Jess Piper is a Democratic activist in rural Missouri. She is a fierce advocate for rural communities and public schools. She lives on a farm where she and her husband raise hogs and chickens. She blogs, she makes videos for TikTok, she tweets, she hosts a podcast called Dirt Road Democrats and is executive director of Blue Missouri. She taught American literature for 16 years. She often writes about the absurdity of vouchers and school choice. In this post, she goes to towns in her district to gather signatures to restore abortion rights in Missouri..
I live at the tippy top of NWMO on a small 7 acre farm in a 125 year old farmhouse with a few dogs, a couple cows, a gaggle of kids and grandkids, and a miniature donkey. Everyone perks up when I mention the donkey…he’s 36 inches high and his name is Augustus.
I drive across the state often these days and I am usually headed to a small town and this week was no different—I visited Chillicothe (the home of sliced bread), Carrolton, and Marceline and you’ll never guess why. I was getting rural folks and their Bible groups to sign the petition to restore abortion rights in Missouri.
Dirt Road organizing.
Missouri is in the process of putting abortion on the ballot and I have the petition—I have to tell you it’s kind of hard to get a petition, so I was excited to get them and also overwhelmed. I have to get this out to rural folks, and it’s not as easy as it would seem.
First, there is the opposition to the petition—the Missouri Right to Life (Right to force others to gestate and deliver) has a literal snitch line to report folks accepting signatures. Now, I have no idea what they plan to do if they find us accepting signatures. I was raised to take care of myself and they shouldn’t mess with me, and I’m not the least bit intimidated, but I don’t want them to harass other rural folks who are signing quietly.
Second, folks have written off my congressional district—even some progressives who need signatures on a ballot initiative. They assume that we are too red to get enough signatures, so what’s the point, right? I’ll tell you the point: it creates excitement and solidarity in rural spaces. It acts to uplift us living in among MAGA extremists. It gives us hope.
Chillicothe was my first stop, and it is a pretty big town at over 9K folks. Chilli is also known for having a “patriot” group who have been successful in putting their extremists on the local health board — they also regularly object to school library books. Folks were on long text chains to get others to the event. I was able to gather about 30 signatures on a Tuesday at 9am.
I was directing folks to the petition and how to fill it in correctly. One woman filled it out, stood up, and started texting. She told me, “I’m reminding my Bible group to come sign.”
Wait…what?
The second place I drove was Carrolton, with a population of about 3,400. Still not tiny, but small. I sat in the basement of the library for almost 2 hours with…wait for it…a local pastor. A woman pastor. She signed the petition and then stayed the length of the signing event and visited with every single person who came in. Several folks attended her church or a neighboring church.
Are you seeing a theme here?
My last stop of the day was in Marceline, population 2,100. I sat in the fire station with a local Dem organizer and we accepted signatures a few feet from the active train crossing. I met with a local candidate running for state house and again, folks signed, stood up, texted friends and relatives and their church community, and then headed back out to their farms and rural life.
This is why I organize in rural spaces across the state. This is why I drive 5 or 6 or 10 hours to meet with rural folks. They matter—we matter.
When we cede ground because it’s too red, because it’s too evangelical, because it’s too far of a drive, we create a self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s become more red, more uncontested. When we tell rural folks that their votes and signatures don’t matter because there aren’t enough of them, they agree and stop showing up. When we say Democrats and progressives support everyone, yet fail to have a presence in rural spaces, they notice…they know it’s a lie.
We can’t win Missouri if we avoid rural parts of the state. Missouri is 1/3 rural…33% of the state is outstate.
I’m here and so are thousands of my friends. If state-level organizers will remember us, we can bring sanity back to the entire state.
Dirt Road Democrats are here.
~Jess
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Jess, please come see us here in Lexington, MO! Yes, we are rural and yes, we are behind you and sanity!!
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I love this posting. Jess should be running for office. We should all be chagringed (urban and progressive dems, all organizers, the national party). She is right, spot on right. Ignore rural voters at your own peril. An added bonus is Jess’s succinct and effective writing style!
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Agree.
Ravitch readers can click on the linked post and go to Jess’ blog and leave comment.
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wonderful!
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wonderful! Never mourn–organize!
