Recently it’s become common for commentators like David Brooks to suggest that the red/blue divide has to do with the gap between the college-educated and the non-college-educated, and to suggest that the Democratic party only appeals to people with B.A.s

One thing I think missing from this conversation is that rural white people often have, but eschew, the opportunity to go to college. For cultural, not for economic reasons.

In my own case, as a kid, I was constantly pressured not to study, not to go to college. I was bullied by my family and community to join the Army. (Recruiters came to the high-school cafeteria regularly during lunchtime.)

It was really quite bizarre to me at the time, since there were wars going on in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the idea of enlisting sounded like a death sentence. But my parents continually enjoined me: “Join the Army, they’ll make a man out of you.” Meanwhile they tried to thwart my academic opportunities.

In 2003, when I was 15, I won a full scholarship (with free tuition, room and board) to attend the Pennsylvania Governor’s School for the Arts. My parents refused to allow me to go, because they thought it was embarrassing for their son to study art.

(The argument turned into a physical fight, and my father nearly murdered me, but I jumped out a window and ran away through the woods to a friend’s house and finally ended up going to the school.)

In any case the point is that rural whites are deeply opposed to learning, deeply anti-intellectual. Their antipathy for universities and for the college-educated has to do with their prejudices, not their economic circumstances.

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