There’s a little wine shop in downtown Ballston Spa, New York with rainbow-colored bottles lining the shop’s front window. The village is small, about 5,000 people, and attracts tourists from all around the world.
Last summer, the owner of the wine shop, Jes Rich, noticed a group of masked men in the street. “As soon as I saw them I ran out the door,” said Rich, who is openly queer and sees her shop as a safe and welcoming space for other queer people.
The men in the street were wearing black and yellow face coverings and T-shirts identifying themselves as members of the Proud Boys, a violent, far-right extremist group. A yellow truck drove alongside the group, blasting the provocative country song “Try That in a Small Town.”
Not to mention that because land is what gets votes, all the city dwellers will have less representation than the country folk.
It would be great to move a few million leftists into rural areas and fix this, but every time I mention it they’re like “but there’s nothing to do there!”
And we’ll lose everything due to our unwillingness to sacrifice a bit.