Rex, I must say, you are refreshingly level-headed.

You write, “I'm well aware of, though I don't know the reasons for, Kentucky's relatively progressive outlook compared to that of some parts of rural California.”

Once you know those reasons, rural Americans might make more sense to you. To find those reasons, we must return to the beginning. And that means agriculture.

As hard as it is for people to grasp today, America’s social, economic, and political systems are rooted in agriculture.

In the late 1200s, the British established the first plantations in Wales, then Ireland, then spread the model globally. In the 1550s, the Portuguese established the first plantation in the Caribbean. In 1607, the British established their first plantation in North America. Yes, Jamestown was a plantation.

To understand the difference between a farm and a plantation, you need to look at their physical structures – or what is called in land-use lingo, the “built environment”.

Look carefully at the physical structure of plantations and you will find self-contained environments that provide food, shelter, clothing, water, tools, security, governance, work, religion, education, etc. for everyone living within its borders. Authority, control, and power rule plantation life. Or more simply put, plantations were dictatorships. The master (or any other title you prefer) dictated the production and distribution of everything produced on the plantation. Liberty was non-existent: the plantation master also dictated religion, childbearing, sexual conduct, personal relationships, education, work assignments, punishments etc. for everyone living on the plantation, including their own family members.

The second, competing agricultural model, is centuries older. Worked and controlled by families, this traditional agricultural model is commonly known today as family farms, or independent growers.

Just like everywhere else on earth, from 1607 onwards, these two diametrically opposed agricultural models competed for dominance in America.

These two models have two things in common: they never lack customers, and they dominate every facet of our lives, because everyone, without exception, needs the food they provide. Today, Americans think their food grows in grocery stores.

As European powers attempted to expand in North America, large gifts of free land spread plantations along the eastern and southern seaboards. At the same time, the independent farm model spread westward, across mountain ranges, then the great plains. Can you see the emerging pattern? While plantation culture dominated the eastern and southern seaboards, independent farming culture dominated the inland, mountains, and great plains.

Throughout the continent, social, economic, political and urban cultures emerged around the dominant agricultural model in the region. That’s the reason today’s American cities have such different social, economic and political cultures. Unfortunately, the cultures that emerged around plantations and independent farmers were incompatible. Their interests were diametrically opposed.

As simplistic as this analysis might sound, it suffices for our discussion. Simply put, the independent farm model is quick and nimble, flexible and adaptable. The plantation model is cumbersome, rigid, and inflexible. While the independent farmer quickly adapts to changing conditions, the plantation must force conditions to adapt to the model. That’s the reason the country was so divided it ended up in a civil war - and it’s the same reason the country is still divided today.

Now that I’ve laid some groundwork, I can address the differences between rural California and rural Kentucky as well as Mitch McConnel and Kevin McCarthy. However, I begin in Montana.

In the Yellowstone spin-off, 1883, we learn that the Dutton family came from Tennessee – a plantation state. Yes, Rex, southern plantation culture was exported to northern states. The Yellowstone ranch is a plantation that grows cattle instead of cotton. Americans love cowboy lore; but fail to comprehend the difference between ranch hands and cowboys. Nonetheless, that’s the reason, conservatives love the Yellowstone series so much.

Here in Kentucky, the plantation model collapsed, and the independent farm culture still dominates today. Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell counts on the Democrats to take care of the poor and underserved in his state. If you watch McConnell closely, you will see he facilitates Democrat’s social policies for his constituents. Thanks to Democrats, McConnell is free to focus his attention on the needs of independent farmers and small businesses as well as big interests like coal mining, manufacturing, and horse racing.

Now, let’s turn to California.

Yes, Rex, as you will soon see, when you enter California’s central valley counties, you are entering plantation culture. That’s the reason, the region is a Republican stronghold today.

In the 1850s - before the civil war – California’s central valley was settled by southerners who brought plantation culture with them. They settled in Kern County first, then spread plantation culture north throughout the valley.

By 1871, a thousand acres of cotton had been planted in Kern County. However, the crop suffered from both high labor costs and a labor shortage, as evidenced in the 1872 report of the California State Agriculture Society, and I quote:.

“California was naturally a cotton-raising state. Indeed, if California had not been admitted to the Union as a free state, there can be no doubt that long ere now we would have had large numbers of cotton plantations, worked by slaves brought here from the Southern States by men who were able to discover the superior advantages of our soil and climate for cotton culture.”

In 1884, the New York Times reported – and again I quote:

“Haggin and Tevis… have tried the plan of employing negroes on their farms instead of Chinamen… A lot of cotton was successfully raised the past year as an experiment. Mr. Ownbey says that since the success of the negro plan he expects a great many California planters to adopt it, and thus drive out the Chinamen, who cause more trouble than they are worth.”

That same year, in the Kern County press, it was reported that Haggin and Carr, felt that… and again I quote:

“African American labor would insure a successful conversion to Cotton Culture in Kern County, and eliminate the reliance on Chinese labor.”

In 1877, reconstruction ended and southern planters migrating to Kern County, California brought Jim Crow with them. In 1908, an article in the Bakersfield Californian praised Thomas F. Dixon’s book The Clansman, and the subsequent play and I quote:

“One effect… has been to make the south conscious of its own greatness… [M]en

and women of southern descent view the deeds of their fathers during the

reconstruction period, and they are proud of the record... The peace and prosperity

of the present are founded on the heroic labors of the Ku Klux Klan… that

resisted the… measures by which it was sought to reduce the south… The play is

true to historical conditions although the details are imaginatively conceived…”

It is important to remember that in California’s central valley, Jim Crow was applied to all immigrant labor groups, not just African Americans – including Dust Bowl refugees, southern black migrants, the Chinese, Japanese, Catholics, and Armenian refugees fleeing genocide in Armenia, etc.

Today, Kevin McCarthy, Speaker of the House, just two heartbeats away from the presidency, was born, raised and educated in the plantation culture that emerged in Kern County, California.

McCarthy answers to BIG ag, oil, mining, water, and timber interests that still dominate the regional culture. Unlike McConnell, McCarthy blocks Democrats’ social policies for the poor and underserved. Labor is the reason. If people have no choice, they will work for food alone. Give someone food stamps and they don’t need to work for food anymore. But we’re not just talking about businesses and economics here. We are talking about an entire culture – or way of life – that cannot survive without cheap labor.

Rex, the word “progressive” means something entirely different to you and me. Agriculture and resource extraction industries that depend on cheap labor, for survival, are effing killing this country. In my mind, progressive means the collapse of plantation culture and the rise of independent culture.

City people, like Pluralus, who don’t understand what rural Americans are fighting for, should keep their mouths shut. I have a roll of free duct tape for anyone who does not grasp rural culture in all its complexities.

Thanks for the conversation, Rex, I appreciate your attitude and level head.

By the by, I pulled this reply to you, from a different article that I’d written and decided to do a little editing and publish it as a stand-alone article as well.