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There can never be enough praise for Jess Parker.
She’s right, the best defense is offense.
Right wing religious, evangelical protestant and Catholics have driven the doctors of women away from the field and they’ve de-professionalized the career that lifted the most women into financial independence.
One place for women to coalesce efforts is in the government appointments to public college boards of overseers. In Missouri, there is a HBCU, Lincoln University. The VP, a Black woman recently committed suicide. In her final letter, she alleges that the President, a White male, bullied her and made her position untenable. The school’s Board of Curators, has 6 men and 2 women. The school student population is 60% female and one-half the faculty are women. That’s a furtherance of authoritarian patriarchy.
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Jess Parker and her supporters can gain information from an internet search of school choice and Missouri Catholic Conference. The school choice campaign is carried out nationally via the bishops’ political arm, the Catholic Conferences. They have lobbyists in the state capitols and sophisticated voter mobilization apparatuses. There’s a Catholic Conference in almost every state. In some states they co-host school choice rallies with Koch’s AFP. The executive director of the Colorado Catholic Conference was formerly with EdChoice and the Koch network. In Kentucky, local media reported the associate director of the Catholic Conference of Kentucky was also the VP of EdChoice.
The legal scholar most influential in advancing religious charter schools is Amy Comey Barrett’s friend at Notre Dame, Prof. Nicole Stelle Garnet. She is a Manhattan Institute Fellow (Koch).
Media will very rarely report about right wing Catholic politicking. IMO, It is the most powerful, well-organized and funded force in right wing politics.
Open Democracy recently posted about the Knights of Columbus’ campaign against reproductive rights.
The SCOTUS majority (right wing Catholics) was the work of Don McGahn of the Jones Day law firm and Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society.
The co-founder of Koch’s Heritage Foundation was right wing Catholic, Paul Weyrich. His training manual calls for parallel schools to destroy public schools.
Ohio Capitol Journal reported that in Aug., in Ohio, 3 dioceses spent almost $1,000,000 for a GOP anti-democracy ballot issue. If Issue 1 had succeeded. it would have made citizen referendums virtually impossible to pass in the gerrymandered state.
Jefferson warned, in. every age, in every country, the priest aligns with the despot.
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Rural voters will tell you that their voice is only preserved by the electoral college. This post illustrates why this is wrong, especially if you are on the blue side of the political spectrum.
If those of us who generally vote for moderate presidents want a voice, we should get rid of the electoral college. This mockery of voting in a state that is majority opposite your own needs to stop. Imagine how a red voter feels in California. Why should he not support some radical? Soon this leads to support for anyone who opposes your view.
That is the way I feel in Red Tennessee. Why should I not support someone on the radical left? It’s a way to let someone know about your feelings.
We need a voting system that values each voter. It is the only way we will ever make democracy live
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My admiration for this woman knows no bounds! And she is right – we should not write off any community because it may be located in a “red” area. Voices need to be heard wherever you are.
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Jess Piper’s posts are always challenging circumstances confronted by her voice and determination.
The rural communities are red, but their red boys are pushing vouchers, open enrollment, and charter expansion in some counties – all of which are direct hits on kids, public schools, small towns, and local community identity.
It puts the red legislators in a quandary which is good – because it hopefully makes them realize their other issues are out of sync with the not so outspoken majority and common sense world.
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In states like Ohio, the overwhelming majority of voucher money goes to Catholic schools. That was the intent of the Republican, Catholic Governor Voinovich. (Akron Beacon Journal, “Whose Choice? How School Choice Began in Ohio, Dec. 14, 1999). Vouchers have greatly expanded since then because of Governors, House Speakers and Senate Presidents like Gov. Dewine and Matt Huffman. Almost every state level elected official in Ohio, including the Supreme Court Justices are Republican, Catholics.
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Click to access Elected-Official-Contacts.pdf
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Post info about state level politicians or, make some point about why you posted about Ohio politicians at the national level.
Btw- Diane, herself, identified almost all of top, state level elected officials in Ohio, as being Republican Catholic. When will she experience your gaslighting and ridicule?
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Your list of Ohio politicians at the national
level is old. Portman was replaced by Republican JD Vance who converted to Catholicism with timing similar to his political ambitions. Vance has been mentioned as a running mate for Trump.
