Greetings from Trump's America: Rice County, Kansas, where pandemic politics is drove away its medical director

 

Sources:  Wikipedia, New York Times

3rd-party candidates received 29.6% of vote in 1992, 10.7% of vote in 1996, 7.2% in 2016

(Segregationist George Wallace received 7.1% of the vote in 1968)

Trump added 350 votes to his 2016 tally, a 12% increase in a county where the population peaked in 1950.  Biden received 258 more votes than Clinton did in 2016, an increase of 37%.

In the weeks after the presidential election, Rice County's 7-day average of new cases increased 300%.

New York Times

NPR, 12/28/2020

Trumpers' death wish:   The pushback was too much. Darnauer resigned her position as Rice County medical director in July. Some friends reached out to support her, and her bonds with other local health care professionals strengthened, but she felt disrespected and betrayed by the ascendant anti-mask portion of the community. Darnauer says the pandemic has exposed a rift that won't be forgotten. 

"Hard things should bring us together," Darnauer says. "And instead, this hard thing has driven a wedge between us." 

That wedge is splitting off health care workers from communities that desperately need them.  

U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts

% of population 25 and older with bachelor's degree:

• 22.8% - Rice County
• 33.4% - Kansas
• 32.1% - U.S.

% of population 65 and older:

• 19.6% - Rice County
• 16.3% - Kansas
• 16.5% - U.S.

% of population living in poverty:

• 11.8% - Rice County
• 11.4% - Kansas
• 10.5% - U.S. (they're joking, of course)

White, older, less educated, above-average poverty, rural.  

The county's population peaked in 1940 and has decreased 45% since then,

Source:  Wikipedia (Rice County, Lyons)

Other Trump's America posts:

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