White Rural Rage: The Threat to American Democracy

by Tom Schaller, Paul Waldman

320 pages, Paperback

Published May 27, 2025

About the author

I am professor of political science at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. I started at UMBC in 1998, shortly after completing my PhD at the University of North Carolina in 1997. I am the author of The Stronghold: How Republicans Captured Congress but Surrendered the White House, Whistling Past Dixie: How Democrats Can Win Without the South, and co-author (with fellow UMBC political scientist Tyson King-Meadows) of Devolution and Black State Legislators: Challenges and Choices in the Twenty-First Century. Along with Paul Waldman, I am author of White Rural Rage: The Threat to American Democracy (Random House, 2024). A former political columnist for the Baltimore Sun, I have published commentaries in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The American Prospect, Politico, and The New Republic, and have appeared on ABC News, MSNBC, The Colbert Report, National Public Radio and C-SPAN. Since 2004, I have given lectures on American elections in 19 countries on behalf of the U.S. State Department.

Tom Schaller is the penname of Thomas F. Schaller.

Reviews

[Laurie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This should be required reading. If you’ve ever asked yourself why white rural voters so vehemently support a rich New Yorker, this will answer those questions. If you’re wondering how we got here, this will help answer that question too. Another reviewer said it doesn’t propose any solutions, but I disagree. The last chapter lays out a way forward - it’s just not something the reader can do by themselves.

As our democracy is tested, and finds us lacking, this book will be a mile marker for historians trying to figure out what went wrong with the American experiment. Here’s to hoping they prevent this from happening in the future.

[Marc Pressley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a well documented book that shows its receipts. I felt it accurately describes the problems and issues around its central premise but falls a little short in terms of proposed solutions. That doesn't make it any less relevant.

The class warfare masquerading as politics (and predominantly funded by wealthy donors) will not end until rural Americans decide to support policies that raise their standard of living rather than lower everyone else's to match theirs.

They should be angry, but they need to more accurately assess who's to blame.

[Michele Becker · Rating 4 out of 5]

some new information and perspective.

[Adam Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book accurately diagnoses the tragedy of rural Americans being bamboozled by Republican hucksters.

I am a 100% rural American being born in southern WV and currently living there now. I have had short stints living in urban areas while I was getting my education and during my time in the Army. But I will always consider myself someone who loves the country.

That, however, does not mean that I am a fan rural politics.

This book perfectly articulates something that I have known for quite some time: Republicans win elections by convincing people to blame others for the problems that laissez-faire capitalism has created.

Republicans in general and Trump in particular have seen political success because they have been able to harness the economic and racial anxiety of predominantly White rural people and turn that anxiety into anger directed toward minorities (sexual and racial), immigrants, liberals, and urbanites.

This stark contrast can be seen in the legislation passed under the Biden administration that helped rural Americans with healthcare and infrastructure, among other things, compared to the "Big Beautiful Bill" passed at Trump's behest that does nothing for rural America except defund Medicare and close many of our rural hospitals.

Democrats have been hoping against reason that rural people (who tend to be poorly educated--just as Trump loves them) would be able to see through this and vote for the Democrats who actually materially help them. But, alas, human nature is emotional and irrational and most of Trump's support can be traced to the superficial culture war issues he pushes.

Rural people literally vote against their own material interests to win hollow culture war "victories" like stopping that one trans middle school student from playing softball.

The book points toward a solution to this tragic quagmire mess: rural voters need to demand a concrete set of results from their politicians whether Republican or Democrat. Unfortunately, no cohesive movement has coalesced and as such, the current trends are likely to continue, to the detriment and possible downfall of our constitutional democracy at the hands of those like the J6 insurrectionists and the politicians they elect like Trump.