John Wayne: Major, I’ve just received word that Lee surrendered to Grant three days ago…the war is over…
Confederate Major: No sir…
Wayne: But why?
Major: Because this is our land and you’re on it.
Wayne: But we’re all Americans
Major: Yes sir, …that’s always been the saddest part of it.
— The Undefeated (1969)
Vice President J. D. Vance repeatedly talks about “our people,” the almost mystical morally superior white Republican in lockstep with Donald Trump. [NY Times 2/16/25 America is Full of People Trump Doesn’t Like] Note the administration’s continuing attacks on corporations, universities and others who like diversity.
Missouri’s Attorney General, Andrew Bailey, this past week brought a lawsuit against Starbucks for, basically, employing too many women and people of color. The implication being that white men deserve more opportunities to mess-up $8.00 caramel expresso fu-fu drinks. [Missouri Independent 2/12/25]
Let’s call these skirmishes in the Our People War.
Those of us who have walked the Capitol halls know the drill. “Real Missourians” are rural folk who never need “welfare” and watch their tax money subsidize colored people and other liberals in St. Louis and Kansas City. Don’t confuse their Representatives and Senators with facts: they know that what they claim (however improbable) is always true. And legislators know better than voters what is right.
Let’s back-up to the Civil War.
A small number of rich folks, many of whom profited from slave labor, didn’t want the federal government regulating their main ways to make money. They convinced a lot of poor white guys to die to protect their right to stay rich.
In Missouri, the rural folk supported the rich people. Yet, the state stayed in the Union because those not-true Missourians in St. Louis defied them. Real Missourians have never forgiven us city folk.
That’s especially true today with significant portions of urbanites being non-white and/or non-Christian. Some even came from other continents.
So, when I walk through a south county grocery store and see large loaves of Bosnian stye bread I wish they had smaller versions which two people could consume before nature caught up with it. Real Missourians wonder why we’re giving those people food they like?
Bad news for Real Missourians…you’re dying off.
Three realities:
1. Across the nation rural populations are declining. Per a USA Today graphic about a year after each U.S. Census, one can walk from the Rio Grande to the Canadian border without stepping in a single county which enjoyed a population increase in the prior decade. That’s particularly true in Missouri where the majority of counties have shed population for several generations.
2. Rural Missouri begs for scraps. Today in too many small and medium-sized towns just one employer dominates. Local governments give away the store to get chicken slaughter operations, distribution centers and other “large” employers. Yet the money folk are fickle. In 2023, for example, Tyson closed plants in Dexter and Noel, leaving hundreds of Missourians unemployed – and town economies shattered.
3. Young people leave places filled with old people and few good paying jobs.
Well, Donald Trump and Andrew Bailey, et al, have deputized Our People to fight their wars. That worked in last year’s election, and it may work a bit longer. Still, it’s hard to win a war when you can’t replenish your troops. Their base is shrinking. The next few years will, alas, be messy. And, harsh for many families – including that Our People corp. Perhaps we ought to pray for enlightenment, for the revelation that the future requires all of us to work together for a common good. We’re all Americans, as the Duke says.
Glenn Koenen
Photo copyright 2025 Mark Toenjes