It would be consistent because JD Vance wants the president to be over SCOTUS and the military to be the King’s men.
JD Vance created the Hallow App which has been running a national tv ad featuring Mark Wahlberg in a Catholic Church.
Everybody should read David Kertzer’s book about Hitler, Mussolini and the Popes.
If a person wanted to, it seems to me that a religious app could easily be transitioned into propaganda for fascism.
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Anything the GOP has to offer will not help rural America. If we consider our country nothing more than a huge market, rural communities become the losers. They are already suffering the consequences of market based health care which has cause many small hospitals and community health centers to close. If the postal service is privatized, people in rural communities may have to drive twenty miles to pick up their mail. If rural communities support and take pride in their local public schools, they should vote for Biden. Charter schools and vouchers will drain funds from public schools and may force the closure of public by defunding them. Rural communities benefit when public services are considered part of the collective responsibility of sound governance. Rural communities cannot compete when public services are considered part of the market.
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cx: the closure of public schools
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Missouri Republican Party officials are in the news today. A primary candidate for Governor is facing possible removal from the ballot for his “ties to the KKK.” All mainstream media are covering the story of Darrell Leon McClanahan III who lives in a rural part of Northeast Vernon County, population under 500. McClanahan, at his campaign website, posted about religious faith. A cross appears prominently in the picture posted of him.
The voting public needs to understand the intersection of what he believes about his Christianity and his politics.
A Missouri woman, in her fifties, has an obituary at Legacy.com. She “will be laid to rest near her father, Darrell Leon McClanahan Jr.” She has 3 surviving brothers. She attended St. Mary’s Catholic school and requests that daisies be sent to St. Agnes Catholic Church.
The candidate’s sect is not identified, which is becoming more common.
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If they didn’t denounce him, they’d be validating the connection between the kkk and religion – – – and that would mean there could be a kkk religious club after schools under the guise of religion and those tax credits for school supplies and eventually vouchers they want to pass would be connected the kkk.
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And in Missouri
You make a point that serves as warning.
Right wing Catholics, Nick Fuentes, John Eastman and Brent Bozel IV, are the type of influencers that need to be feared now. The New Republic explains others in its report, “Illiberal Upstarts….”
In 2020, Kent State University Press posted an article about Confederate Catholics describing them as indistinguishable from their protestant Confederate neighbors. An abstract of the book, Catholic Confederates, informs us that scholars have avoided reporting about the racism of Southern Catholics. The racism of Catholics gets cover because, in elements of the KKK, there was anti-Catholicism.
Anyone concerned about democracy should focus on the influence coming from the Koch network and GOP agenda-supporting Catholic organizations. Examples to watch include the following, universities (the former president of Wyoming Catholic College is president of the Koch’s Heritage Foundation and ACE at Notre Dame sponsors school choice summits), Catholic Conferences (some co-host school choice rallies with the Koch’s AFP) and, individuals behind Catholic media e.g. Lifesite News, EWTN and Tim Busch’s National Catholic Register (not to be confused with National Catholic Reporter which first reported about priest abuse 17 years before the Boston Globe).
Busch funded the business school of Catholic University of America located in Wash. D.C. and, he formed Legatus, an organization of Catholic CEO’s.
The influence of right wing Catholic activist Robert P George (Princeton professor of jurisprudence) is concerning. One of the top 5 funders of the anti-democracy GOP Issue 1 in Ohio, in August, was American Principles
Project, which was co-founded by George. He has written about adoption for frozen embryos which from a practical standpoint would end IVF (that would conform with Catholic doctrine).
One in 6 U.S. hospitals are Catholic and, taxpayers have made Catholic organizations the nation’s 3rd largest employer. An increased number of vouchers and, SCOTUS’ anticipated approval of religious charter schools will likely move the ranking to first or second. That is concerning because in the Biel v. St. James Catholic schools SCOTUS ruling, religious schools were exempted from civil rights employment law. It’s also concerning because of the organizations’ generation of revenue through taxes.
A heads up, commenter Bob, will probably add defense of the Catholic church’s right wing politicking by employing ridicule and/or gaslighting of messengers of the information.
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