limited to the jobs such investment creates.

So with a nod to Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign team, I have a suggestion to whoever in the DNC is responsible for message crafting:

“It’s the Internet, Stupid.”

Underlying this message is the long overdue investment in the three infrastructure pillars that with Joe Biden’s signature have become enshrined in law — broadband, bridges, and roads. Which brings us to America’s state and national parks and the people who between 1933 and the outbreak of WW II built most of them.

Today critics of public infrastructure investment like Tucker Carlson would decry the Civilian Conservation Corps program as an authoritarian takeover of the labor market. Yet in less than a decade the FDR-led program developed more than 800 state parks, built 3,900 monuments, and built or improved museums and other public spaces in countless national parks — all of which Americans continue to enjoy.

So the evidence that government can — and continues to — work for taxpayers is as plain as the sight of a wedding at a CCC-built lodge or a family reunion set in the deep shade of a CCC shelter house, many of which still sport their original massive rafter beams.

Yet even with proof of the enduring and compounding benefits of past infrastructure investment under their very noses, the bosses at the DNC don’t get they’re sitting on a winning message of historic proportions.

“It’s the Internet, Stupid,” captures the formula for success in bringing rural voters back to the Democratic party. Here’s a recent example from my own experience.

Today, year-round visitors to Cloudland Canyon State Park and Lookout Mountain attractions like the National Military Park drive the economy of Trenton, Georgia, which was established in the 1830s and boasts a population of 2,300 according to the 2010 Census, which as of this writing were the latest figures available.

Inside the Ingalls supermarket in the middle of town, shoppers can find a selection of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir for $30 and up next to signs that direct them to WIC-eligible items. The cell service in the area and up on the mountain is good enough to stream Netflix or quickly research times and ticket prices for nearby attractions.

Trenton might be in the middle of nowhere to the media and party officials, but the village is no backwater cut off from the comforts and necessities of the 21st century.

What the soft-handed and tender footed pundits and strategists who fly over it every day without a second thought need to understand is that for every success story like Trenton, there are at least twenty towns with a CCC park nearby.

Those towns could be attracting millions of visitors flush with vacation cash every year but for three barriers — spotty cell coverage and poor Wi-Fi, sketchy bridges susceptible to flooding and structural decay, and narrow, often poorly maintained roads.

Democratic legislation in the form of pandemic assistance and the childcare tax credit has already improved the lives of rural voters who continue, frustratingly, to bite the hand of the party that has kept them fed. This isn’t cause for hand-wringing. It’s an opportunity to build on the success of the infrastructure win and remind voters which party is delivering the goods.

In short, it’s time for Democrats to face reality, follow Senator Joe Manchin’s lead and pass the 1.5 trillion version of Build Back Better. Once that’s done, get out there and tell simple stories that remind Americans in both parties that you’re the party that’s giving them what they want and need.

And what is it they want and need?

Internet access, safe bridges, good roads, and the economic rewards that follow. Simple enough for you, DNC?