I didn’t want to write this post because I don’t want to talk about this topic. Yet here I am, delving into the topic I hate because I think it is important for folks to read.

I had a story pop up on my phone while driving to Callaway County, Missouri for a talk to rural Democrats.

The way I hurried to find an exit to read this piece…

It was an opinion piece written to the Kansas City Star by a SW Missouri man who recently ran for Senate as an Independent. It is titled: “Democrats, here’s how you’re blowing it with us conservatives who can’t stand Trump”

Gross.

What the author said in the first few lines let me know exactly who I was dealing with. The same mentality I deal with on a constant basis from “moderate” Republicans.

Like those still exist.

Jared Young stated:

After the Republicans’ resounding victories in the 2024 elections, I had high hopes that the Democratic Party would do some serious soul-searching and start working toward becoming the reasonable, moderate option we so desperately need in our country right now. So far, I see no signs of this. Instead, I see the same behavior from Democrats that I have seen for at least the past decade. Unless they change their playbook, they will never win over significant numbers of people like me.

This is what I read:

“Hey! Look at me. I’m a conservative white guy who has helped Trump get into office twice and wreak absolute havoc on this country. I want you to know I don’t like him, but until the party I don’t subscribe to does everything I say, and bends to my every whim, I will continue to vote for people who will harm the most vulnerable in this country and it’s actually all your fault…”

A familiar cop-out. An excuse. A way to self-soothe after refusing to vote in the best interest of the country. Enraging.

Jared then offers a few pieces of “unsolicited advice” to Democrats:

Dare to tone it down. Dare to work with Trump to accomplish good things for our country. Dare to compliment him and his Republican colleagues when they do something well. Save your anger and indignation for the occasions when it is unquestionably warranted…Prove to us that you’re the reasonable adults in the room.

What in the actual hell? Reasonable Democrats should dare to tone it down? On what?

Sending folks with no criminal records to death camps in El Salvador because of random tattoos? Defunding every public school in the nation? Firing hundreds of thousands of Federal employees? Whitewashing history? Taking aim at Federal funds meant for the elderly and those with disabilities? Tanking the stock market?

Which policies should I compliment, Jared?

It gets worse.

Jared claims:

I have compassion for young people who identify as transgender, but I have doubts about whether transition surgeries truly help them, and I have serious concerns about biological males playing girls’ sports. I am ashamed of our country’s racist past, but I wonder whether the diversity, equity and inclusion efforts of the past decade have done more harm than good. I am concerned about the environment, but I question whether our current approach to climate change is wise or effective.

Here we go. How did I know Jared would need to start the conversation with trans kids?

Jared may be exposed to misinformation on trans children or he may just be injecting his own misinformation into the Kansas City Star, but he should know that it is only in the most rare and unusual case that a teenager could be able to obtain any sort of gender-affirming surgery.

Those rare cases are only done under the guidance of legal guardians and a primary physician and a surgeon and a psychologist and therapists. Gender confirmation surgeries are not easily obtained like other gender affirming care available to all parents — like getting your daughter’s ears pierced as an infant or removing your son’s foreskin at birth.

Transgender children in Missouri are much more at risk of suicide than having any hope that they could obtain surgery.

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Jared is also not sufficiently embarrassed of our country’s racist past or he would understand that diversity and equity and inclusion measures are the least we can do for communities who suffered irreparable harm by genocide and enslavement at the hands of the US government.

And the way my eyes rolled out of my head when he mentioned that he is concerned about the environment, but he disapproves of the approach. What approach are you speaking of, Jared? In Missouri, there is no approach to environmentalism. There are wind farms that provide the tax base to fund schools since our legislators won’t fund schools, and we often try to keep our air and water from being polluted by hog shit from factory farms, but other than that, what approach has even been attempted in our state?

Don’t worry, reader. I have saved the best for last.

Jared’s last piece of unsolicited advice is to, “Spend time with Trump voters.”

That’s offensive to someone like me.

There is no way I could not spend time with Trump voters. I live in rural red Missouri and I am surrounded by Trump voters. They sit next to me at restaurants. They attend the ball games I attend. They shop in the same aisle at the grocery store. I am with and around Trump supporters at all times unless I am in my own home.

Many of my own family members are MAGA.

Jared should know that rural Democrats like me often speak about Democrats getting out to talk to rural voters. In fact, I have devoted a few years of my life to that exact topic, but that is much different than demanding a party you are not affiliated with deliberately speak to folks who are not interested in facts or the harm they have caused.

I have had thousands of occasions to speak to Trump voters. Many of them at their own doors. I agree that all are not racist. Not all are homophobic or transphobic. Not all are misogynists. Not all are Christian nationalists.

But none of those things are deal breakers for them. That’s problematic.

That is my problem with Jared and the thousands of “Independents” offering advice to the Democratic party.

In Jared’s estimation, Democrats should move the Overton Window so far to the right that we become Republican lite. That we bow to his demands, or we lose the country. That we bend the knee, or we risk his vote and slide into autocracy.

I speak to thousands of rural people each year. I organize in red spaces — Trumpland.

I work in my own community. The last thing anyone who lives out here has ever asked me is to “be more moderate.”

We need fire and passion and a fight for all. We need love and acceptance and facts and truth. We need people willing to do the hard work.

We don’t need to offer up subservience to win elections. We need to stand up and speak out now more than ever.

Aggression, not moderation.

I can’t throw away my fellow rural Democrats to appease a random Independent who has shown no loyalty to our values or our underserved communities.

I won’t do it.

Not even to gain the vote of Jared Young.

~Jess