Know Your Enemy - Organizing in Rural America (w/ Luke Mayville)

Matt and Sam talk to Luke Mayville of Reclaim Idaho about progressive organizing in rural and red America.

Duration: 1h 7m
Broadcast on: 27 Nov 2024
Audio Format: other

This is a conversation we've wanted to have for a while, and it seemed like there was no better time than now, as many people on the broad center-left are asking tough questions about Donald Trump's strength in rural America—according to one post-election analysis, he won 62 percent of rural voters. To unpack what's happening in these parts of the country, we talked to Luke Mayville of Reclaim Idaho, a grassroots organization that, among other things, helped win a ballot referendum that expanded Medicaid in the state. Why, when an initiative like that can succeed, or voters in red states reject school vouchers or approve hikes to the minimum wage, does the party that opposes these measures tend to clean up in such places? What can be gleaned from talking to voters from all over a state like Idaho about how they view the two major political parties, understand the role of government, and explain the problems facing them in their lives? We take up these questions and more!

Sources:

Luke Mayville, "Do Something Big," Commonweal, Sept 22, 2020

— "The Battle Against School Vouchers," Commonweal, Dec 11, 2023

— John Adams and the Fear of American Oligarchy (Princeton University Press, 2016)

Paul Demko, "The Ballot Revolt to Bring Medicaid Expansion to Trump Country," Politico, Oct 19, 2018

Daniel Nichanian, "How Organizers Are Defending Direct Democracy," Bolts, Aug 16, 2023

Dana Goldstein and Troy Closson, "Voters Poised to Reject Private School Vouchers in Three States," New York Times, Nov 7, 2024

Keith Orejel, "The Political Economy of the Urban-Rural Divide," Law & Political Economy Project, Nov 11, 2024

...and don't forget to subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon to access all of our bonus episodes!

Oh, right. Welcome, listeners. The episode 105 of Know Your Enemy. I met Sippen, your podcast co-host. I'm here, as always, with my great friend, Sam other Bell. Hey, Sam. Hi, Matt. Hi, Sam. I just want to say, by the time listeners hear this, it'll be Thanksgiving, probably, or maybe the day after, if they have a life, you know, don't listen right away. But, of course, I'm grateful for you and grateful for everyone who keeps listening to us. And I'm sure listeners will be grateful for the different guests we have this episode than our last one, perhaps. Yeah, be grateful. We had on my old friend, Luke Mabel, who's the co-founder and executive director of Reclaim Idaho, which is a grassroots organization in that very red state that, among other things, as you'll hear, championed the ballot referendum for Medicaid expansion in the state. And they won. So about 100,000 people in Idaho have healthcare because of Reclaim Idaho. So that's Luke's main gig and why we want to talk to him. But he and I go way back, and he is a fellow, not permanent ABD like me, but he actually finishes PhD in political theory. So that's how I initially knew Luke. We were both political theorists. Yeah, I was going to say, Luke could not be a more appropriate know your enemy guests, not only because of his long friendship with you, but also because of your Catholic connection, because of the political theory connection. And then he's out in Idaho doing economically populist organizing in rural America, the Venn diagram of all kinds of things we're interested in on this podcast. Intersect at Luke Mabel. Yes, that's true. We were very glad to have Luke on. And we don't really need to say too much more about this conversation other than even though we couldn't avoid talking about the election and having this turn into something of a post-mortem. It's not exactly that, or at least we try to resist it, especially at the start. And just talk about what Luke has seen on the ground there, traveling all over the state in a state where again, it's very Republican, very red. But initiatives like the Medicaid expansion have won there. And they've done things like defend funding for public schools there too. Those kinds of things can win in red states. So what does that mean for people like us on the left, for Democrats, for our politics? It's complicated. And I don't think we offer false hope. Certainly not for the Democrats. Yes, certainly not for the Democrats by the time we get to the end of this episode. But it's a great episode and we're very grateful that Luke took so much time to talk with us. Yeah, I would just say it's one other thing. I'm finding these kinds of conversations where you talk kind of concretely about what kind of organizing is still possible, given all the structural disadvantages for progressive politics in this country and the general right-wing wins that are certainly blowing across the country in the Trump 2.0 era. I'm really inclined and interested in having these kinds of conversations that are really about what kind of organizing we can do to protect each other, but also to push forward egalitarian values in an era that seems particularly hostile to them. And there's some work to be done. Well, should we get some housekeeping items? That's as always, we're grateful to our partners at Descent. One thing they do is they sponsor the podcast and among other things, that means they offer a free digital subscription if you subscribe to know your enemy on our Patreon for $10 a month. You can do that at patreon.com/knowyourenemy. And also now, of course, if you subscribe at that $10 per month amount, you get access to the Know Your Enemy Discord. We've had at least one really great chat there with listeners before the election. I'm sure we'll do another one in the weeks ahead. So please consider signing out for that. We're really loading on the benefits at that $10 a month level, free digital subscription to Descent and the Discord. And of course, for $5 a month, you get access to all of our bonus episodes, which there's a lot of good ones in the can you can already listen to and a lot of great ones that will be coming up. And as always, we want to thank Jesse Brennan, our Intrepid Producer, as well as Will Epstein, who does the lovely music for the podcast. Yes. Well, shall we get to it, Sammy? Yeah, let's. Here's our episode with Luke Mayville of Reclaim Idaho about red state rural politics. Enjoy. Happy Thanksgiving. All right. Well, it's a real pleasure to introduce to the podcast an old friend of mine, Luke Mayville. Welcome to the podcast. So good to be here with you all. It's so great to meet you, Luke. This podcast has been in the works for a long time. I was

Transcription truncated.

Matt and Sam talk to Luke Mayville of Reclaim Idaho about progressive organizing in rural and red America.