The conventional wisdom is that America’s rural communities and small cities are sliding into decline, despair, and disconnection. Anger, frustration, and insularity in such places are widely seen as the fuel behind President Trump’s election and a rise in white nationalism and racism. But a more nuanced look at cities like Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Eastport, Maine; Columbus, Mississippi; and Clarkson, Washington, can reveal a very different picture, with local communities often demonstrating robust civic life. Are these places really so desperately disconnected from the 21st-century economy—or do they feel closer to the rest of the world through growing trade and advanced technology? Are they turning their backs on a changing nation, or demonstrating how to live together as the country diversifies? Why doesn’t the media cover more of their stories of innovation and renewal? James Fallows and Deborah Fallows, co-authors of Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey into the Heart of America, visit Zócalo to discuss what they found in their travels across the U.S. in a single-engine prop airplane.
The Takeaway
The Couple Who Went Searching for America’s Future in Its Small Towns
James Fallows and Deborah Fallows Logged 100,000 Miles Through a Nation Divided Politically but Cooperating Locally
The mass-media storyline is that America is a country split between prosperous liberal coastal elites and struggling, resentful conservative heartlanders, spewing vitriol at each other across an unbridgeable partisan gulf. …