February, 2021
Lincoln and Washington – Whoa. Ross Benes of Brainard, Nebraska, of the proud Czech immigrant families who settled in Nebraska's Bohemian Alps, son of parents who run Ron's Plumbing and Heating, hardly into his thirties, has written a book on Nebraska politics so compelling and full of wisdom it has lessons for the entire nation.
Although some will read Rural Rebellion as a bildungsroman of a young conservative activist transitioning into a mature and more forbearing adult, that is only part of it. Others will read the book as the jarring experience of a person who must interpret between two different cultures, Brainard and New York City, where Benes now lives. But that's not the essence of it either, as thousands of us with deep roots in both the rural heartland and in big coastal cities do it all the time.
Rather, the greatest value of the book rests in its raw exposure of the myopia of both regions and both political parties. Benes is brutal in his truth-telling, born of his own pain and the conclusions he draws from his experiences.
He organizes his work for maximum effect, with a chapter first on the Catholic church and the politics of abortion, followed by chapters on immigration, health care, the state unicameral legislature, the state university, the ineptitude of the Democratic party, and his concluding recommendations.
It is his first chapter that is most powerful, about his disaffection with the church. It casts a long shadow over the subsequent chapters, for good reason: the crass manipulation of the abortion issue by Republicans has poisoned much in all political life. Benes barely touches on other religious influences on politics, such as the once dominant, progressive Social Gospel movement of W. J. Bryan, founder of the modern Democratic Party, and its vision for improving the lives of the common classes through responsive government. That tradition has disappeared, almost as if it never happened, replaced by single-issue politics.
Throughout the book, Benes illustrates his points with well-chosen anecdotes. What seem like elections of only local interest, such as the contest for Omaha mayor between Jean Stothert and Heath Mello, have state and national implications. Democrat Mello, an excellent candidate, could have won, were it not for incredible bungling by the Democratic party's campaign strategy. Yet no one has learned much from it in the years since.
Benes shows no mercy toward Governor Pete Ricketts and his attempt to undo the supreme achievement of Nebraska government, the non-partisan unicameral legislature of George Norris. He reveals the current governor to be all about money, power, and retribution. He extolls former Democratic governors like Jim Exon, Bob Kerrey, and Ben Nelson for their ability to reach across party lines, although his Exon examples unfortunately are somewhat out of focus and will need further analysis so as to sharpen them. But that is for another time.
If Rural Rebellion has a weak chapter, it is the one on the University of Nebraska. Benes focuses too much on the constant quarreling about the actions of a few faculty and graduate students on the left. The governance, administration, and a large slice of the faculty of the institution are profoundly of the right, and it shows throughout the state's politics. Why are towns like Brainard struggling to survive and why is rural Nebraska losing population? Would it have anything to do with food and agriculture policy, which has been set by conservative interests for decades? The shorthand admonition to generations of farmers has been to get-big-or-get-out. The university creates monuments to those who abetted rural depopulation, but the political uproar of recent years at the institution is all about a campus sidewalk argument. Dwelling on it only serves to miss the larger role of the university.
Rural Rebellion rebounds as Benes looks critically at national political leadership, especially from U.S. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer. Schumer in 2016 insisted that for every working-class voter Democrats lost in places like Brainard, they would pick up two in the suburbs. Schumer of all people should know that only control of the House, not the Senate or the presidency, rests with the popular vote. That miscalculation cost Democrats dearly in 2016, 2018, and made 2020 a nail-biter in all three centers of power. Neglect of the rural heartland by national Democrats has led to near disaster for our very democracy. Benes's book went to press before the January 6th insurrection, but it is in the spirit of his analysis to ask why the fist-saluting, insurrectionist supporter Senator Josh Hawley was elected in Missouri over Senator Claire McCaskill in 2018, and why Senators Heidi Heitkamp and Joe Donnelly from rural states also lost that year. Was it because Chuck Schumer and others in the Democratic leadership wrote off rural America by deciding, as they did, not to offer a Democratic vision for the 2018 Farm Bill? It certainly didn't help.
The book has a satisfying conclusion. Benes offers good remedies for our broken politics, like open primaries and rank-order voting. He also shares recent personal conversations from Brainard. Spoiler alert: be ready for a happy ending.
Ross Benes will inevitably be compared to Thomas Frank, who writes cogently on similar themes. Benes has a better feel for the people he is writing about, because he is one of them. Or perhaps I should say one of us, as my Nebraska home is just a county away down the Oak Creek Valley from Brainard. If our country is to emerge more united than it has been in recent years, it will be on strength of books like Rural Rebellion.
